Red Sox Reach .500... Again

The Red Sox can't seem to pass the .500 mark. They're 0-5 the game after they reach .500.

The Rays finally took a series from the Sox. The Rays' pitchers quieted the Sox' bats. The Sox only scored 10 runs in their weekend series. And while Saltalamacchia won Saturday's game with a walk-off win, Alfredo Aceves returned the favor to Tampa Bay by blowing a save. His 3rd blown save of the season.

Jonathan Papelbon has yet to blow a save this season.

People have been praising the Red Sox bullpen. But such praise is merely selective memory. In the last 20 games, the bullpen has been decent. The 20 games before that, not so much. Looking at the guys that are out there, none of them are guys I'd classify as tough-situation-relievers. When the game is on the line, how confident are you when Padilla or Albers comes jogging in from the bullpen? Be honest.

The Sox scored some runs off Doug Fister yesterday, and that's not easy to do. They got 11 hits off him, including 3 doubles and a homerun. It was Saltalamacchia's ninth. He has 5 more homeruns than Adrian Gonzalez, in 69 fewer at-bats, and for $19.6 million less salary. He's been a nice and surprising offensive contributor.

The Sox got another very respectable start from Doubront. Prince Felix went 6, allowing 2 runs off 4 hits and a walk. He struck out 6. He's 5-2 on the season, which means he's the winningest pitcher in the rotation. He's the only Sox starter with an ERA under 4. Again, a nice and surprising contributor.

I enjoy rooting for the Felix Doubronts and Jarrod Saltalamacchias on this team. They try. They care. They're playing to the maximum of their potential. And they're the reason this team is .500 and within shouting distance of a playoff spot.

As I said at the start of this post, the Sox are 0-5 when they've had a chance to be over .500. Technically, I suppose it's 0-6 since they lost their first game (when they were 0-0). I'm not overly optimistic that they'll improve on that mark, as Verlander is on the mound for Detroit. Bard is pitching for the Sox.

-The Captain

Rays @ Red Sox Preview

Red Sox did what they needed to do against the Orioles winning 2 out of 3 and now are just 5 1/2 games out of first in the AL East. Winning games in your division is huge right now, when you are trying to dig yourself out of the cellar. The Sox have a good chance to do that with this 3 game series against the Rays. Looks like the Red Sox have a pretty good chance at doing so with Lester on the mound and a 3-1 record against the Rays at Fenway.

Boston has outscored Tampa Bay 36-14 in the wins, and David Ortiz is batting .455 with a home run, four doubles and eight RBIs in the season series. Lester is trying to win his third straight start. He wasn't that great against the Phillies, but pitched a CG the game before. I really think Lester has turned the corner, and this is a lineup that isn't that great and I am hoping to see a gem tonight.

Going against Lester is youngster Alex Cobb. Cobb is actually from Boston, so this will be a homecoming for him. Cobb took the rotation spot of the injured Jeff Niemann on Saturday, and the right-hander allowed two runs and struck out six in seven innings of a 5-2 win over Atlanta in his season debut. Like all Rays pitchers he has a ton of talent, but the Red Sox still should be able to take care of this guy.

Red Sox win 5-2
Player of the Game: Lester
Game starts at 7:10pm

5 Red Sox, 3 TB

Cody Ross had one hell of night. He went 2 for 3 with a home run and 4 RBIs. He especially made Rookie Matt Moore's life miserable by taking a bases loaded walk and then hit a home run off him later. I thought that Moore was going to be run out of the game earlier, but he retired the next 10 batters to bounce back.

King Felix Doubront continues to do enough to win or keep the Sox in the game. Last night he went 5.2 innings, letting up 2 runs (1 earned) and walking 4 and striking out 7. Our Bullpen went Hill, Atchenson, Miller, Padilla and Aceves to round out the games.

Marlon Byrd hit his first homer for the Sox to account for the other run. Pedroia was the only other significant contributor as he went 2-5, Mike Aviles picking up his first career ejection after arguing a 3rd strike called.

Red Sox @ Rays Preview

Here is to hoping this isn't another long slide in an up and down Red Sox season. They were bound to lose after winning 5 in a row, but good news don't then follow that up with losing streaks. So, let's see what Red Sox team shows up tonight.

Actually, very interested in this game. For one, I am a big Felix Doubront fan and am glad he has finally got a shot in the rotation. He has reward the Sox so far with a 3-1 record and a 4.46 ERA. In a rotation that usually has a hard time going deep into games Doubront has gone through the sixth inning in four of his last five outings and winning two of his last three. He is also coming off his best outing of the season in which he went 6 innings allowing one run on three hits with 5 Ks. Doubront is just 24 years old and has limited big league experience, so for him to be averaging about a K an inning and pitching 6 innings most starts is impressive.

Going against Doubront is Matt Moore. He is just a rookie, but we all expected more from him. He is 1-3 with a 5.31 ERA. The big problem with him so far is his control. He has 22 walks already and that is just too much for someone who has pitched 39 innings. Moore hasn't been able to make it to the 5th inning in each of his last 2 starts. Last time he faced the Sox he went 6 1/3 innings allowing six runs on 8 hits with 5 walks. The kid has the stuff to do it, but you have to wonder if maybe he needs to be sent down for a bit to figure out his location problems.

This is not a great hitting Rays team right now with Jennings and Longoria sidelined. The Red Sox really should win this game. They have a pitcher on the mound that they need to sit back and be patient with and let him work himself into trouble. Gonzalez guaranteed a HR tonight, which is pretty bold because 1, I didn't know he could take, and 2 he has only two on the year.

Red Sox win 6-4
Player of the Game: Gonzalez
Game starts at 7:10pm

Rays 2, Red Sox 1

There's no shame in being shut down by Jeremy Hellickson. So I'm not too disappointed by this game. In fact, there is one strong positive to take from this: Buchholz doesn't suck anymore. He's gone from horrible to not-so-bad. He had to be pulled in the 6th, after only 87 pitches, but he's not stinking up the joint like he was back in April.

He's improving. And that's good.

One thing that isn't good is that the Red Sox lead the world in balks. Three more balks last night. There have been 45 balks in all of Major League Baseball this season. The Red Sox have 6 of them.

Balks are a bit freakish. But what irritates me is how much attention Sox pitchers give to baserunners. It just isn't worth it. Bard has struggled with this, and so has Buchholz. I miss the days when Joe Kerrigan was the pitching coach and the Sox didn't give a rat's ass about what baserunners did. Who cares if a runner steals second so long as the batter grounds out to third or flies out to left?

Sox' pitchers need to stop worrying about baserunners and focus on hitters.

Good job by the Rays for selling 20,843 seats. They have a first place team, hosting a divisional rival that happens to be one of the most storied in the game. And they barely fill half their park. Yes, baseball definitely belongs in the Tampa Bay area. Just like hockey belongs in Arizona.

Will Rhymes was carted off after being hit by a pitch on the wrist. He passed out due to an adrenaline rush. Jonathan Vilma blocked me on Twitter after I told him he owed Scott Atchison $10,000 for the cart off.

So the Sox' streak is over. But as I said in the first paragraph, there is no shame in being shut down by Jeremy Hellickson.

Doubront faces Matt Moore tonight. He isn't that good.

-The Captain

Red Sox @ Rays Preview

With all the Red Sox troubles this year it is surprising to see that they are 3-1 against the Rays this season outscoring them a total of 31 to 11 (their one loss was a 1-0 loss). Boston comes into the series on fire outscoring opponents 34-8 over its 5 consecutive victories and allowed only 3 runs over the last four of those wins.

Yet, here comes Buchholz to the mound. Buchholz has been given the most runs per nine innings in the majors (9.69), which is why he has the impressive record of 4-1 on the year, but when you look at the fact has the highest ERA (8.31) and highest opponent batting average (.337) among qualifying major leaguers you start to be less impressed. Last start was his best of the year and even that wasn't all that impressive as he let up a season-low 4 runs (3 ER), 8 hits and 3 walks in 6 1/3 innings against the Indians. Buchholz gave up five runs over seven innings to Tampa Bay on April 14 but got the win in a 13-5 rout at Fenway Park (typical Buchholz luck). He's 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA in his last 4 matchups with the Rays and 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA in his last 4 starts at Tropicana Field.

Going against Buchholz is Jeremy Hellickson, who I think very highly of. Jeremy Hellickson (3-0, 2.95), hasn't allowed more than 3 runs in a start since facing Boston last month. Against Boston though he hasn't been very good, he is 2-1 with a 4.99 ERA and last time he faced them he let up 5 ERs over 5 innings.

I am really torn with who I should pick here, but the Rays are pretty banged up right now and I think Ortiz (.462 with a HR against Hellickson) should be enough to get past the Rays. I really hope Buchholz looks good. If he does you have to feel better about this staff as a whole. If he gets lit up thought, things are looking very rough.

Red Sox win 6-5
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 7:10pm

Evan Longoria Out 4-8 Weeks

Evan Longoria is out with a partially torn left hamstring Tuesday.

This sucks for the Rays as they will not be able to replace his bat and glove. It's a shame for Longoria who was having a hell of a season batting .329 with 4 homers and 19 rbis. He also adds a golden glove at 3rd base.

At the end of the day the Rays arms should mask Longoria being out, and it will be interesting to see how the Rays offense does.

Rays 1, Red Sox 0

This team seems to either score 0 to 3 runs, or 10+ runs. It's feast or famine, deluge or drought. And yesterday was definitely drought.

There's no shame in being shut down by James Shields. The Sox managed only 4 hits, all of them singles. With the way Shields was dealing there was no way the Sox would win this game, unless it was 0-0 and went deep into extra innings and they managed to beat Tampa's bullpen.

Bard was the hard luck loser. He did well. And could have been spared walking in the winning run had Valentine pulled him. I think the 4 pitch walk to Pena just before was a red flag that should have caught Bobby V's attention. He was probably too busy trying to remove his foot from his mouth.

Or maybe he was wrapping pita bread around his foot and calling it a Toe Wrap. He is, after all, very inventive.

This was a disappointing loss, but not an overly painful one. Shields vs. Bard is a significant mismatch. And Bard did very well for himself. Which is promising.

The Sox welcome Texas to town tonight. The Rangers are 8-2. Jon Lester faces Colby Lewis tonight. Lewis has only allowed 2 runs in his 2 starts.

-The Captain

Top 25 Under 25: #24 Matt Moore

Born: June 18, 1989 (22 years old)
Team: Tampa Bay Rays
Position: Pitcher

Of the players on my list Moore has the least amount of experience, but I could just not get myself to leave him off the list. When almost ever scout and baseball commentator says that this guy is already one of the better lefties in baseball you know you have something special. I have more then 1 scout say by next year this guy will be up for Cy Youngs. You don't hear that very much.

He is going to go through some growing pains this year, but I fully expect at least 12 wins this year and that's damn impressive for a rookie. I mean look at this kid's stats from the minors last year...

12-3 1.92 ERA 155 innings 210 Ks 46 BBs.

Yea, this kid is going to be a stud, and a good chance he's int he top 10 on our list next year.

Rays @ Red Sox Preview

Things have turned around quickly for the Red Sox. Their starting pitching looks better, they are hitting the cover off the ball, and even their bullpen has been good. All these things have lead them to a 3 game winning streak against the Rays, who they play again today.

This is one of the stranger games of the year. Every in Mass is in Boston today, it's a Monday day game, and it starts at 11am. On top of that the Red Sox are dealing with Bobby V calling out Youk, who isn't in the lineup today (more on that in a later post).

Boston has Bard on the hill. He was decent in his first game, in which he gave up 5 runs over 5 inning, but actually didn't pitch all that bad. In 18 innings of relief work against the Rays Bard has only let up 2 runs. I don't know how much you can read into that, but it's impressive.

Going against Bard is Shields, who has not been good when having to play in Fenway. Shields is 1-9 with a 6.75 ERA in 10 starts. Boston needs to get on him early, because he is a guy who can go deep into games. I think they do and win again today.

Red Sox win 7-6
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 11:05am

Red Sox Enjoy Home Cooking

Maybe it's the proximity to Popeye's Chicken on Brookline Ave. Maybe it's the warm weather or the comfortable and familiar confines of the ballpark. Whatever it is, the Red Sox are back home, back to winning, and almost back to .500.

The offense has exploded, led by David Ortiz, who added 3 hits, a pair of doubles, an RBI and 2 runs yesterday. He's hitting at a .444 clip. And slugging .694.

The Sox have scored 31 runs in their 3 home games. This after scoring 22 in their 6 road games.

There have been some good pitching performances, too. Beckett tossed a gem on Opening Day (8 innings, 1 run), and the bullpen hasn't allowed a run since the 9th inning of Opening Day. You can feel waves of optimism emanating from Fenway Park. Beckett's back, Buchholz at least managed to go 7, Doubront did okay, and the offense is producing. Why not be positive?

Here's why not: The Sox have been scoring in bunches. Which is good. But it's been either feast or famine. The Sox have scored 53 runs as a team this year. 43 of those came in only 4 games. They've scored 10 runs in their remaining 5 games. More than 80% of their offense has come in less than half their games.

I was more impressed with yesterday's 6 runs than the 13 and 12 scored on Saturday and Friday. Because it was legitimately impressive production. Not just beating up bad pitching. This team's biggest problem last year was consistency. They could jump on subpar pitching, put up big innings, score a dozen runs, and that's great. But then they struggled to consistently score against decent pitching.

And with the rotation as unpredictable as it is, the Sox will win and lose with their bats. And with inconsistent bats, this means that the 2012 Red Sox will be just as streaky, just as inconsistent as the 2011 edition.

Bard faces James Shields this morning, in what should be a very good test for the Sox' hitters.

-The Captain