What is it about this guy that we can't figure out? He's gone 8 innings in all but 1 of his 4 starts this year against us. He's an average pitcher for Pedro's Sake! 43-36 for his career with an ERA of 4.48.
I agree with resting Millar and Bellhorn for this game given their lackluster performances against Lopez in the past, but I think Youkilis should have been in the lineup to replace one of them.
The Man of the Game is Rodrigo Lopez who went 8, allowing 1 run off 3 hits. He struck out 6.
The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Wakefield: 0.2 - 7 IP, 4 ER
Damon: 0.1 - 1 for 4
Renteria: 0.1 - 0 for 4, 2 K
Ortiz: 0.1 - 1 for 4
Ramirez: 0.1 - 1 for 4
Mueller: 0.1 - 0 for 3
Olerud: 0.1 - 0 for 3
Mirabelli: 0.1 - 0 for 2
Cora: 0.1 - 0 for 3
Basically everyone in the starting lineup except Nixon, who hit a homerun.
This series was a huge dissapointment. The Orioles were struggling coming into this. They had lost a rain-shortened 2 game series. Before that, they had lost 3 of 4 to the Indians. They were on a 2-11 slide coming into this series. They were fading from the divisional picture. Then we hand them a game by "resting" everyone for that tough flight to the All-Star Game in Detroit and lose on Thursday. Friday we win but on Saturday we're embarrassed and on Sunday, we're shut down by an average pitcher. Simply unacceptable.
The Red Sox are 2 games ahead of the Orioles now. Only 2.5 ahead of New York Had we taken 3 of 4, we would be six games ahead of Baltimore. We'd be 4.5 ahead of the Yankees. Had we swept Baltimore, which we could have given how poorly they had been playing, we would be ahead of the Yankees by 5.5 and ahead of the O's by 8 games.
The Red Sox need to come out of the gate strong in the 2nd half. They start out with an absolutely HUGE 4 game series with New York at Fenway Park. They can't lose that series. Then there's a 3 game set with the D-Rays that we should sweep. Then the Sox fly to Chicago to play 4 against the team with the best record in baseball: the Chicago White Sox. A 3 game series in Tampa is followed by a series with the Wild Card leading Twins.
The rest of July is not going to be easy. We need to beat the Yankees in order to maintain our position in the division. We need to beat up on the D-Rays. We can't just split 3-3 with them or win 4 of 6. We need to win at least 5 and it'd be nice to win all 6. We need to prove ourselves against the White Sox. We need to beat the Twins, a potential Wild Card competitor if we can't hold onto the division.
I really wish Clement wasn't going to the All-Star game. I wish he had to cry and pout. Nothing against him, but of all the things in the world to be upset over, going to some exhibition game in Detroit just doesn't seem like a huge deal. Hopefully he won't pitch much because I think we should start him out of the gate to begin the 2nd half.
I think we should go:
1. Clement
2. Wakefield
3. Arroyo
4. Wells
5. Miller
If the Sox take advantage of off-days, they can put a starting pitcher in the bullpen for about a week.
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