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The Red Sox “escaped” Baltimore with a series win over the lowly O’s this week. It wasn’t pretty, but at least they didn’t lose the series.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 5-0 win overA’s — 8 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays – Idle — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.
The Good — Adrian Beltre – his solo shot in the 2nd inning started a 5-run rally for the Red Sox. It was his 25th homer on the season. The only problem is that he is the only Red Sox starter with a batting average over .300.
The Good (last night) — J.D. Drew had 3 hits, but is still just hitting .257 on the season. He has a .347 on-base percentage (well below his .388 career average) and he has only 18 HR’s, 60 RBI’s and 61 runs scored. Mike Lowell had 2 hits, 1 RBI and 1 run scored, but is only hitting .241 on the season.
The Good — Daisuke Matsuzaka looked great until he got into the 6th inning. He had pitched 5 scoreless innings before he ran out of steam in the 6th. Overall, he tossed 94 pitches, giving up 4 ER on 6 hits and 1 walk. He also had 6 K’s.
The Good — Scott Atchison — what a night. He got Daisuke out of his jam in the 6th inning to preserve the 1-run lead, and then retired the next 5 batters he faced to get the game into the bottom of the 8th inning. The veteran has really proved to be a life saver in the pen for the Red Sox this season with his 1.22 WHIP and 3.97 ERA.
The Good — Hideki Okajima retired the only batter that he faced in is 2nd appearance since returning from the disabled list.
The Good — Jonathan Papelbon – 35 saves and counting. He made it interesting by giving up 2 hits in the 9th, but he still has a remarkable 1.09 WHIP and 2.81 ERA.
Now it’s time to welcome Manny Ramirez back to Fenway Park for a 2nd time this season. Clay Buchholz will look to notch his 16th win on the season and continue to make the AL Cy Young debate a 3-man race with the Yankees’ CC Sabathia and the Rays’ David Price. He and the Red Sox will face nasty lefty John Danks (12 wins and 3.65 ERA in 2010). Should be a fun series to watch all weekend long.
Jon Lester’s 15th win of the season was not all that pretty, but the team ended their 3-game skid with a 9-6 win over the O’s at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 4-3 win over A’s — 8 game lead over Red Sox.
Rays 2-1 win over Blue Jays — 7 game lead over Red Sox.
The OK — Jon Lester – Lester put the Red Sox in a hole despite his team scoring a run in each of the first 2 innings. Lester gave back 4 runs in the 1st inning and another run in the 2nd inning, as the O’s led 5-2 after 2 innings of play. But Lester cleaned up his act after that and the Red Sox rallied with a 6-run 7th inning that put the Red Sox on top for good. Lester ended up working 6 innings, giving up 5 ER on 8 hits and 2 walks. He did rack up 10 K’s.
The Good — Manager Terry Francona called upon Daniel Bard to give him 2 innings of work to preserve the 9-5 lead. He gave back a run on a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning, but kept the lead intact.
The Good — Jonathan Papelbon notched his 34th save of the season with a perfect 9th inning.
The Good – The Red Sox bats – Every starter had a hit, The club got home runs from Marco Scutaro, J.D. Drew and Adrian Beltre. Scutaro’s 2-run shot tied the game at 5 in the 7th inning. And after Victor Martinez’s run-scoring double gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead, Beltre put the game away with his 3-run shot 2 batters later. Beltre now has 24 home runs and 91 RBI’s on the season.
Daisuke Matsuzaka looks to have recovered from his back woes which forced him to skip a start last week. He looks to give the Red Sox the series win over the Orioles tonight at Camden Yards.
The Red Sox then welcome Manny Ramirez back to Beantown this weekend when the Chicago White Sox visit town. Ramirez visited Fenway Park earlier this season as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in June, but the White Sox recently acquired him in a waiver wire deal earlier this week. Should be fun to heckle Manny again…
Josh Beckett put the Red Sox in an early 3-0 hole after 3 innings, and the Red Sox could never recover against young O’s lefty Brian Matusz. Beckett ended up yielding those lone 3 runs through his 7 inning outing, but it wasn’t the shutdown performance that the club was looking for.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 9-3 win over A’s — 8.0 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 13-5 loss to Blue Jays — 7.0 games lead over Red Sox.
The Bad — Josh Beckett – you expect more from your ace against the worst team in the American League.
The Bad – Felix Doubront. It seemed like Doubront had figured things out of late, but he was touched for 2 big runs with the Red Sox trailing by only 1 run — not good. The solo home runs issued to Luke Scott and Felix Pie really put the game out of reach.
The Bad – The Red Sox offense — The Red Sox had 8 hits, but only 1 walk, while striking out 8 times. Victor Martinez had 2 hits and Jed Lowrie added 2 hits as well. Lowrie accounted for the Red Sox only 2 runs on his 2-run home run in the 5th inning that cut the O’s lead to 3-2. The hitting has just not been consistent enough all season long. At times they have exploded, but without Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron in the lineup, it’s going to be tough to generate enough offense. At least the Red Sox aren’t the only ones who have been baffled by Matusz of late. It was his 3rd win in 3 starts, as he held the White Sox to just 1 ER over 7 innings in a 4-2 win against the White Sox in Chicago on August 25th and he tossed 8 scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over the Rangers in Texas on August 19th.
Jon Lester looks to get the Red Sox back on track in order to end the 3-game skid that his really put the Red Sox playoffs hopes in jeopardy.
Josh Beckett is on the hot seat again tonight against the Orioles in Baltimore. Beckett won his last start over the Mariners, but for the 2nd straight outing he ran out of steam in the 7th inning. Overall, he gave up 3 ER on 4 hits (2 home runs) in 6 1/3 innings of work. The Red Sox need him to be that 7-8 inning guy here during the month of September, if they expect to overcome the 7-game deficit to the Rays and Yankees. Beckett has a 4-3 record in 14 starts this season, but he has a bloated 6.50 ERA and 1.48 WHIP. Not great for someone who just signed a 4-year contract extension worth $68 million that will keep him in a Red Sox uniform through 2014. His propensity to give up the long ball is startling for Red Sox brass and fans alike. Since August 2009, Beckett has given up 5 or more runs in more than half of his starts (12 of 23). Now sure, he’s been dealing with a back issue all season, and who knows if he is really 100% now, but we have to get more out of Beckett during the rest of his contract. With John Lackey also having a mediocre season, but locked in for 4 more years like Beckett, it is imperative that Beckett and Lackey take this off-season very seriously in order to be ready for the 2011 MLB schedule right away.
Three of the Red Sox most reliable hitters are question marks for the 2010 MLB season. Adrian Beltre has been the Red Sox best hitter in 2010. Beltre leads the club with a .323 batting average, his 88 RBI’s, his 157 hits and his 38 doubles. He is also 2nd with 23 home runs and 4th in runs with 68. Those are pretty impressive stats for someone who the Red Sox wanted for his defense and who they saw as the team’s 6th or 7th hitter in the lineup. The Red Sox saw Beltre as a place holder at 3rd base for the 2010 season, hoping that they would be able to land free-agent-to-be 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres which would allow them to shift Kevin Youkilis back across the diamond to his natural 3rd base position. None of that ever happened – the Padres comfortably lead the NL West so Gonzalez is off the trading block until at least the winter meetings (he becomes a free agent after the 2011 MLB season); Youkilis got hurt; and now the Red Sox have a dilemma with what to do with the 3rd base position. Beltre wil once again be a free agent at the end of the season, and with the way he has resurrected his career, he is going to command a multi-year deal which the Red Sox will likely not offer.
Despite playing in only 98 games because of injuries, Victor Martinez has been a steady presence in the middle of the Red Sox lineup. He has a .292 batting average, a .339 on-base percentage, 13 HR’s, 54 RBI’s and 47 runs scored. He is also a free agent at the end of the season and it is unclear what the Red Sox plan on doing. With Joe Mauer locked up in Minnesota, I find it hard to believe that the Red Sox won’t ink Martinez to a long-term deal. At 32 years of age, he is getting up there a little bit, but inking him to a 3 year deal, might not be the worst move in the world.
Now to David Ortiz – I know he has been as frustrating as ever early in the season for the 2nd year in a row, but his overall numbers are pretty decent for a DH. He leads the team with 27 HR’s. He is 2nd on the team with 79 RBI’s. He has a .264 batting average and a .367 on-base percentage despite striking out a whopping 123 times. He has scored 70 runs and his 29 doubles are only behind Beltre and Marco Scutaro on the club. Now at 35 years old, each year could be his last, but he has a good chance of hitting 30 HR’s and 100 RBI’s on the year (he hit 28 and 99 in 2009) so he is as productive as can be expected at this stage in his career. I’m not saying that the Red Sox should ink him to a long-term deal in the off-season, but he probably has another good year or two in there, and if he is willing to sign a 1 or 2 year deal at a “hometown” discount in order to stay in Boston, I would strongly consider it. There might be other options out there in the winter, but Big Papi is a known commodity who can deal with the pressures of Beantown year after year.
Let’s go Sox – let’s make this interesting over the next few weeks…
Is the season over — it’s hard to think that it’s not, but the Red Sox didn’t make it easy on themselves with the series loss over the weekend in Tampa. After Jon Lester and Victor Martinez led the team to a satusfying win on Friday night, the Red Sox had high hopes for the weekend with their best pitcher – Clay Buchholz – on the hill on Saturday night. But it did not work out that way.
Red Sox 2, Rays 3 – Saturday night – Buchholz did his part, but Matt Garza and 4 Rays relievers were just as good, as the Red Sox fell on a walk-off home run by Dan Johnson off of Scott Atchison in the 10th inning. Buchholz held the Rays to just 1 ER over 7 1/3 innings. He gave up only 4 hits and walked only 2 Rays in his dominant outing. His own throwing error in the 7th inning allowed the Rays to tie the game at 1. After Carlos Pena reached on a fielder’s choice, Buchholz threw a pick-off throw into right field that allowed Pena to get to 3rd base with only 1 out. Pena scored the tying run on Matt Joyce’s sacrifice fly that J.D. Drew inexplicably fielded on the run in foul territory. He should have just let it drop because there was no way he was going to throw anybody out from that position down the line in right field. After Victor Martinez gave the Red Sox back the lead with his solo home run in top of the 8th, Buchholz gave it right back with a solo home run to BJ Upton in the bottom half of the inning. Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard kept the game tied at 2 through 9 innings, but Atchison suffered the loss when he served up Johnson’s lead-off home run in the 10th inning.
The Red Sox got 10 hits in the game – the problem was, 7 of them were by Martinez and David Ortiz – the 3 and 4 hitters in the lineup. Ortiz was also the only Red Sox player to draw a walk. The rest of the team combined for just 3 hits, so they were never able to put together any sustained scoring chances.
Red Sox 3, Rays 5 – Sunday night – John Lackey, on the other hand, had another disappointing “big game” start as he couldn’t hold a 3-1 6th inning lead. Lackey gave up a 2-run home run to Carl Crawford in the 6th inning that tied the game at 3. After an Evan Longoria double, Lackey intentionally walked Carlos Pena and unintentionally walked Matt Joyce to load the bases with only 1 out. Because Lackey had been cruising along up until that point, Manager Terry Francona did not have anybody warned and ready in the bullpen to face Dan Johnson. And unfortunately, Johnson delivered a single to shallow center field that scored Longoria with the go-ahead run. Luckily, Darnell McDonald threw out Pena at home to keep the lead 4-3. And Lackey was able to get out of the jam by striking out BJ Upton to end the inning. Given his problems in the 6th inning, it was strange to see Francona go with Lackey in the 7th inning after he got into immediate trouble in the 7th inning of a “must-win” game. Jason Bartlett led off with a single, but was erased trying to steal 2nd base. But then Lackey gave up another hit to John Jaso and walked Ben Zobrist to put 2 on with nobody out. Then Francona finally pulled the plug on Lackey’s night by bringing in Okajima. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming Francona for the loss. but there were definitely a few questionable moves on his part.
The Red Sox offense only mustered 7 hits and 2 walks during the game. They struck out 10 times – that is unacceptable. Mike Lowell was the only starter with 2 hits. Yamaico Navarro and Marco Scutaro had back-to-back RBI singles in the 5th inning to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead. And Daniel Nava’s run-scoring single in the 6th increased gave the Red Sox a 2-run lead. But that would be the last time that the Red Sox would score.
Now the Red Sox head to Baltimore to take on the Orioles from Tuesday through Thursday. Anything short of a sweep this week will likely put the Red Sox in an even deeper hole.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 2 wins in a row over White Sox — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 2 wins in a row over Red Sox — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Jon Lester picked up his 14th win of the season with a dominating 3-1 win over the Rays in Tampa on Friday night. Lester pitched 7 innings of 1 run ball (the run was unearned because of Marco Scutaro’s error), scattering 2 hits and 5 walks during the outing. He racked up 10 K’s and was excited with the outcome — “A big win for us. We just battled, and that’s what we’ve been doing all season long. If we continue to do that, then that will put us in a good position, hopefully, at the end of the year.” He was a tad wild – 5 walks and his 2 wild pitches allowed a run to score in the 4th inning – but he got out of jams when he needed to. Darnell McDonald also threw out BJ Upton at the plate in the 6th inning to preserve the 2-1 lead at the time (Upton was trying to score on Jason Bartlett’s single).
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 9-4 loss to White Sox — 4.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 3-1 loss to Red Sox — 4.5 games lead over Red Sox.
The Good — Lester – Nasty, nasty, nasty.
The Good — Victor Martinez – 3 hits including 2 big home runs in the 1st and 7th innings to pace the Red Sox offensive attack. He has turned it on as of late – getting a hit in 8 of his last 11 games and raising his batting average to .285.
The Good — Daniel Bard gave up a hit but notched his 29th hold with a scoreless 8th inning.
The Good — Jonathan Papelbon walked 2 batters but struck out the side in the 9th inning to preserve the 3-1 win.
The Good (& Bad) — The Red Sox offense racked up 10 hits, but scored only 3 runs, 2 of which came on solo home runs from Victor Martinez. The Red Sox had a runner on base in every inning except the 9th inning, but they only had 2 runners on base at the same time in 1 inning. Jed Lowrie had an RBI single and J.D. Drew had 2 hits. Every starter had at least 1 hit except for Bill Hall.
Next Up – Buchholz v. Garza tonight in Game 2 – can you say 3.5 games back???
The season comes down to this – the Red Sox trail both the Rays and Yankees by 5.5 games in the AL East and AL Wild Card races. In order to make some headway, the Red Sox have to take at least 2 of 3 from the Rays this weekend in Tampa. It won’t be easy as the Rays have a phenomenal 39-25 record at home in 2010 – the best home record of any major league team. The Red Sox have split the 6 games against the Rays in Tampa so far this season, and fortunately, the have their 3 most effective pitchers going in the weekend series. Thanks to some smart thinking by Terry Francona and his staff in between the games of the Mariners double-header on Wednesday, the Red Sox wisely chose to skip Lester from making the start in the night cap so that he could pitch tonight against the Rays. In case you missed it, Daisuke Matsuzaka – who was supposed to start tonight’s game – felt some back discomfort during a regular warmup on Wednesday afternoon. It was so bad that the team knew that he would not be able to pitch tonight. So instead of going with Lester and scrambling to find a pitcher for tonight, they called upon Tim Wakefield to make the spot start. Wakefield was mostly effective, but he still suffered a loss in the 4-2 decision.
But now, it’s on Lester to get the Red Sox off to a good start in the weekend series against the ace of the Rays staff – David Price. Lester has a good history against the Rays – 7-3 record in 14 starts. He is 3-0 with a nifty 3.60 ERA in 5 starts against the Rays in Tampa and he held the Rays scoreless through 6 innings of a 2-0 win back in May. So Lester is confident that he can get the Red Sox off to a good start tonight with a win over the Rays. Clay Buchholz will square off against Matt Garza in Game 2 on Saturday night and John Lackey will go against James Shields in the finale on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Should be a great weekend series to watch.
On a down note, it looks like Dustin Pedroia might have to have season-ending foot surgery in the next few days. Pedroia will wear a protective boot on the foot for the next 7 days. If the foot does not show significant improvement after that time, Pedroia will undergo surgery to insert a pin in the foot to promote the healing. Even if Pedroia does not need surgery on the foot, he will continue the “non-operative course” of recovery which will not guarantee that he will be able to play in 2010…
The Red Sox and Mariners split the day-night double-header at Fenway Park on Wednesday.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 6-3 loss to Blue Jays — 5.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 12-3 loss to Angels — 5.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Red Sox 5, Mariners 3
The Good — Josh Beckett – 6 1/3 innings – 3 ER on 4 hits and 1 walk, with 7 K’s. He ran out of steam as the game wore on though, giving up 3 runs on 2 home runs to start the 7th inning. It was a good performance, but it looks like Beckett will still need some time to get back to 100% strength.
The Good — Daniel Bard got Beckett out of his jam in the 7th inning to preserve the 4-3 lead. He also worked a scoreless 8th inning (for his 28th hold) to set up Jonathan Papelbon for a perfect 9th inning and his 32nd save on the season.
The Good — Patient hitting and good at-bats in the 6th inning set up a 4-run inning that broke a 0-0 tie. Adrian Beltre singled in the first run, Mike Lowell hit a sacrifice fly, and then Daniel Nava had a 2-run single to cap off the single.
Red Sox 2, Mariners 4 -
Daisuke Matsuzaka’s back issues threw a wrench into the Red Sox plans to sweep the Mariners in the 3-game set this week. The Red Sox went with Tim Wakefield instead of the regular starter Jon Lester (see more below). Wakefield pitched well, but it wasn’t good enough — 3 ER on 8 hits in 5 2/3 innings. Felix Hernandez shut down the Red Sox offense – allowing just 4 hits and 1 ER. J.D. Drew homered.
With Daisuke’s back issues, the Red Sox opted to skip Jon Lester’s start in the nightcap against the Mariners to save him for the opener against the Rays in Tampa on Friday night. The 3-game weekend series against the Rays is HUGE, so it was a great move by the Red Sox staff to understand the gravity of the situation when Daisuke Matsuzaka had some issues doing a light workout in between the 2 games yesterday. They stopped Lester form warming up too much for the night game so that he is ready to go on Friday. That means we’ll have our 3 best pitchers going against the Rays this weekend. Friday night should be a classic with Lester taking on the red-hot David Price. Clay Buchholz will pitch Saturday and John Lackey will pitch Sunday.
Mother Nature finally handed the Red Sox their first rain out of the 2010 MLB schedule. Rain postponed the 2nd game of the 3-game series between the Red Sox and Mariners this week at Fenway Park. The game will be made up as part of a day-night double-header today. Tickets for the Tuesday night game will be good for the 2nd game tonight at 7:10PM.
Josh Beckett will pitch in the regularly scheduled 1:35PM start this afternoon. Beckett went 2-0 in his 1st 3 starts after returning from the disabled list in the middle of July. But since then, he has been downright bad – allowing at least 6 ER in each of his last 3 starts. The Red Sox need Beckett at the top of his game if they expect to catch either the Yankees or Rays for a 2010 playoff spot this October. So far so good for Beckett this afternoon – Beckett gave up a lead-off single to Ichiro and then proceeded to retire the next 17 batters in a row before walking Josh Wilson with 2 outs in the top of the 6th inning. He has racked up 6 K’s in his 6 innings of work. Unfortunately, David Pauley has stymied the Red Sox offense, limiting the lineup to just 2 hits through the game’s 1st 5 innings. The Red Sox finally broke through in the 6th inning, however — after loading the bases on singles by Marco Scutaro and Victor Martinez and a walk to David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre singled in a run and Mike Lowell knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly. 2-0 Red Sox. Daniel Nava’s 2-run single just made it 4-0.
It will be a phenomenal pitcher’s duel in the night cap at Fenway Park as Jon Lester squares off against Felix Hernandez. Lester retired the 1st Mariners that he faced back on July 24th before Jack Wilson reached on an error by Eric Patterson. Bye-bye perfect game and the error seemed to fluster Lester who then served up a 2-run home run to Michael Saunders that ended the no-hitter. Lester ended up taking the loss despite racking up 13 K’s in his 7 2/3 innings pitched.
Red Sox Fun Fact of the Day — David Ortiz tripled in Sunday’s win over the Blue Jays. He joins Carlos Guillen and Johnny Damon as the only American League players who have had a triple in each of the last 11 seasons. Pretty amazing feat for Big Papi. Big Papi needs just 3 more home runs to reach 30 on the season for the 1st time since 2007. It will be his 6th season with 30 or more home runs in a Red Sox uniform, which will tie him with Manny Ramirez all-time on the season-home run list. Ramirez and Big Papi will both be behind Ted Williams.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 11-5 win over Blue Jays — 6.0 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 10-3 win over Angels — 6.0 games lead over Red Sox.
John Lackey looked sharp and this time, the Red Sox bullpen didn’t blow his 3-run lead. Lackey surrendered just 3 runs (2 earned) in his 8 innings of work. He scattered 6 hits and 2 walks over the outing, but racked up 10 K’s in some big situations. That also makes 2 out of 3 starts in which he has made it through 8 full innings. That means he is pitching well and it also means rest for the bullpen which can only be a good thing down the stretch here.
Playoff Watch –
Yankees 3-2 loss to Blue Jays — 5.5 games lead over Red Sox.
Rays 4-3 win over Angels — 5.5 games lead over Red Sox.
The Good — Lackey — see above.
The Good — Jonathan Papelbon — despite a lead off single in the 9th inning, Papelbon really buckled down to retire the next 3 batters to end the mini-threat. He had 2 K’s and he only needed 12 pitches to get through the 4 batters faced. He now has 31 saves on the season.
The Good — The Red Sox offense – I say this cautiously. Even though Adrian Beltre is the only regular with a batting average over .300, the Red Sox continue to get a lot of hits – 10 hits and 6 runs in the win. While I would love to see more patience at the plate – and this more than the 1 walk they got last night – they are doing just enough to keep winning. Both of Marco Scutaro’s hits on the night were of the “2-run variety”. His single in the 5th gave the Red Sox 2-1 lead and his single in the 7th inning put the Red Sox back on top at 5-3. While his numbers are down from his career year with the Blue Jays in 2009, you can’t complain with these numbers – .276 batting average; .337 on-base percentage; 142 hits; 73 runs scored; and 44 RBI’s. He has played in 122 games with a solid .968 fielding percentage. And while Scutaro was projected to be an 8 or 9 hitter when signed this off-season, he has been thrust into the lead-off spot for most of the season with all of the injuries to Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. That move has not fazed him at all as he has been the Red Sox most consistent and dependable hitter behind Beltre all season long.
Beltre and J.D. Drew each had 2 hits as well.
The Red Sox look to make it 3 in a row at Fenway Park. It would be great if the Red Sox could sweep the Mariners during the next 2 games in order to keep pace with both the Yankees and Rays. The Red Sox open up a big weekend series against the Rays in Tampa this weekend, so if they are behind by more than 5 games, it could be tough hill to climb this weekend. Beckett has gotta be better tonight against the “light-hitting” Mariners. He has given up at least 6 ER in each of his last 3 starts, but has the benefit of going up against David Pauley who is 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in 4 appearances at Fenway Park. Hopefully the Red Sox offense can get Beckett an early lead to get him back into the win column with a solid start.
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