Sox: 8 Rays: 9
I feel sad for Josh Beckett. He clearly does not have it this October and I think that, like Mike Lowell, he is too injured to help the team. In his past two starts he looked like Sabathia from last year's ALCS. Fortunately for the Sox (at least early in the game), Kazmir didn't have it either. The Sox batters (well, Youk, Pedey, and Bay, mainly) scratched and clawed their way back into the game and tied it in the 8th on a wild pitch by Dan Wheeler. Unfortunately, after the 8th, the bats packed it in and forced an unsavory situation for the Sox: Timlin on the mound in the bottom of the 11th. I knew when I saw that Timlin had come in the game (after hoping against hope that it would be Byrd instead) it was going to be over. To be fair, the ump squeezed him big-time (after cheating Kotsay on a called third "strike" way out of the zone at the top of the inning).
Timlin's presence on the roster is the result of not having enough reliable bullpen arms for a longer playoff series. The minor leaguers Smith, Pauley, and Hansack don't really cut it and neither does Aardsma, who lost any effectiveness he had once he went on the DL. That leaves Timlin, who throws glorified batting practice, but his post-season experience gives him the razor's edge over the rest of the pack. Teams like the Rays, however, exploit pitchers' weaknesses and gobble up Timlin like a tankful of piranhas. One thing for the Sox organization to work on in the off-season is strengthening the bullpen.
Now for the holes in the Sox lineup: Ellsbury, Papi, and Tek. Ells started off like a rocket, but flamed out quickly. Did he catch "no-hit-itis" from Pedey (who has, thankfully, made a full recovery)? Papi, as a DH, all he has to do is hit. He started to get hot again in late September, but he's back to the freezer in October. Is the wrist bothering him that much? Did he re-injure it at some point between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs? Tek's been an offensive liability all season. He's essential to the pitching staff, but do you think he could stop trying to switch hit? He's a natural righty, so maybe he should just bat from the right side where he can still hit for a decent average.
With the discouraging performance from Beckett tonight, I'm left with doubt as to how much further the Sox can go with only two reliable starters. Even if they somehow manage to win the ALCS, what happens in the World Series? Would they run a compromised Beckett out there to get shelled again? Would they go with both Wake and Byrd as starters? Let's be realistic: The Sox really are in a pickle if Beckett is unable to pitch effectively for the rest of the post-season, however long that may be.
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