When you see four boxes on the Red Sox schedule that all say "@ OAK," you shudder. The Sox just don't do well on West Coast trips. And we can blame the flight time, and the three hour difference, but those west Coast teams have to do the same routine when they come to Boston or New York. Hell, we even scheduled the Angels for the morning Patriots Day game in April.
After losing two of three to New York, and then flying out to Oakland, you could see how a losing skid could happen. And it has. The Sox have lost three straight for the first time all year. They've lost five of their last six. That double digit lead in the division is back to single digits.
Last night was just pitiful. There's no other word for it. Daisuke pitched well enough to win: 7 innings, 2 earned runs. But the Sox could only muster three hits off Oakland's pitching, led by Lenny DiNardo. All those hits were singles. We were able to work 7 walks, but nobody came home. We left 7 men on base, 3 in scoring position, and grounded into four inning killing double plays.
Give some credit to DiNardo, he kept the ball down. He didn't strike anyone out, but he was able to induce 15 ground ball outs in 6 innings of work.
The Man of the Game was Lenny, who went 6 scoreless, kept the Sox to three hits, and worked around 6 walks. As mentioned above, he induced 15 ground ball outs out of the 18 outs he got.
Honorable Mentions:
Daisuke Matsuzaka: 7 IP, 2 ER, 8 K
Eric Chavez: 2/4, HR
Nick Swisher: 2/4, 2B, RBI
Bitch-Goat:
Matsuzaka: 0.1 - 2 ER
Crisp: 0.4 - 0 for 3, 4 LOB, 2 GIDP
Lowell: 0.2 - 1 for 4, 4 LOB, GIDP
Youkilis: 0.2 - 0 for 3, 3 LOB, GIDP
Varitek: 0.1 - 0 for 3, 1 LOB, 2 K
Wakefield goes tonight against Joe Kennedy. With the way Wakefield's been pitching as of late, my hopes for this game are very low.
JD Drew sat for last night's game and will probably sit for tonight's game as well. Not only is Kennedy a lefty, but Drew's also got that nagging hamstring business going on.
I can't wait for the team to come back to Fenway and beat up on the dregs of the NL West.
