Red Sox (2-5) @ A's (3-4)

Chilly night in Oaktown, and Eveland trying to keep the Boston bats cool. Last year they blew him out of the water early, and I don't feel too confident with him on the mound tonight. I'm kind-of dreading this game, having to sit through a Dice-K start, as they seem to always last forever. Hopefully the A's knock him out early enough...

10:01 - Back on CSN Cali tonight. HD Game: 6/7
10:06 - Buck back in the lineup tonight in RF, Chavez still out nursing a sore neck / shoulder so Nomar back at 3B.
10:08 - First softball practice of the year tonight and I definitely needed it. Probably going to be sore tomorrow, but felt good to get back out there.
10:16 - Youkilis singles up the middle with 2 outs, scores Pedroia who BB'd and advanced to 2nd on Ortiz groundout. 0-1
10:17 - Drew doubles over Holliday's head, scores Youkilis from 1st. 0-2. What'd I say, Eveland does not match up well against this lineup. I've been questioning his spot in a major league rotation for the past year +. Why have 4 lefties in your rotation and not have Gallagher, who was the top trade piece they received for Harden and has electric stuff, starting? Argh.
10:21 - Awesome, Lowell singles to CF after Bay BB's. 0-3. Gallagher, HEY whadayaknow, starts to warm up in the bullpen. Tek now BB's, bases loaded. All of this with 2 outs... a hit here would pretty much put this game in the books.
10:25 - Green K's. 40 pitch 1st inning for Eveland. Honestly I was almost rooting for the inning to blow up even more so Gallagher would come in. But that's probably inevitable anyways.
10:29 - Sweeney singles up the middle to leadoff the bottom half.
10:33 - OCab BB's, Giambi almost gets all 3 runs back, but just a long out that moves Sweeney over to 3rd.
10:36 - And now Holliday almost gets all 3 back as well, off the top of the tall wall in LCF, then almost off Ellsbury's face, clears the bases. 2-3, 1 out. DiceK has yet to top 90mph on the gun.
10:39 - TIED! Cust remains hot to start the year, broken bat single to CF. 37th straight game reaching base for him (longest active streak in the majors by 6 games). 3-3. Dice looks worse than Eveland at this point... Nomar walks on 4 pitches.
10:45 - And boom goes the dynamite. Buck singles to RF, Cust scores. 4-3. What a crazy 1st inning. Probably the most I'll write during a 1st inning all year.
10:47 - Haha, Ellis singles to SS off a diving Lowell's glove, Nomar plates. 5-3. A's have batted around in the 1st. Wow.
10:48 - FINALLY after 41 minutes and 83 total pitches, End of 1: 3-4-0 | 5-5-0
10:51 - Crosby replaces Nomar at 3B, not sure what happened to him...
10:57 - No way, 1-2-3 top of 2nd. DiceK out, Masterson in.
11:03 - 3 up 3 down. 2nd inning exact opposite of the 1st. End of 2: 3-4-0 | 5-5-0
11:09 - HAHAHAHA wow. Holliday misjudges a fly in LF, barely catches the ball on a slide, gets up, fires to 1st, Youkilis who BB'd gets back, but then trips over the bag and falls off the base, Giambi tags him out. Just your average 7-3 DP. Bay then doubles to RF, Buck misses the diving catch by about 4 feet.
11:24 - Giambi's 1B defense is much better than I remembered... Has already saved maybe 7 errors so far on the year.
11:31 - Moving right along now. Buck singles to RCF, 1st hit off Masterson to start the 4th.
11:39 - Another bloopish hit for OCab, Drew totally whiffs on the ball, allowing the runners to advance. 2nd n 3rd, 2 outs.
11:42 - Giambino K's, End of 4: 3-5-1 | 5-7-1
11:51 - Potential inning ending DP almost turns into total disaster, as Giambi's defense saves Evelands horrible throw. Once again, Giambi's D so far this season: impeccable. Run still scores from 3rd. 4-5
11:53 - Lowell smashes one to 3b, Crosby can't knock it down as it rolls into LF. Drew scores from 2nd, back tied. 5-5. Eveland out, Bailey in.
12:03 - Masterson has looked real sharp. I miss DiceK :( End of 5: 5-8-1 | 5-7-1
12:16 - Masterson off, Delcarmen on. Suzuki single, Buck F8, Ellis single.
12:21 - Both stranded, End of 6: 5-8-1 | 5-9-1
12:27 - Leadoff BB to Ortiz turns into 6-4-3 DP thanks to Youk.
12:29 - OK, so I jinxed him pretty hard, it's my fault. Drew should have been rung up on strikes but the ump misses the call, then Giambi boots a ground ball...
12:31 - Bailey walks Bay - Geren removes him, Casilla in to face Lowell, still 2 outs.
12:35 - Lowell pops out to Crosby to end the threat.
12:44 - Apparently Jerry Meals forgot to put his glasses back on after the 7th inning stretch... what happened to the strike zone?
12:46 - Crosby gets first hit of the year to RF, Giambi who BB'd moves up to 2nd, 2 outs - Delcarmen out, Ramirez in.
12:50 - Suzuki lines one to the gap in RCF but Drew runs it down... End of 7: 5-8-1 | 5-10-2
12:59 - Ellis robs Pedroia in foul territory with Ellsbury on 1st to end the Sox 8th.
1:06 - Ellis can't get the bunt down and ultimately K's after leadoff BB to Buck.
1:09 - Sweeney grounds into 4-6-3 to end the 8th: 5-9-1 | 5-10-2
1:18 - Casilla out, Springer in. Drew singles to RF w/ 2 out.
1:23 - Springer gets Bay swinging, bottom 9 comin up... If the A's don't win it here, think I'll have to pause and pick this up tomorrow - gettin late late.
1:25 - Ramirez out, Okajima in. 2-3-4 up for A's
1:32 - F9, F7, >| - Apparently Meals wants to get out of here, horrible strike calls out of him lately. End of 9: 5-10-1 | 5-10-2
1:34 - OK, 1 more inning...
1:38 - Diving stop by Giambi at first saves a single. Varitek, on with a BB, advances to 2nd. 2 outs.
1:41 - Ellsbury BB, Ziegler frustrated with strike zone, Pedroia high chopper INF single. Bases loaded for Ortiz.
1:42 - Ortiz pops out to Ellis on a 2-0 pitch! Phew, A's squeek out of that one...
1:46 - Cust deep to LF warning track, no dice. 1 out. Crosby could use a walkoff HR here.
1:48 - Damn. Pedroia just robbed Crosby on a line drive headed to CF. 2 out. Suzuki BB.
1:50 - Sounds like more than half the crowd remaining are Red Sox fans... Buck K's. End of 10: 5-11-1 | 5-10-2. OK, NOW I'm off to bed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

2:06 - Picking up the game again. Bottom 11 - Okajima out, Papelbon in.
2:10 - End of 11: 5-12-1 | 5-12-2. Glad I didn't stay up til the end of this one...
2:12 - Giambi defensive montage plays, they must have read my mind. Ziegler out, Gallagher in.
2:14 - Quick inning for Gallagher ends with a diving catch in CF by Sweeney. Nice!
2:19 - Bot 12 - Papelbon out, Lopez in. Giambi leadoff BB. Who's gonna be the hero tonight? Holliday? Cust? Crosby?
2:21 - Not Holliday, Vazquez at SS makes a nice play on a chopper, gets him at 1B by half step. No pinch runner for Giambi... only 2 position players remain.
2:23 - 22 walkoff wins since 2007 = Most in majors in that timespan. Cust BB's, Crosby up.
2:26 - Crosby follows suit, BB's as well - bases are now loaded. Davis pinchruns for Giambi at 3rd. Kurt Klutch (his college nickname FYI) steps in the box.
2:28 - Not clutch this time... K's on 3 pitches. Buck up.
2:30 - BOINGO! Buck bounces one high off the plate and barely beats Pedroia's throw to 1B. Weeee'lllll take it!

W: Gallagher (1-0) | L: Lopez (0-1)

Red Sox: 5 | 12 | 1
A's: 6 | 11 | 2

Time of Game: 4:24

Could've seen the length of this one coming after the first inning. Can't imagine how long it would have lasted if the pitchers hadn't had so many 1-2-3 innings after that... may have gone on til 3am at least. Good thing they won, hate to be on the losing end of a game like that, especially with the crappy weather, and early start tomorrow. Another deflating loss for the Sox. A's goin for the sweep tomorrow (today actually). See ya then.