Big Papi Special

He couldn't close the gap last night, though he did everything in his power to try. Unfortunately, it's impossible in baseball to hit a 5-run tater. He hit a salami in the 9th to bring the Sox within a run, but Cameron looked at strike 3, well, you know what happened then.

This afternoon was a different story With the sacks juiced in the bottom of the ninth with one out, lefty and ex-Yankee Phil Coke on the hill and Youk having been intentionally walked and the Sox down by two runs, the Tigers took a big gamble by electing to face a guy who had just grannied against them the night before. Fortunately for the Red Sox, Detroit lost that gamble and Papi sent a bases-clearing double in the left-field gap. In came McDonald (who singled to lead off the inning), Lowrie (who doubled, pinch-hitting for Patterson), and Youk. Dice-K's somewhat dicey start and the six innings of frustration at the plate at the hands of Max Scherzer became an afterthought. After all, it's not how you start the game, but how you finish.

This win came on a day the Sox let the trade deadline pass without making any big splashes. They shipped RamRam off to San Fran and got Salty from Texas in two separate deals. They also DFA'ed Hermida and called up outfield prospect Ryan Kalish, along with recalling Dustin Richardson to take RamRam's place. Kalish, who had been lighting it up in AA and AAA this season continued this season's theme of newbies coming up big when he went 2-for-4, the second of those hits driving in the Sox' first run. He also scored a run on Darnell McDonald's single and made a great catch in left. If Kalish can provide some solid offense and defense in the outfield, then he's the ideal solution to the outfield conundrum. He has a high upside and doesn't cost a thing. When Ells comes back, the Sox can choose to DL Cameron and let him have surgery to fix his sports hernia (if that's what he has) and go with a starting OF of Kalish in left, Ells in center and Drew in right with McDonald coming off the bench as the fourth OF.

As for the bullpen, the Sox got rid of one of their less-than-trustworthy relievers by sending him to the NL where he may have a better chance of succeeding. They are converting Felix Doubront to a reliever and they have Bowden getting more relieving experience in Pawtucket before possibly coming back up to Boston. Had they gone out and got a reliever on the trade market, it would have been just as much of a gamble as relying on their internal options. Eric Gagne, anyone? The guys the Yanks and Rays picked up have struggled this year and have inflated ERAs. Both teams are hoping their new acquisitions will benefit from a change of scenery--hoping being the operative word. Had the Red Sox picked up either Chad Qualls or Kerry Wood, many of us would have thought they were trading one problem for another. Middle relievers are a crapshoot, as Tito said today, and I agree with him here. You really don't know what you're getting until you've already made the deal and paid the price.

Salty is a good pickup because he's a young catcher with what they call "a high upside". He has struggled with injuries and controlling his throwing arm, but those issues have been supposedly resolved while he's been the Rangers' minor league system. He'll go to Pawtucket first, but if all goes well he could make Kevin Cash expendable soon.

When all is said and done, I'm okay with the Sox not making a blockbuster move this trade deadline. There wasn't a lot to be had that would fill the team's needs and Ells and Pedey will be coming back soon (hopefully within the next two weeks). They can also make waiver trades this coming month.

Buchholz vs. Verlander in the series finale. Let's hope Clay doesn't follow Lester and Dice-K in the not-quite-a-quality-start department and the bats run up Verlander's pitch count early.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!

Tonight's Game: A Pictorial Rant

How did tonight's game make me feel?

Like this:







How about leaving those bases loaded in the first inning?





And Scoots and Cam giving the Tigers extra outs?



And Lester not bringing his A game?




And the Sox pulling to within a run after Papi's granny only to have Cam look at strike 3 right down the middle?



The Sox, had they won tonight, had the chance to gain ground on the Yanks and keep pace with the Rays. If they keep blowing off opportunities there will be MORE...

A Sweet Sweep

See what happens when you have good starting pitching? And a catcher who can hit and drive in runs? V-Mart must have brought some winning mojo with him when he returned to the lineup Monday night--he drove in a run in his first at-bat. Without him or Tek the past 3 weeks, the catcher spot had been nothing but a black hole in the lineup. It was so bad that it looked like even the pitchers would have better luck at the plate than Kevin Cash, Dusty Brown, or Gustavo Molina. Not a single RBI among the three of them and some abysmal, sub-.200 averages. Bring back an All-Star in V-Mart, thumbguard rigged for his glove, and the lineup looks that much better.

The other part of the equation: solid starting pitching that can go deep into games. Clay Buchholz started on Monday night and gave up one run over 7 innings. He struggled a bit at the beginning, but he was much improved over his first post-DL start. Last night, Lackey faced his old team for the second time this season, going 7.1 and giving up 2 runs. This afternoon, it was Beckett's turn to shine, with a 7-inning 3 run start. All three starters going at least 7 innings made it easy on the bullpen (and Tito's blood pressure!) and it's an encouraging sign that the rotation the Sox thought they'd have at the beginning of the season is finally coming together.

Going into this 10-game West Coast road trip, the Sox were hoping not to fall too much farther behind the Yanks and Rays. With a 6-4 outcome, the best in 12 years, they remain 6.5 games out of first and 4.5 games out of second, pretty much where they were when the trip started. As key players made their way back from the DL, the Sox seemed to get stronger as the trip went on. They won 1 game in their first series (against the A's), 2 games against Mariners, and 3 against the Angels.

Saturday is the non-waiver trade deadline and the Sox, like many teams in buying mode, will be shopping for bullpen help. Competition for the few more reliable relievers will be stiff and asking prices will be high. However, the Sox really need an arm they can count on to take some of the burden off of Bard and Pap. Atchison has been good for the most part, but MDC, RamRam, and Oki require a strong stomach, to say the least. (To be fair, MDC and RamRam both pitched scoreless innings today). As far as bats go, Ells and Pedey will be coming off the DL in the next couple of weeks (hopefully in time for the 4-gamer in Yankee Stadium starting August 6). JD Drew's hamstring issue doesn't sound too DL-ish and Cameron's managing to play several games back-to-back. Scoots (he who knocked an 8th inning grand salami today to break a 3-3 tie) has been playing through some pain as well. I tip my Red Sox cap to Cameron, Drew, and Scoots for playing through nagging aches and pains and keeping the lineup from being made up of almost entirely AAA players.

Having ended their long trek out west on a high note, the Sox are headed back to the Fens. They have an off-day tomorrow to recover from the jet lag and then they face the Tigers. Friday night's matchup: Lester vs. Armando Galarraga. (He who was a controversial call away from a perfecto last month).

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! CONGRATS ON YOUR WINNING ROAD TRIP AND SWEEP OF THE ANGELS!!!

Red Sox Write Book: "Winning is Overrated"

The subtitle: How To Lose a Winnable Game.

Chapter 1: Run Support? Who needs it!

Chapter 2: There, We Scored One Run. You Happy Now?

Chapter 3: Outfield Misadventures: Because All Ballgames Need Comic Relief

Chapter 4: MMMM! That Cookie Was Delicious!

Chapter 5: Outs: They Speed Up the Game

Chapter 6: Fresh Squeezed

Chapter 7: No-Doubles Defense? What Kinda Clown Came Up With That One?

Chapter 8: How Much Longer Do I Gotta Stand On This Thing?

Chapter 9: When All Else Fails, Just Plunk The Guy

Chapter 10: The Art of Squandering: The Yanks Didn't Win, So Why Do We Have To?

Epilogue: That Two-Thirty Feeling, Or Why We Hate Day Games


JUST WIN TOMORROW, RED SOX!!! DAY GAME BE DAMNED, JUST WIN IT!!!

Hurry Up and Heal, V-Mart and Pedey!

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but there really hasn't been that much to say that I haven't already said a bazillion times before. I try to keep the faith (i.e. hope for a miracle), but the realist in me knows that the Sox can't afford to keep playing like they have until the injured game-changers in Pedey and V-Mart come back. Not in the toughest division in baseball. Too many opportunities are being wasted, especially with runners in scoring position and on days when both the Rays and the Yankees lose. The bullpen is still a big problem and Bowden has yet to prove he can get the job done in a close game.

Buchholz returned to the rotation today and the rust was showing throughout his 5-pitch outing. He gave up 2 dingers, one of them for 2 runs, and pitched into a lot of deep counts. This is all understandable, since he hadn't pitched in almost a month. Beckett will probably have the same problem when he pitches on Friday. Even when the team is healthy, it has trouble playing on the West Coast, no matter how weak the teams are. On the bright side, Lowrie did very well in his return to the lineup, especially at the plate, where he reached base 3 times out of 4 and drove in a run. He made a throwing error in the field, but his work at the plate more than made up for it. I only wish he were starting in place of Hall rather than Scoots.

Back to V-Mart and Pedey: The catcher's spot has been a black hole, both offensively and defensively (passed balls, anyone?) since both V-Mart and Tek went down. V-Mart was also a potent weapon against southpaws. Pedey is the heart and soul of this team, as well as the spark plug. He puts on the best at-bats on the team and makes a pitcher work hard to get him out. He puts both the "laser" and the "show" in laser show and if I had to name one favorite player on the Red Sox, it would be him. The sooner both of these players get back, the better. I only hope it's not too late to catch the Yankees and/or Rays. In the meantime, the guys who aren't on the DL need to step it up and play better baseball!

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! PLEASE PLAY BETTER IN SEATTLE!!!

Midseason Malaise

The countless injuries are finally catching up to the Red Sox as they stagger into the All-Star break. The erratic pitching isn't helping matters either. Nor is the off-field drama surrounding Ells, the Sox docs, and his time in Arizona. The latter, I believe, is largely media-created, but having it play out so publicly can't be helping team morale.

The pitching has been a problem all season, with the exception of Lester, Buchholz, and Bard. After Lester and Buchholz, the rotation looks pretty shaky. Nowhere was that more evident than in Tampa Bay earlier this week, where the Sox were broomed by the Rays, sending them tumbling back into third place and undoing much of the progress they had made in May and June. Felix Doubront did an admirable job filling in for Buchholz, but Neimann and the Rays' pen kept the depleted lineup down. Wake and Dice-K were both trainwrecks. After a 14-3 romp on Friday night at the Jays' expense (and with Lester on the mound), Lackey was a trainwreck in his own right on Saturday. The bullpen has been an opponent's dream, with the second-worst ERA in the league. Oki looks cooked, as does RamRam. MDC is a yo-yo, and Paps still relies far too heavily on his fastball. Atchison has been decent most of the time since his return from Pawtucket, and he's stepped up when the Sox need long relief. Manuel and Richardson still have some kinks to iron out before they can be considered dependable. All this leads to Bard being grossly overused. This will come back to haunt them in the second half of the season, I'm afraid. Let's hope Theo has some magic up his sleeve as far as how to fix this broken bullpen because the Sox' season depends on it. Beckett had better come back in dominant, 2007 form after spending more than 2 months on the DL. How awesome would complete-game machines Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee looked in a Sox uni this season?

No team needs this All-Star break more than the Red Sox. This has been a bizarre season, with the injury-related devastation of the roster to their inexplicable struggle in day games. There have been some great stories, like Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava. There have been some impressive stretches, like their sweep of the Rays in May and their dominance in interleague play, including the surprising bats wielded by Sox pitchers and the roughing up of NL aces like Ubaldo Jimenez and Tim Lincecum. If they were in any other division, they would have little to worry about during this rough patch, but the AL East is not known for being forgiving. Not when the Yankees and Rays are putting constant pressure on them.

Today is the last game before the break. The Sox look to Dice-K to pitch them to a series win. Forgive me if I'm not all that confident. It's gotten to the point where I can no longer watch him pitch because his nibbling and walks and bad innings drive me crazy. I hope the bats can come up big like they did on Friday night.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! PLEASE WIN TODAY!!!!

No Fireworks, Just Fizzle

As has been the case too often on Sunday afternoons this season, the Red Sox wilted in the early afternoon sun, squandering their opportunity to sweep the Orioles and head to Tampa Bay on a high note. After so many years of dominating the O's, the Sox are just .500 against them this year. We're talking about the worst team in baseball, who are 19-50 against everyone else, but 6-6 against the Sox. To be fair, this is a diminished lineup due to injuries (that Gustavo Molina was a butcher in the field and a stiff at the plate), but the remaining five starters didn't fare too well against struggling lefty Brian Matusz either. He made Papi and Drew look hilariously bad at the plate and snapped Scoots' hitting streak. Beltre managed a hit off of him and Youk homered off an O's reliever to keep the Sox from being shut out, but overall, the team's performance on the Fourth of July was not worth celebrating.

Lackey, though he picked up a loss for the first time in over a month, pitched well enough to win had he had some offensive support. He was hampered by sloppy, little-league quality defense. He pitched 7.1 innings and gave up 3 earned runs, 4 total. His batterymate showed he was clearly NOT related to those other catching Molinas, to the point where I dread seeing him at or behind the plate again. Lackey himself should have bat for Gustavo--he would have had a better chance of getting a hit, as we saw during interleague play. Theo, get on the horn with whoever is running the show in Arizona and ask about Chris Snyder again.

The series in Tampa Bay that begins tomorrow will be a true test for the Held Together By Duct Tape Boston Red Sox. The Rays are throwing Gargamel--er, Garza (why do the Sox ALWAYS have to face him???), Jeff Neimann, and David Price at the Sox. Boston's answer to those three: Dice-K, Felix Doubront, and Wake. YIKES!!! The Rays are on an uptick lately after struggling last month. They took 3 of 4 from the Twins this weekend and split the series with the Sox last week. I look at the Sox lineup and the Rays' starters and shake my head in dismay. This could be the point where the replacements really get exposed and the losses of Pedey, V-Mart, Buchholz (yep, he's on the DL now too), Ellsbury, Tek, and Hermida start to hurt as bad as the various and sundry injuries that took them out. Will the character and team chemistry be enough to spark rallies and keep innings going, stay out of double-plays and win ballgames against tough pitching? The realist in me says, "I'm not so sure." After all, the DL-dwellers are starters (or capable bench players in the case of Tek and Hermida) for a reason.

Ending this blog on a more positive note, congratulations to the six Red Sox who were named to the All-Star team: Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, Adrian Beltre, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Victor Martinez. Alas, half of the six are on the DL and will have to be replaced, but part of the All-Star package is the honor of being picked by fellow players. None of the Sox were voted on by the fans as starters, but often the reserves play more than the starters if the game goes into extra innings. Congrats to the All-Stars! Have fun and, most importantly, DON'T GET HURT!!!

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!

A Quick Win

The game took 2 hours and 7 minutes--the quickest time in 8 years. In effect, it was a tidy pitcher's duel between two starters with ERAs over 5. Both performed better than their numbers, but Wake edged Brad Bergeson out for the 3-2 win, pitching 8 innings and throwing lots of strikes. JD Drew was back in the lineup in a big way, going yard twice, in consecutive at-bats to boot. Daniel Nava played the hero, pinch-hitting for Eric Patterson in the 8th and blooping a hit right inside the right field foul line, scoring Scoots, who doubled in the at-bat before him.

Kevin "Remember me?" Cash put the brakes on the O's running game early on when he threw out Adam Jones trying to steal in the 2nd inning. His reunion with Wake went about as smoothly as it could go and he will be needed to keep the pitchers on track in the absence of both Tek and V-Mart. Having been a Red Sox in '07 and '08, he'll have worked with most of the rotation before. Lackey is the only one for whom working with Cash will be a new experience.

With the Yankees' loss, the Red Sox are a half game out of first place. Keeping things close in the division will be essential in the weeks to come, so that they can really make a run once the DL crowd comes back. The Rays also lost last night, so the Sox have a game and a half lead on them. Tonight, the Sox look to Lester to keep them in the win column. If his stuff is anything like last weekend in San Francisco, that shouldn't be a problem.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!

What Fresh Hell...

...is going on with the Red Sox and injuries? At this rate, by the All-Star break, they won't have a team anymore! Add Manny Delcarmen and Tek to the bloated DL. MDC's having elbow trouble and apparently that's why he couldn't buy an out last night. Tek apparently broke his foot a la Pedey. This is just unreal! How are all these guys getting hurt in such a short period of time? There's getting to be too many injuries to chalk up to coincidence, but what else could account for the players dropping like flies? This is out of control!

They may have the third best record in baseball now, but I don't see how they can possibly keep that level of performance up with someone going down each day. Before long, it will be an all-AAA team trying to compete in the toughest division in the major leagues. It's gotten way beyond the point where a big trade will help. I know that injuries happen in baseball, but not this many all at once. In the course of one week, they've lost a second baseman, two catchers, a starting pitcher and a reliever. MAKE IT STOP!!!! Wrap the entire team in bubble-wrap and foam rubber if you have to, but NO MORE INJURIES!!!!