Wednesday, September 03, 2008

PEDROIA'S SO HOT RIGHT NOW


Pedroia continued his hot streak with a 3 for 5 night, falling a triple shy of the cycle, and knocking in 5 of the Red Sox' 14 runs. His recent performance has thrust him into an MVP candidacy. For my money, Carlos Quentin is the AL MVP... so far. But if Pedroia has a few more games like last night's, that will change.

Dustin's hitting .387 since the start of August. He's hit 7 homeruns in that stretch, along with 27 RBI. He's also stolen 6 bases without getting caught. He's gotten a hit in 20 of the last 23 games. He's raised his average from .303 at the start of July and .260 in mid-June up to .330, currently the highest average in the League.



Pedroia wasn't the only one who hit last night. The Sox wound up with 20 in the "H" column. These hits came with 8 walks. Ortiz was 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles and 4 RBI. Lowrie had 2 RBI and 3 runs. Crisp also scored 3 times. 11 different Red Sox had hits, 6 had multiple hits.

Ellsbury stole his 44th base of the season. That's as many as the 1992 Red Sox stole as a team. It also puts him 10 shy of Tommy Harper's club record of 54. As a team, the Red Sox have 108 steals, which is the 3rd most in club history in the live-ball era (post 1920).

The Sox go for the sweep this afternoon as Lance Cormier faces Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Sox haven't lost in Matsuzaka's last 6 starts.

Sources:
ESPN.com
Baseball-Reference.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Steven Senne