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!!!!!
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