Royal Pains

The Boston Red Sox have the best record in the A.L. and are in first place in the East. The Kansas City Royals have one of the worst records in the league and are in fifth place in the Central. The Red Sox should have taken at least 3 of 4 from the Royals, if not a sweep, yet they had to settle for a series split after falling 4-3 to the men in dark blue this afternoon.

Ironically, it was the 2 starting pitchers that had the highest ERAs of the 4 who pitched for the Royals this series who perplexed the Sox bats the most. Kyle Davies, with an ERA over 7 coming into the series, and Luke Hochevar, with an ERA over 5, held the Red Sox to 3 runs combined. Danny Duffy, with an ERA around 4 and a half to start the series and Bruce Chen, who came in with a very respectable 3.30 ERA, combined to allow 16 Red Sox runs. It has to be kind of frustrating for Josh Beckett to consistently be on the short end of run support. The team can score buckets of runs for the likes of Andrew Miller, picking him up after surrendering a 7-spot, while they can't muster enough offense to pick Beckett up after giving up 4.

Beckett was the victim of OBIS (One Bad Inning Syndrome) this afternoon. The 4th inning saw him go all Dice-K/Miller and walk the first 2 batters he faced, then give up a 3-run bomb to Billy Butler. Then, what should have been called an error on Drew Sutton in left led to a 4th Royals run scoring. Other than that, he pitched pretty well, but his teammates let him hang out to dry. If only they could have banked some of those runs from last night and used them today instead.

The trade deadline is days away and the Red Sox are combing the market for starting pitching in the wake of yet another setback for Buchholz. If Buch's out for the year--which may or may not be the case--they are going to need to give up some talent for a #3-quality arm, someone who can start a playoff game. I'm not yet sold on Lackey in that spot and they really need a good pitching arm to get Miller out of the rotation. With Wake being shaky of late, they can't afford to have two starters who will give up a ton of runs and wear out the bullpen pretty much every time they take the hill. They are scouting Erik Bedard, but I'm very wary of the Sox replacing an injured pitcher with a guy who ends up on the DL if you look at him funny. Ubaldo Jimenez is another candidate who will be expensive in terms of prospects, but may end up being necessary if Clay's 2011 season is toast. With all they've invested in this year's team, it would be a shame to fall short due to lack of pitching.