Red Sox Take 2 of 3 from Blue Jays

The experiment of Bard in the rotation has proven unsuccessful. He simply isn't a starter. And the culprit is the same thing that prevented him from being a starter when he was first drafted: bases on balls.

In 55 innings, he's walked 37 batters. He's struck out 34. Yesterday he threw 55 pitches. 24 were strikes. A good pitcher will throw twice as many strikes as balls (or better). But not Bard. When he's a starter, the walks pile up. And because he isn't throwing many strikes, so does the pitch count. It's the same problem that plagued him in 2007 in A ball. He's also hit 6 batters this year.

When Daisuke is ready to return, Bard needs to go to the bullpen. It simply is not working out for him in the rotation. At best, he's a #5 pitcher, giving you 180 mediocre innings. I'd rather have 80 quality innings from him out of the pen.

Apart from Bard's struggles, the Sox have been thriving. They've only lost 1 of their last 7 series. They're 16-7 since David Ortiz called a players only meeting after Beckett was shelled by the Indians on May 10th. They're still last in the AL East, but they're only 1.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot.

On Saturday, Felix Doubront had yet another Quality Start. He's now 6-2 and deservedly so. You really can't ask more from a 4/5 pitcher than that. Not to mention his ERA is 3.75.

And Clay Buchholz seems to have settled down. He went 8 innings Friday night, only allowing 2 runs. He struck out 7. That's two straight Quality Starts for Buchholz. He only has three on the season. He has a 2.40 ERA in his last two starts. 15 innings, 4 earned runs, not bad at all.

The Sox need to keep this momentum going. They can take advantage of a Baltimore team that's been struggling lately. They have today off. Then Lester faces 6-2 Jason Hammel on Tuesday.

-The Captain

Red Sox @ Blue Jays Preview

Red Sox lost last game, no problem it happens and they have been playing real well. The key is what Rob talks about often and that is not a streak. The Sox have a terrible problem where they play well for awhile, only to streak to the bottom again.

Not losing two in a row is going to be tough because the Sox have Clay Buchholz is on the mound. Buchholz (4-2, 7.19 ERA) allowed two runs and struck out a season-high six in seven innings Sunday, and that was against the Rays, so on paper there would be reason to think he is improving. I want to caution you here though. The Rays have been playing without some of their best hitters (Longoria, ect) and thus really aren't a great hitting team. If Buchholz pitches well tonight I will feel a lot better. If history has it's say he could have a good chance he is 7-3 with a 2.58 ERA in 11 starts against the Jays in his career (4-0 with a 1.32 ERA in his last five).

Going against Buchholz is Henderson Alvarez Alvarez is 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA in his last three starts overall, after posting an 0.82 ERA while winning his previous three outings. He is a good young talent, but one again is a guy who hasn't been playing well and the Sox should be able to take advantage of.

Wish I could pick the Red Sox tonight, but I just don't trust Clay yet, and the Jays are a team that can make things tough for him in a hurry, especially with the long ball.

Jays win 9-7
Player fo the Game: Colby Rasmus
Game starts at 7:07pm

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

Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3

Going back to September 1st of last year, the Red Sox are 8-24. That's .250 baseball. So I'm not just "panicking" over a slow start. I'm concerned about what seems to be a continuation of a pattern dating back to last year. The calendar is different, but the games look eerily similar.

On the bright side, Daniel Bard was better than his 5 inning, 5 earned run line score suggests. The first run he allowed came in the 1st, when the Jays had a few well-placed hits and squeezed out a run. The last two runs charged to Bard occurred with Justin Thomas on the mound.

Bard looked promising. There's room for improvement, but he did well. He didn't let a few bad breaks affect him, he mixed up his pitches as the game progressed, he threw strikes (65 strikes, 31 balls, slightly better than the 2:1 ratio you want to see), he didn't walk anyone until the 6th inning, he got better as the game progressed.

His slider was devastating. He worked the changeup in later in the game, and that went well. But the Jays repeatedly made contact on his fastball. Mostly for line drives. He allowed 8 hits. 7 of them were singles.

I'm not yet sold on Bard as a starter. But I am still listening to the sales pitch.

The rest of this team I am definitely not sold on. More bad bullpen work from Thomas and then Michael Bowden. The Sox got plenty of baserunners, but couldn't manage that big hit to break things open. They were 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position. Both those hits came in the 9th with 2 outs and the Sox trailing by 6 runs.

Youkilis finally got 2 hits. If he and Ellsbury can get a little hotter, the offense should find more consistency.

But pitching still worries me. The bullpen is just a mess. And with starters like Doubront and Bard going 5 or 6 innings, that bullpen is even more exposed.

Maybe Lester can turn things around this afternoon. He faces Ricky Romero at 12:37.

-The Captain

Red Sox @ Blue Jays Preview

The Red Sox got the monkey off their back last night in dramatic fashion. To be honest, these first 4 games have been taxing (other than the 0-10 blowout). Hopefully tonight the Red Sox can score in the first 8 innings, which is really something they haven't done much of.

They should have a good chance to do that tonight against Kyle Drabek. The once highly regarded prospect had a terrible season in 2011. He went 4-5 with a 6.06 ERA and walked a stunning 55 batters in just 78 innings. Drabek's last major league start was a 14-1 home loss to Boston on June 12, when he allowed eight runs in four innings.

Meanwhile, this will be a very interesting night on the mound for the Red Sox. Daniel Bard finally gets to make his debut as a starter. Bard has thrived in a relief role for Boston since his arrival in the big leagues in 2009, compiling a 2.88 career ERA and .190 opponent batting average, but the Red Sox were short handed in starting pitching and moved him over. Spring training didn't go all that well for him as he had some control issues, but he was able to get his pitch count up and was still throwing heat even as that pitch count rose. He needs to limit his walks tonight.

What do I expect? My hope is something like what he got out of Doubront last night. For Bard's first start if he can go 5 innings allowing 1-2 runs I'll be pretty happy.

Red Sox win 9-4
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 7:07pm

Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 2

The Sox finally put that first win in the books thanks to a 3 run 9th inning last night in Toronto. And finally, the pain is being felt by another team.

Felix Doubront did his job. That's something that Beckett and Buchholz didn't do. Doubront's 5 innings of 2 run ball gave the Sox a chance to win. It was an undramatic start that allowed the Sox to end the game dramatically.

Dustin Pedroia is my favorite player on this team. He started the 9th inning rally with a leadoff double. He also hit a solo homerun in the 6th. It's not just about overall numbers for him, it's when he gets the hits. He's the guy you want at the plate when you need a big hit to start a rally.

This season looks like it might be a bipolar roller coaster. Tremendous highs followed by horrifying lows.

Daniel Bard makes his first MLB start tonight against Doug Drabek's son Kyle Drabek.

-The Captain

Red Sox @ Blue Jays Preview

Wow, this weekend was painful and it was capped off by a 5 hour 2 blown save adventure yesterday. Now the Red Sox get to fly to Toronto with the unproven Felix Doubront on the mound. Yikes.

Tonight it's Doubront facing Henderson Alvarez. Alvarez was 1-3 with a 3.53 ERA in 10 starts for the Blue Jays and pitched six scoreless innings against the Red Sox on Sept. 5 during a 1-0 home win. This kid could be something special. He was started last year in just class A ball and raised all the way through the Jays system.

Doubront has never started a game against the Jays. He actually never started a game last year, but I do like this kid. He was hurt for a lot of last season, but the year before he showed some potential. My worry is how long he can pitch in this game. He doesn't have many innings under his belt, and this bullpen took a beating over the weekend. That could be a problem for the Sox. The good news is the Jays played a lot of innings this weekend too.

I am waiting for the Sox lineup to be released, because it'll be interesting to see what Bobby V puts out there. The offense looked good last game after looking lke shit the first two games. That 3rd game was a very different looking lineup with Punto leading off, and Youk on the bench.

I want to stay positive, so....

Red Sox win 7-4
Player of the Game: Ellsbury
Game starts at 7:07pm


Sox lineup is in....

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Ross, LF
Sweeney, RF
Saltalamacchia, C
Aviles, SS