Past Their Bedtime

Jet-lagged Sox: o West Coast: 3 (This is a score of the past three games, not the runs from tonight's game)

Okay, yesterday was an afternoon game, but in Wednesday's game and tonight's, the Sox bats called it a day at around 11 pm EDT (or 8 pm out there). Put up a 4-spot in the first few innings, then hit the hay for the night as the other team erases the lead and slides right past them. Yesterday's game was a 12-inning heartbreaker, surrounded by two nearly identical games in which the starter is given a lead, then coughs it up as the bats clock out for the night. Tonight, the role of Torii Hunter was played by Ichiro Suzuki.

Three very frustrating games to watch as a Red Sox fan. They point to a larger problem for the Sox, besides their historic west-coast woes: The continued inconsistency and, at times, outright ineptitude, of the starting rotation. For awhile, the team was able to compensate offensively, but it puts enormous pressure on the bats when they feel they must score at least six runs to have a chance to win the game. Wake gets a pass for his rough outing because he had been the most consistent starter until then. Lester, however, is very troubling to watch. Again, he gives the other guys extra outs and again they make him pay. He could have been out of that sixth inning with a double play, but his brain took a holiday once he had caught the grounder back to the mound. He doesn't see that Pedey's covering second and holds on to the ball, finally firing to first to get one out. Ichiro takes him deep for the second time and wham! bam! The lead is gone. Last year, Lester would have been able to recover from that gaffe, but so far this year, that's not happening.

After going 0-for-7 yesterday, Big Papi sat last night and Rocco Baldelli DH'ed. He didn't fare much better than Papi, racking up 3 Ks, one with the bases loaded. Of course, Rocco, being a bench player, doesn't get consistent at-bats and it's unfair to expect him to come in and rake the first time he's asked to DH. Pedey and Lugo, who were all over the place yesterday, suffered Post Multi-Hit Game Syndrome, and both 0-fered tonight. Drew performed well out of the 3-hole, knocking three hits, and Jake was a homer shy of the cycle, so let's hope PMHGS only applies to guys who hit four or more hits in a game.

Tomorrow night is another late one. Beckett's on the mound and I hope he can do what he did his last two outings, or possibly improve on that. The Sox need their starters to start building some consistency or it's gonna be a long, long summer.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!