Nationals Sweep Sox

The good news is the Sox only have 9 more games against teams from the Maryland/DC part of the country (they're 3-9 against the Orioles and Nationals). The bad news is, the Sox are below .500 again, their offense has cooled off, their bullpen looks shaky again, they can't seem to win at home (14-19 in Fenway), they're 6 games behind the Rays, 5 games out of the Wild Cards (with three teams to leapfrog over), and the Yankees are red hot.

At least the weather's been nice lately.

There is one other piece of good news, and that's the starting pitching. Jon Lester struck out 9 yesterday in a very typical Jon Lester start. He went 7 innings, allowed 3 runs, and gave the Sox a very good chance to win the game. If only they could get a hit with runners in scoring position. Which they didn't. The Sox were 0 for 8 with RISP.

David Ortiz provided the only real offense. He was 3 for 4 with a double and a homerun. The other 2 Sox runs came from groundouts. Dustin Pedroia grounded into a fielder's choice in the 3rd and Scott Podsednik had an RBI groundout in the 7th to tie the game at 3-3. Podsednik has been decent with the Sox, who lately seem to be able to find productive outfielders with their eyes closed. He's hitting .368.

Unfortunately, Alfredo Aceves blew another game. He gave up a 2 out RBI double to Roger Bernadina. Aceves went on a nice run in the middle of May, but since blowing a save against Tampa Bay on May 27th, he's 0-3, and has allowed 7 runs in 9 innings. He does not appear to be a steady, reliable Major League closer.

Jonathan Papelbon has converted 16 of 16 save opportunities and has a 2.22 ERA.

When David Ortiz called a player's meeting a month ago, part of what was discussed was that the starting pitchers need to pull their weight. They've been doing that. Lester was good yesterday. Daisuke wasn't bad (especially for a rehab start) on Saturday. Buchholz was brilliant last Thursday. Beckett was great last Wednesday. The Sox only won 1 of these games.

Now it's the lineup's turn to pull some weight. Ortiz can't do it all. Pedroia is in a 3 for 24 (.125) slump since returning from his thumb injury. Adrian Gonzalez is slugging .419, about .100 lower than he should be expected to slug. Kevin Youkilis did well when he first returned from the DL, now he's in a 4 for 25 (.160) drought. Will Middlebrooks hasn't had an extra-base hit since May.

Hopefully a trip to Miami can help turn things around. The Marlins are in 4th place, and Beckett is on the mound for the Sox tonight. He might need to hit a few homeruns to give himself a reasonable amount of run support. He faces 3-4 Josh Johnson. Adrian Gonzalez is 4 for 11 in his career against Johnson, so maybe he'll get a few hits tonight.

-The Captain

Red Sox 6, Tigers 4

The Red Sox have an abundance of corner infielders. Gonzalez, Middlebrooks, Ortiz, and Youkilis. All of them had big hits last night. Three of them hit homeruns. Gonzalez hit a ground rule double to give the Sox a 5-4 lead in the 7th. Middlebrooks and Ortiz each hit two run shots in the 4th. Youkilis hit an insurance solo homer in the 8th.

Since coming off the DL, Youkilis is 9 for 31 (.290) in 8 games. He's getting on base. He's hit 2 homeruns and knocked in 12 RBI. He only had 9 RBI in 18 games in April. I think it's safe to attribute some of his struggles in April to his injury.

With players like Pedroia and Ellsbury on the DL, it's tough to trade Youkilis away. And at the same time his trade value increases, his value to the Sox also increases.

Jon Lester gave the Sox a good start. It's amazing how well the team plays when the starting pitching does its job. He went 6.2, throwing 120 pitches. He was charged with 4 earned runs, but 1 of those was an inherited runner that Albers allowed to score. He allowed 10 hits, but he didn't walk anyone, and he got 7 strikeouts.

Lester is a key figure to the Sox' success. It's hard to imagine the Sox making the playoffs (let alone winning in the playoffs) if Lester isn't performing. He's been a rock in the rotation for a few years now. This year he's been shaky. He needs to put together a few good starts in a row and get into a rhythm. He doesn't have to be an Ace. He just has to be consistent.

I'll give a tip of the cap to Alfredo Aceves, who's pitched in 4 straight games. I'll show more restraint with my appraisal of his performance this season. He's blown 3 saves. One of those came in this 4 game stretch. He hasn't been bad. But let's stop declaring him things that he's not. Only 4 other relievers have blown more saves this season.

Then again, he has stepped up and adequately filled a role the Sox needed to fill. It's not his fault that Papelbon wasn't re-signed, that Bailey got hurt, and that the Sox didn't acquire a starter so they were forced to put Bard in the rotation.

I'm liking Daniel Nava more and more each game. He had an outfield assist in the 7th that proved critical. If he doesn't throw out Avila at second, the 7th inning might have seen Detroit take a lead, not just tie the game.

Marlon Byrd also made a spectacular diving catch.

Guys like Nava, Byrd, and Aceves are easy to root for. There's no doubt that they're giving 100%, and that they're hungry to win.

The Sox are now 13-13 at home. They'll look to sweep the Tigers tonight. Beckett faces Max Scherzer. The Sox tagged him for 7 runs in 2.2 innings back in April (then lost 13-12). He's settled down since then, and has had a decent May. But the Sox should still win this apparent mismatch.

-The Captain

Red Sox 6, Mariners 1

This was the type of start the Sox needed and Lester needed. Jon Lester scattered 8 hits, didn't walk anyone, only allowed 1 run, and went the distance.

He was efficient. He finished the game with 119 pitches, but 22 of those came in the 9th. He only needed 97 pitches to go 8 innings. He retired the first 11 Mariners he faced, and by the time Seattle started to make him work, the Sox were already up 5-0.

Daniel Nava was a big reason for that lead. He hit a 2 run homer in the 4th. Kelly Shoppach hit a solo shot later in the inning.

Nava has been hot since joining the team. He's 7 for 12 (.583), with 4 doubles, a homerun, and 6 walks. He's gotten on base in three fourths of his plate appearances. Pawtucket has given the Boston Red Sox some nice boosts this season.

I know that some have speculated that when Youkilis comes back, the Sox might keep Middlebrooks at third and put Youk in left. But which outfielder do you sit? Ross, Sweeney, even Byrd have all been solid. And now Nava.

The Sox are a better team than the Mariners, despite having similar records. They should beat Seattle. They did it once. It'd be great if they could do it again and end this homestand on a positive note.

But guess who's starting for the Sox today...

Josh Beckett. He'll face Blake Beavan, who is 1-3 with a 4.32 ERA and dealing with elbow problems that shortened his last start. So it's Beavan and Butthead (Beckett). Lame joke, I know.

It's a weird start time today. 4:00pm.

-The Captain

Royals 4, Red Sox 3

The umpires strike back. That's all Eck could talk about on the NESN broadcast last night, was the umpires. Jim Rice touched on it in the postgame. And I'm sure there are many out there who are holding the umpiring responsible for last night's loss. But let's lose with some dignity here, folks. Do the Sox need perfect umpiring to beat the Royals? Is that how low this team has sunk?

The Red Sox failed at a number of little things last night. Catching a ball on a bounce thrown in from the outfield. That's not too hard is it?

The Sox failed at a number of large things last night. Getting hits with runners in scoring position. Failing to make Bruce Chen look like Bruce Chen.

I'm still waiting for Lester to be as elite as he claimed he ought to be viewed as. He wasn't bad last night. He could've had more help behind him. But he hasn't been an Ace this year, he hasn't even been a good #2. He's 1-3 with a 4.29 ERA and he's had 30+ pitch innings in 4 starts already. He's got to be more efficient than that.

And elite pitchers are able to pitch around bad calls and bad luck.

This was the tenth series of the season for the Sox. They've lost 7 and won 3. Close to a fifth of the season is gone and the Sox are on pace for 65 wins.

They open a 4 game series with the Indians, who lead the AL Central. Derek Lowe, who I'm told is a very respectable golfer, opposes Josh Beckett. Tee-time, I mean first pitch is scheduled for 7:10pm. I'm going to milk that Beckett story until I get cheese.

-The Captain

Rangers 18, Red Sox 3

Buy some Dramamine and don't eat an hour before game time because this Sox season is shaping up to be a motion sickness inducing roller coaster ride of dizzying highs and soul crushing lows.

After two very good starts, Jon Lester dropped an utter turd on the mound last night, only getting 6 men out. He threw 80 pitches in his 2+ innings of work, only 46 of which were strikes. He allowed 8 hits and walked 4. It was ugly.

Even uglier was Mark Melancon's outing. 6 batters faced. 2 of them walked, 4 of them got hits, 3 of them hit homeruns. He's allowed 5 homeruns in 2 innings of work. His ERA is now 49.50.

I fear that the rest of the season will be much like the first 11 games. The Sox will look invincible at times. Then at other times they'll look like a AAA team that's been drinking heavily.

But hey, Texas is good. Really, really good. I love hearing people say "there's no guarantee the Wild Card comes from the AL East this year." No shit. The Rangers have pitching. And as we saw last night, some very scary hitting.

Josh Beckett faces Derek Holland tonight. It'll be interesting to see which Josh Beckett shows up.

-The Captain

Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 1

Good news: the Sox can't lose for the next 48 hours.

For the second time this season, Jon Lester logged a very good performance. And yet he's 0-1. The bats have been silent for him.

The Sox went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position, continuing an alarming trend. Maybe the timing just hasn't been right. Or maybe the lineup is so full of holes that when good hitters get on base, they have bad hitters to try to knock them in. Maybe the Sox need their best hitters to play like their best hitters.

Then again, the Sox only managed 3 hits today. That's it. All of them singles. The 2 through 6 hitters combined to go 0 for 18. With 1 walk. Ricky Romero looked like an Ace today.

On the bright side, Lester is looking good. He has both of the Red Sox' quality starts.

And on an even more positive note, the Sox bullpen didn't allow a run. Lester pitched all 8 innings today.

Something that's gnawing at me is that I'm not seeing the Sox do the little things much. Throwing runners out on the basepaths, for instance. This team seems to think that they're so talented that they can relax. That they don't need to fight and claw for every out and every base.

It's very uninspiring baseball to watch.

Maybe the Sox can turn things around at home. They host the Rays Friday afternoon. Josh Beckett opposes David Price.

-The Captain

Red Sox vs Blue Jays Preview

Starting Pitchers
Boston: Lester (0-0, 1.29 ERA)
Toronto: Romero (0-0, 7.20 ERA)

The Sox season hasn't gone to plan so far and are 1-4, in the early season we have pretty much seen every issue go pretty bad for the Sox. Luckily, we have our best pitcher on the mound today. Jon Lester probably would have been 1-0 if he didn't face Justin Verlander game 1.

Today Lester faces off against Ricky Romero, who is no slouch but hasn't had much success against Boston going 2-6 with an 8.08 ERA in his first 11 starts against the Red Sox before beating them twice during Boston's collapse in September. Lester on the other hand has been very good in Canada, he's 9-2 with a 2.71 ERA in 13 starts against the Blue Jays, going 5-0 with a 1.96 ERA in his last six in Toronto.

If that holds true the Sox should be gravy. Lester will pitch well and the offense will get going.

Sox win 5-1
Tommy Award: Jon Lester

Lester Pissed He Isn't Considered Elite

Let me start by saying that Lester is my favorite player on the Red Sox, but this comment kind of pissed me off...

“I think people expect me every year to go out and win 20 games, and if I don’t do that, it’s a bad season. I don’t think that I get a lot of the credit of the seasons that I have put together,” Lester said. “It’s obviously a nice expectation to have, but at the same time, when people talk about the elite pitchers in the game, they throw me in as, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s one, too.’

“It’s frustrating. I don’t know why that is. It is nice to be recognized as that at sometimes, just to reassure your work and for your confidence. Yeah, the expectation of winning 20 games is great. I don’t want any less. I want to win as many games as I can every year. Hell, I want to win 33 when you get down to it. That’s a compliment, but to be mentioned every once in a while with those [elite] guys would be nice.”

Lester is a very good pitcher. He is one of three pitchers who has won 15 or more games in each of the past four seasons (CC, Halladay), but he just isn't in the same class as those two guys. First off CC has pitched AT LEAST 230 innings in each of the last 3 seasons, and Halladay has pitching 233 innings or more in each of the last 4 years. Lester has never been over 210. Both those guys have had a better ERA than Lester as well, and have won more games. Lester is very good, but when you are an "ACE" you are expected to win 20 games when you play for a premiere franchise. If you don't like that then go play for the Mariners. An ACE is supposed to eat up innings so the bullpen is saved for the rest of the staff. Lester really hasn't done that. How many times last year was he at the 100 pitching mark in the 5th-6th inning?

Don't get me wrong, I think Lester can be ELITE, but he isn't yet. Hopefully, these comments are like ShEli's last year, and he backs it up (I know, I can't believe I just wrote that either).