10:42 A perfect bunt on the first pitch Mathis sees, as the Angels switch to small ball, which of course is their traditional strength.

10:44 Aybar grounds out and Youk and Lowell put it away this time. 2 down.

10:45 This is Lester’s last time through the lineup, right? …Right?

10:46 Ellsbury makes SportsCenter recording out #3. On we go. But no more bananas.  Cause now we’re sleepy.

9:18   “Kendry Morales is no Mark Teixeira, but he’s getting better all the time.” Did we get Yankee ass-kissing advice from Joe Buck? (Clearly, yes, I get it.  Teixeira was in fact the guy at that corner for a brief period last year.  Still….)

9:20 First hit of the game comes from Alex Gonzalez in the 9 spot. Irony, thy name is Angels game.

9:22 Yep, ain’t no game.  Ellsbury hits it to Lackey to end the half.

9:23 We were about to say how boring this game was, but…what? Interference call mean the Sox have runners at first and second, whih the TBS guys haven’t even caught up with yet…

9:24…and then DP flies out.  Even when it’s not boring this is boring!

OK, Angels, we’re ready.  As Kristen Dunst once said, “bring it.”  (By the way, we’d think we were going to lose this series, except that, as the montage that just played showed, it’s the Angels.  The Sox dominate the Angels, like, bad. If it were any other team, Sox would lose their shirts–they’ve been playing TERRIBLY.)

We’d say we wanna do the Sox lineup, but we wouldn’t really mean it, at least that’s the story we’re sticking to.  But seriously, top to bottom baseball goodness, right back to Gonzalez in the 9 spot. (Nothin’ like a little former World Series karma for you…)

8:39 Jacoby Ellsbury is already working the count.  This Angel team is “more Dodger like than this edition of the Dodgers.”  Oh, TBS.  Full count to Ellsbury–he has a serious eye.  He grounds out, but he makes it fun…boy is QUICK.

8:40 Pedroia is 6-16 against Lackey.  (Apparently, Lackey doesn’t throw the high and inside.)  And…ok, then Lackey threw one. Pedroia swung through.  A grounder to first, two down.  Lackey has clearly seen that commercial.  (And if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and click that link.)

8:42 First comparison to 2004 team. (Drink!)  Both teams made key acquisitions.  This one, clearly, is V-Mart.

8:45 What exactly is the ump wearing? Is it a blazer? REALLY?  PS Baseball is the only sport with intensive crotch shots….are catchers ever embarassed?  (V-Mart flew (flied?) out uneventfully. )

Lackey needed 21 pitches to go one two three, and hasn’t even faced Youk yet.  This could be good…

While we were gone, planning lessons for 90 fifth graders (The Sports Chick’s a teacher, in case you didn’t know….if only blogging paid bills!), Jacoby Ellsbury did something quick.

In fact, by stealing his fifty fifth base of the season, he set a single season record for the storied Boston Red Sox franchise.

Ellsbury, who is also the MLB’s only Native American ballplayer, is probably the second fastest player in baseball right now.  Carl Crawford of the Rays, who currently has 54.  He’s the player who will probably at some point hit the century mark: a hundred stolen bases in a season.  However, Crawford plays for the Rays, which in our mind gives Ellsbury a chance to pass him up.  Here’s why:

1. The Rays don’t win. OK, this isn’t exactly true anymore.  The Rays do win, and even made it to the World Series in 2008, where they promptly got swept by the Phillies.  However, ugly World Series play aside, this is a team with some serious potential.  The problem is just that they don’t consistently have the kind of performance that can lead to padded base stats–those eighth inning stolen bases in blowouts that nobody on the opposing team minds, for example.

2. They’re in the wrong division. Ellsbury, at least as long as he plays for the Red Sox, will get chances to steal bases in the playoffs.  The Rays, even though they’re now pretty good, are not good enough to contend in the stacked AL East.  If they’d moved to Vegas, as was the scuttlebutt a couple of years ago, and were in a different division, this would be a different story, but assuming Crawford stays in TB, Ellsbury’s likely to play significantly more games.

Congrats to Jacoby…keep it up and the Sox might even have a prayer at the playoffs….but we really still don’t think so.