I Scored!

April 11, 2000

So, what happened in the game played 14 years ago today?

A whole bunch!

Let’s start off with the fact that this was the Red Sox home opener. That right there means it’s a great day. A quick look at the pitcher area shows us that Martinez was starting! After the great season Pedro had in 1999, having him start off the season is a great treat. Unfortunately, a longer look at the pitcher area reveals the “R” for Ramon Martinez. Still, Ramon was a big part of the Sox playoff run the year before, so that wasn’t a bad draw at all.

How about the offense? It appeared to be in all its year 2000 glory. Which is to say, there wasn’t much there in the way of names. This game marked the home debut of Carl Everett, so we were all very excited to see that. What would another bat do to help Nomar? Couldn’t wait to find out. He didn’t take long to show us.

The Sox pushed across two runs in the bottom of the first for a quick lead. Everett started his Manny-esque home debut by homering to lead off the second inning. Way to make a first impression. That homer opened the floodgates. Seven of the next eight batters reached base, and all seven ended up scoring. Everett ended up batting again in the inning, striking out for the second out. But, he made up for that when he homered again in the sixth. Not bad at all.

That second inning shows one of the flaws is my earlier scoring attempts. I tried to have each column represent one inning. When the second inning needed a second column, they all had to be shifted by an inning. That’s not a big deal when the Red Sox do it, since they didn’t need the ninth inning. That left that spot available. But, what if the Sox had batted around, but still needed a bottom of the ninth? I’d need to claim one of the “stats” columns for the ninth inning. Some would apply if the visiting team batted around. I eventually realized that teams don’t often have multiple big innings. Maybe I could do a better job of using the available space. In this game, look at what used to be the fourth inning, but became the third. The Sox went 1-2-3. I could have very easily slid those batter into the column to the left where they should have been, and made that the 2/3 column. Then none of the other innings would be affected. That’s the way I do it now.

How do you handle big innings?

Who was the hero of the game? Certainly most players had a good day. When you score 13 runs, lots of people are going to get lots of hit. But, Carl’s two homers and three RBI give him the clear edge.

The goat? Have to give it to Brian Daubach, as the only starter without a hit. (Maybe I should give it to the whole second spot in the order, since Gaetti didn’t get one either.) Although, Dauber still scored a run, and drove in a run. If that’s what you get from the worst guy in the line-up, that’s a good sign.

Which means the Sox were easily able to overcome his limited production. The Sox scored eight in the second, and never looked back.

And the scorecard shows how it happened.