Lester and Buchholz, Les and Buch, Jon and Clay, 31 and 11, 2.97 and 2.73...whatever you call them, they are the true #1 and #2 starters in the Red Sox rotation (those last numbers, by the way, are their respective 2010 season ERAs.) Capable of matching up with any of the top young pitchers in the league, or any of the top pitchers in the league regardless of age, these two products of the Red Sox farm system are among the most exciting players on the team to watch. Combined, they pitched 14 innings and held the Royals to just one run, allowing the Sox to come out of a series that started badly for them with a split. They also combined for two thirds of the sweep against the Rays and a two-game sweep against the Twins.
Last night, Buchholz won a pitching duel with Greinke and the Sox won 1-0. Today, Lester kept the Royals to one run and the bats woke up, to the tune of a 8-1 shellacking of the Kansas City blue crew. I wasn't able to watch last night's game, but this afternoon, recent returnee Mike Cameron had his third almost-dinger of the season, which turned out to be a 2-RBI double. Papi went yard for the tenth time this month (and eleventh on the season). Tek also hit a big fly--his seventh of the season. Scoots went 3-for-5 with two doubles and Hall, playing 2B for a resting Pedey, went 2-for-4.
Tomorrow, the whole team gets a well-deserved rest after playing 17 straight games without an off-day. On Tuesday, a new month begins with the Oakland A's in town. Lackey's on the bump against Gio Gonzalez. Oakland's pitching is pretty good, but their offense, not so much.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Can They Be More Erratic???
Perhaps the entire 2010 Red Sox team needs to go on meds for bipolar disorder, because that's how they're playing this season. After looking awesome against some of the best teams in the game, they fall apart against none other than the Kansas City Royals. They've been embarrassed by the Orioles as well. What's next, a spanking by the Tribe? Wake and Dice-K, who were phenomenal against the Phillies are dreadful at home against the Royals. Dice-K walks the ballpark and Wake coughs up 9 runs, including a grand salami! The bats have gone silent in the middle and late innings. Youk, Drew, Papi, and Beltre seem to have cooled off and Pedey's bat went back into hibernation. At least V-Mart's hitting and he sat out for three and a half games with a throbbing toe.
Did all the pitchers burn themselves out on that stretch of games against the top teams? I'm even worried about how Buch and Lester will do tomorrow night and Sunday. Come on, Red Sox, you can do much better than losing two straight to the Royals at home (and dropping back down to fourth place in the process). Please, get it together and pull off a split of this series.
At least the Celtics won tonight and are on their way to the NBA Finals next week.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! GET BACK TO PLAYING BETTER BASEBALL!!!!
Did all the pitchers burn themselves out on that stretch of games against the top teams? I'm even worried about how Buch and Lester will do tomorrow night and Sunday. Come on, Red Sox, you can do much better than losing two straight to the Royals at home (and dropping back down to fourth place in the process). Please, get it together and pull off a split of this series.
At least the Celtics won tonight and are on their way to the NBA Finals next week.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! GET BACK TO PLAYING BETTER BASEBALL!!!!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Letdown
The five-game winning streak that I hoped would go on at least a game or two longer is over thanks to an excruciating outing from Dice-K, questionable umpiring, and a tired offense. After nearly throwing a no-hitter last Saturday in Philly, Dice-K reverted to that maddening nibbling habit, no doubt exacerbated by a home plate ump with an ax to grind with the Red Sox. The Kansas City Royals, going into tonight's game were the team with the least walks on the season. One would THINK that would help Dice-K, but it seemed to have the exact opposite effect, as they all turned patient, to the tune of 8 free passes in 4 .2 innings. Doesn't Joe "I Hate Long Games and Teams Who Play Them" West realize that he only makes the game LONGER by calling so many balls? By going public with his disdain for Red Sox-Yankees games, it's hard to imagine he can be impartial when the two teams are playing anyone other than each other.
That said, the loss can't be blamed solely on the ump, even if he and his crewmate at first base Angel Hernandez made some egregious calls against the Red Sox. Hernandez called Tek out at first in the third inning when he was clearly safe and West called a pitch well off the plate strike three to Papi. However, Dice-K clearly had no command of his pitches, especially in the fifth inning, when the Royals put 3 on the board. One of those was a walked-in run. The offense had scored 11 runs last night and had to board a late night flight back to Boston. Fatigue may have mitigated their attack on a Royals starter with an ERA nearing 5.
A silver lining in this loss is the strong performance of the Sox bullpen. Joe Nelson came in to get the final out of the fifth on one pitch, then got two quick outs in the sixth before a blown call on a pitch right over the plate that should have been strike three extended the inning and led to the fourth Royals run. Manny Delcarmen retired all six batters he faced over two innings. Ramon Ramirez retired the side on 6 pitches. Some excellent D kept the damage done against Dice-K by Royals bats to only 3 runs. Without those catches on lineouts in the fourth with the bases loaded, it could have been much worse.
Tomorrow, Wake tries to befuddle the Royals with the knuckler. He faces Kyle Davies, another starter with an ERA north of 4. The bats need to show up tomorrow and give Wake some run support, like they did in Philly against Halladay. We don't want to see Soria again in the ninth inning.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! SHAKE IT OFF AND WIN TOMORROW!!!
That said, the loss can't be blamed solely on the ump, even if he and his crewmate at first base Angel Hernandez made some egregious calls against the Red Sox. Hernandez called Tek out at first in the third inning when he was clearly safe and West called a pitch well off the plate strike three to Papi. However, Dice-K clearly had no command of his pitches, especially in the fifth inning, when the Royals put 3 on the board. One of those was a walked-in run. The offense had scored 11 runs last night and had to board a late night flight back to Boston. Fatigue may have mitigated their attack on a Royals starter with an ERA nearing 5.
A silver lining in this loss is the strong performance of the Sox bullpen. Joe Nelson came in to get the final out of the fifth on one pitch, then got two quick outs in the sixth before a blown call on a pitch right over the plate that should have been strike three extended the inning and led to the fourth Royals run. Manny Delcarmen retired all six batters he faced over two innings. Ramon Ramirez retired the side on 6 pitches. Some excellent D kept the damage done against Dice-K by Royals bats to only 3 runs. Without those catches on lineouts in the fourth with the bases loaded, it could have been much worse.
Tomorrow, Wake tries to befuddle the Royals with the knuckler. He faces Kyle Davies, another starter with an ERA north of 4. The bats need to show up tomorrow and give Wake some run support, like they did in Philly against Halladay. We don't want to see Soria again in the ninth inning.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! SHAKE IT OFF AND WIN TOMORROW!!!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Beltre With The Broom
Adrian Beltre had a career night tonight, going 4 for 5 with a single, a triple, and two dingers, knocking 6 runs in addition to making some awesome plays in the field as the Sox pulled off what was thought of as highly improbable going into this series: they swept the Tampa Bay Rays at the Trop. Such a feat hadn't been accomplished by the Red Sox in 8 years. What happened over the course of the three-game sweep looked like the exact opposite of how it went last month at Fenway, when the Rays swept the Red Sox in a four-gamer. It almost seemed like a bizarro world if you've followed the Red Sox/Rays rivalry over the past three seasons: Longoria was held to two singles and a walk and the Sox got Garza/"Gargamel" for six runs over 5 innings. The Sox outscored the Rays 19-4 in the series and it was the Sox pitchers who were in control, though the pitch counts topped out early for all three starters. Buchholz, Lester and Lackey worked a combined 18.1 innings and allowed only 3 runs among them. Joe Nelson allowed the only bullpen run tonight in the ninth inning, when the game was already well out of reach for the Rays.
Lackey, like Lester and Buchholz in the first two games, worked his way in and out of trouble all night, but held the Rays to 2 runs in 6.1 innings, earning his 5th victory of the season. It was a quality start for him after a string of poor outings, and a step in the right direction. He ended up getting plenty of run support, led by Beltre, with contributions from Papi (2-run homer), McDonald (2-run double) and Hermida (RBI single), with the final score being 11-3, a laugher to complete the sweep.
After a very rocky start to the season, the Sox passed the "tough stretch test" with flying colors, going 9-4 against the Tigers, Yanks, Twins, Phillies, and Rays. They are now 6 games over .500 and they moved up to third place in the division, thanks to some help from the Angels in taking care of the Jays. They're now 5.5 games behind the Rays and 2 behind the Yanks (the Twins weren't quite as helpful as the Angels). Sweeping the Rays has to be a huge confidence-booster for the Red Sox. Now, they need to keep that roll going. Just because they're playing the Royals at home, it's no time to let up. It would be great for Dice-K to follow last outing up with another strong start. It certainly doesn't have to be a one-hitter, but a solid start without the "bad inning" would go a long way in establishing some consistency. Let's home V-Mart's toe is better by Friday--Tek catching Wake would be an adventure and a half!
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! CONGRATS ON THE SWEEP!!!!
Lackey, like Lester and Buchholz in the first two games, worked his way in and out of trouble all night, but held the Rays to 2 runs in 6.1 innings, earning his 5th victory of the season. It was a quality start for him after a string of poor outings, and a step in the right direction. He ended up getting plenty of run support, led by Beltre, with contributions from Papi (2-run homer), McDonald (2-run double) and Hermida (RBI single), with the final score being 11-3, a laugher to complete the sweep.
After a very rocky start to the season, the Sox passed the "tough stretch test" with flying colors, going 9-4 against the Tigers, Yanks, Twins, Phillies, and Rays. They are now 6 games over .500 and they moved up to third place in the division, thanks to some help from the Angels in taking care of the Jays. They're now 5.5 games behind the Rays and 2 behind the Yanks (the Twins weren't quite as helpful as the Angels). Sweeping the Rays has to be a huge confidence-booster for the Red Sox. Now, they need to keep that roll going. Just because they're playing the Royals at home, it's no time to let up. It would be great for Dice-K to follow last outing up with another strong start. It certainly doesn't have to be a one-hitter, but a solid start without the "bad inning" would go a long way in establishing some consistency. Let's home V-Mart's toe is better by Friday--Tek catching Wake would be an adventure and a half!
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! CONGRATS ON THE SWEEP!!!!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Taking Care of Business
That's exactly what the Red Sox are doing in this stretch of rough road (with the little 2-gamer with Minny sandwiched in between). After a shaky start, dropping 2 of 3 in Detroit, the Sox split a series in the Bronx, swept 2-gamer at home against the Twins, took two of three in Philly, and have won the first two in Tampa Bay. In this 13-game stretch, they are 8-4 so far and have improved their season record to 26-21, or 5 games over .500.
What is responsible for this turnaround? How did they go from a team fraught with inconsistency to one that looks like a playoff contender in such as short time? In a word: Pitching. It started with Buchs 8-inning gem against the Twins at Fenway. The next night, Lester tossed a complete game, allowing a single earned run. Two nights later, Dice-K came within 4 outs of no-hitting the best lineup in the NL, tossing 8 innings of one-hit ball. Wake followed the next day with 8 shutout innings of his own. Buchholz came into the Trop and threw 6 innings, allowing only one run and Lester threw 6 shutout innings tonight. A rested bullpen, thanks to Dice and Wake each going 8 kept the Rays off the board. In two games, the team with the best record in baseball have only scored one run off of Red Sox pitching. Tomorrow, that could change, but for now, I'll savor that accomplishment.
The offense have also played a role by staying hot (or, at the very least, warm) and scoring enough runs to win and then some. Papi and Youk have been raking and Youk is an on-base machine. Pedey broke his slump by going 3 for 5 last night and 1 for 4 today. Ells and Cam returned from the DL and while their bats haven't yet warmed up, their gloves have made the outfield all the better. That brings me to the defense. One of the main goals of the offseason and the reason behind the acquisitions of Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro, and Mike Cameron, things didn't go too well for the defense early on in the season. It was wildly inconsistent, with multi-error games and made the struggling starting pitchers struggle even harder. It's hard to pitch to contact when the gloves aren't there. Over this stretch, the pitching and defense have come together in a way the Sox brass hoped they would. It's what the fans were hoping for as well.
Tomorrow night, they'll face Garza a.k.a. Gargamel, so runs will likely be hard to come by. It will be up to Lackey to continue the trend of stellar starting pitching. His outing in Philly was the one outlier in the string of gems that started last week and he seems to have lost command of the strike zone. Perhaps the accomplishments of his teammates will push him to get his command back to where it needs to be. Even if they don't win tomorrow night's game--and sweeping a team as deep and as talented as the Tampa Bay Rays is a very tall order--the Sox will have come away from the rough stretch winning 3 of the five series, losing one and splitting one, with an 8-5 record. Still, I hope the Red Sox' winning mojo continues and they pull off that improbable sweep.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! KEEP ON ROLLING!!!!!
In other baseball news, in Minnesota's brand spankin' new Target Field, a certain little critter wanted an up-close and personal look at a major league baseball game. Yes, there was a brief squirrel delay in the fourth inning of the Twins/Yanks game. The game, which had no score, was eventually suspended an inning later for more mundane reasons (rain). Looks like a double-header in Minny tomorrow and Squirrel Patrol will be on high alert.
What is responsible for this turnaround? How did they go from a team fraught with inconsistency to one that looks like a playoff contender in such as short time? In a word: Pitching. It started with Buchs 8-inning gem against the Twins at Fenway. The next night, Lester tossed a complete game, allowing a single earned run. Two nights later, Dice-K came within 4 outs of no-hitting the best lineup in the NL, tossing 8 innings of one-hit ball. Wake followed the next day with 8 shutout innings of his own. Buchholz came into the Trop and threw 6 innings, allowing only one run and Lester threw 6 shutout innings tonight. A rested bullpen, thanks to Dice and Wake each going 8 kept the Rays off the board. In two games, the team with the best record in baseball have only scored one run off of Red Sox pitching. Tomorrow, that could change, but for now, I'll savor that accomplishment.
The offense have also played a role by staying hot (or, at the very least, warm) and scoring enough runs to win and then some. Papi and Youk have been raking and Youk is an on-base machine. Pedey broke his slump by going 3 for 5 last night and 1 for 4 today. Ells and Cam returned from the DL and while their bats haven't yet warmed up, their gloves have made the outfield all the better. That brings me to the defense. One of the main goals of the offseason and the reason behind the acquisitions of Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro, and Mike Cameron, things didn't go too well for the defense early on in the season. It was wildly inconsistent, with multi-error games and made the struggling starting pitchers struggle even harder. It's hard to pitch to contact when the gloves aren't there. Over this stretch, the pitching and defense have come together in a way the Sox brass hoped they would. It's what the fans were hoping for as well.
Tomorrow night, they'll face Garza a.k.a. Gargamel, so runs will likely be hard to come by. It will be up to Lackey to continue the trend of stellar starting pitching. His outing in Philly was the one outlier in the string of gems that started last week and he seems to have lost command of the strike zone. Perhaps the accomplishments of his teammates will push him to get his command back to where it needs to be. Even if they don't win tomorrow night's game--and sweeping a team as deep and as talented as the Tampa Bay Rays is a very tall order--the Sox will have come away from the rough stretch winning 3 of the five series, losing one and splitting one, with an 8-5 record. Still, I hope the Red Sox' winning mojo continues and they pull off that improbable sweep.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! KEEP ON ROLLING!!!!!
In other baseball news, in Minnesota's brand spankin' new Target Field, a certain little critter wanted an up-close and personal look at a major league baseball game. Yes, there was a brief squirrel delay in the fourth inning of the Twins/Yanks game. The game, which had no score, was eventually suspended an inning later for more mundane reasons (rain). Looks like a double-header in Minny tomorrow and Squirrel Patrol will be on high alert.
Monday, May 24, 2010
He's Come A Long Way
"He" being Clay Buchholz, of course. The young righty who threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, then lost his way for awhile and struggled with confidence, especially when pitching from the stretch is continuing what he started in the second half of last season; he's maturing into the top-of-the-rotation guy Theo Epstein and the front office always believed him to be. The Red Sox are starting to see in Buchholz this year what they saw happen with Lester in '08. After tonight's win, Buch is 6-3 with a 3.07 ERA. I'll admit that I was not nearly as patient as the Sox brass were as Buch was struggling in '08, but I'm glad he's proving me wrong.
Following up his 8-inning gem against the Twins last week, Buchholz went 6 against the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays and held them to one run, a Carlos Pena blast in the fourth. He had to work out of some jams early one and his curveball and changeup weren't working too well, but he made the pitches he needed to make to induce the double play in the first and the two strikeouts in the second. Those two innings and some lengthy at-bats by the Rays drove his pitch count up and kept him from going deeper in the game, but Oki and Bard shut them down in the last three innings.
Buch's teammates had his back, giving him a 6 run lead after four innings. Papi hit a big fly in the second and Drew walked to bring home a run in the third, followed by RBI singles by Beltre and Hermida. Then, in the fourth, with Tek (who came into the game for an injured V-Mart) on, Youk went yard for the tenth time this season. Rays starter Wade Davis was chased after 3.2 innings, marking the third game in a row that the Sox bats have chased starters early (for Roy "Complete Game" Halladay, the sixth inning counts as early). Pedey came out of his slump with a 3-hit night. Let the "laser show" begin!
Tomorrow night, the Sox try to take two out of three with Lester on the hill. If Lester can continue his run of dominance and the Sox can get to James Shields, this would be huge for them. A sweep of the Rays is unlikely, but two out of three is within their reach if Lester and the bats perform to their capability. With the Yanks scuffling, now is the time for the Sox to make their move to get back in the hunt. Toronto isn't making it easy, however. They're in no hurry to cede third place to the Sox. However, only two games separate second place from fourth, so this week can make things very interesting for the three "middle teams" in the division standings.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! GREAT GAME--NOW GO OUT AND WIN TOMORROW!!!
Following up his 8-inning gem against the Twins last week, Buchholz went 6 against the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays and held them to one run, a Carlos Pena blast in the fourth. He had to work out of some jams early one and his curveball and changeup weren't working too well, but he made the pitches he needed to make to induce the double play in the first and the two strikeouts in the second. Those two innings and some lengthy at-bats by the Rays drove his pitch count up and kept him from going deeper in the game, but Oki and Bard shut them down in the last three innings.
Buch's teammates had his back, giving him a 6 run lead after four innings. Papi hit a big fly in the second and Drew walked to bring home a run in the third, followed by RBI singles by Beltre and Hermida. Then, in the fourth, with Tek (who came into the game for an injured V-Mart) on, Youk went yard for the tenth time this season. Rays starter Wade Davis was chased after 3.2 innings, marking the third game in a row that the Sox bats have chased starters early (for Roy "Complete Game" Halladay, the sixth inning counts as early). Pedey came out of his slump with a 3-hit night. Let the "laser show" begin!
Tomorrow night, the Sox try to take two out of three with Lester on the hill. If Lester can continue his run of dominance and the Sox can get to James Shields, this would be huge for them. A sweep of the Rays is unlikely, but two out of three is within their reach if Lester and the bats perform to their capability. With the Yanks scuffling, now is the time for the Sox to make their move to get back in the hunt. Toronto isn't making it easy, however. They're in no hurry to cede third place to the Sox. However, only two games separate second place from fourth, so this week can make things very interesting for the three "middle teams" in the division standings.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! GREAT GAME--NOW GO OUT AND WIN TOMORROW!!!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
"W" is for Wake
The Sox came one Ramon Ramirez away from blanking the Phillies in back-to-back games. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Daniel Bard and Tim Wakefield combined to keep the Phils off the board for seventeen innings! Wake notched his long-awaited first win of the 2010 season, after being spurned by Lady Luck in several of his last attempts to capture the W. The knuckler perplexed the Phillie bats for eight shutout innings as Wake's teammates did a number on Doc Halladay, lighting him up to the tune of 7 runs, 6 of which were earned.
Besides Wake, who gave the Sox their fourth kick-ass start in five games, the other star of the game was Youk, the official nemesis of Roy Halladay. Youk had himself an interesting game, starting with a triple in the second inning that, through a chain of peculiar events that can only happen in baseball, had him sitting on third base at one point. He hit the ball to right center and it escaped Victorino's glove. As he motored toward third, he slid hard (and painfully) into the bag only to get hit by the baseball as it was thrown to third baseman Gregg Dobbs. Fortunately for Youk (and the Sox) he wasn't seriously injured and stayed in the game, even homering in the sixth. Youk flashed some leather in the bottom of the sixth by snagging a ball thrown deep in the hole by Beltre, sending him tumbling backward, but still able to get a foot on the bag for the out.
The sixth inning proved to be Halladay's undoing when he was taken yard by Youk, gave up a double to Drew and back-to-back singles to Beltre and Scoots, scoring Drew. After Wake sacrificed, Ells picked up his first hit since his return, which was actually a fielder's choice gone awry. Ells hit a grounder up the middle which Juan Castro (the no-hitter spoiler from last night) grabbed and threw to third, only to find that Scoots was no longer there--in fact he was about to cross home plate! Beltre had already scored before Scoots and Ells ended up with a 2-RBI infield single.
The Sox had gotten to Halladay for a run in the second, when Drew grounded out to plate Youk, and two in the fifth, when Dobbs Bucknered a ball off the bat of Adrian Beltre that was ticketed for an inning-ending double play. One of the runs scored as a result of that error was unearned. Halladay was chased with two outs in the sixth, having thrown 99 pitches and allowing 6 earned runs. The eighth Sox run scored in the ninth, when the scuffling Pedey drew a walk from Phils reliever Danys Baez. V-Mart doubled, sending Pedey to third. Beltre sac-flied Pedey home.
With today's win, the Sox are 3 games over .500 for the first time this season. However, they're headed to a place that has given them fits for the past three years and facing a team that is running away with the division, much like the Sox themselves were in 2007. Still, with their two best pitchers going tomorrow night (Buchholz) and Tuesday night (Lester), I like their chances to win at least one game in the Dingy Dome. They'd best win one of the first two because Wednesday's matchup of Sox-killer Garza (whom I've dubbed Gargamel, after the Smurf villain) and the disturbingly inconsistent Lackey. Winning two would be awesome, but I'm not getting my hopes up--The Rays are just too ridiculously good right now. If they win one in St Pete, they will have come out of this rough 13-game stretch 7-6, which is very good considering how the season has gone this year.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! KEEP UP THE GREAT PITCHING, HITTING AND DEFENSE!!!
Besides Wake, who gave the Sox their fourth kick-ass start in five games, the other star of the game was Youk, the official nemesis of Roy Halladay. Youk had himself an interesting game, starting with a triple in the second inning that, through a chain of peculiar events that can only happen in baseball, had him sitting on third base at one point. He hit the ball to right center and it escaped Victorino's glove. As he motored toward third, he slid hard (and painfully) into the bag only to get hit by the baseball as it was thrown to third baseman Gregg Dobbs. Fortunately for Youk (and the Sox) he wasn't seriously injured and stayed in the game, even homering in the sixth. Youk flashed some leather in the bottom of the sixth by snagging a ball thrown deep in the hole by Beltre, sending him tumbling backward, but still able to get a foot on the bag for the out.
The sixth inning proved to be Halladay's undoing when he was taken yard by Youk, gave up a double to Drew and back-to-back singles to Beltre and Scoots, scoring Drew. After Wake sacrificed, Ells picked up his first hit since his return, which was actually a fielder's choice gone awry. Ells hit a grounder up the middle which Juan Castro (the no-hitter spoiler from last night) grabbed and threw to third, only to find that Scoots was no longer there--in fact he was about to cross home plate! Beltre had already scored before Scoots and Ells ended up with a 2-RBI infield single.
The Sox had gotten to Halladay for a run in the second, when Drew grounded out to plate Youk, and two in the fifth, when Dobbs Bucknered a ball off the bat of Adrian Beltre that was ticketed for an inning-ending double play. One of the runs scored as a result of that error was unearned. Halladay was chased with two outs in the sixth, having thrown 99 pitches and allowing 6 earned runs. The eighth Sox run scored in the ninth, when the scuffling Pedey drew a walk from Phils reliever Danys Baez. V-Mart doubled, sending Pedey to third. Beltre sac-flied Pedey home.
With today's win, the Sox are 3 games over .500 for the first time this season. However, they're headed to a place that has given them fits for the past three years and facing a team that is running away with the division, much like the Sox themselves were in 2007. Still, with their two best pitchers going tomorrow night (Buchholz) and Tuesday night (Lester), I like their chances to win at least one game in the Dingy Dome. They'd best win one of the first two because Wednesday's matchup of Sox-killer Garza (whom I've dubbed Gargamel, after the Smurf villain) and the disturbingly inconsistent Lackey. Winning two would be awesome, but I'm not getting my hopes up--The Rays are just too ridiculously good right now. If they win one in St Pete, they will have come out of this rough 13-game stretch 7-6, which is very good considering how the season has gone this year.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! KEEP UP THE GREAT PITCHING, HITTING AND DEFENSE!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)