I don't think it's too much of an overstatement to think that Wednesday night's 6-1 defeat of Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays is the biggest win of the Red Sox season so far.
For all the Varitek worshipers out there who thought young guys like Buchholz would struggle with Victor Martinez behind the plate, suck on this: Buchholz has a 1.89 ERA in his last 3 starts, all with Martinez catching.
How nice is it to have a productive Jason Bay and a power-hitting David Ortiz in this lineup. Without these guys, the batting order looks like something you'd see in the NL. But with these guys hitting well, it becomes truly fierce. Ortiz hit his 19th HR, Bay his 27th, and Martinez also hit his 19th.
Buchholz's 6 quality innings, and the offensive production against Halladay not only won the game, it helped save the bullpen. Papelbon was unavailable, so building a nice cushion was essentially necessary.
The Sox go for the sweep Thursday night as Jon Lester faces 5-1 Brett Cecil. Sweet name.
Source: ESPN.com Photo Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese
Tim Wakefield is healthy enough to pitch, just not healthy enough to field. Both his pitching and fielding will apparently be tested Friday in a rehab start for AAA Pawtucket. He's been throwing side sessions with Victor Martinez (George Kottaras is on the DL), and the pitching's been fine. He just can't move off the mound.
The loss of Tim Wakefield might be one of the most underrated injuries in baseball this year. An All-Star pitcher, with 11 wins at the break (he's still 2nd on the team in wins) goes down, and it's supposed to hurt a club. The Sox are 13-4 in Wakefield's starts. He was also averaging 6.4 innings per start, helping to preserve the bullpen.
The Sox are going to need one of three things to make the playoffs: either Tim Wakefield or Daisuke Matsuzaka return and pitch effectively, or Clay Buchholz gets as good as Jon Lester.
This wasn't a "must win" game for the Sox, but it was a "screwed if you lose" game. With Halladay going tomorrow, and a favorable matchup tonight, this game would have been devastating to lose. And that nearly happened.
Josh Beckett had an off night. The Cult of Varitek will attribute the shaky outing to Victor Martinez calling the pitches. Then again, Beckett is 3-5 against Toronto the last 3 years, with a 5.95 ERA. And he's 1-2 in the Rogers Centre in that stretch.
Francona should tell hitters they're not playing then put them in the lineup more often. Remember when Youk charged the mound and Lowell replaced him? Lowell hit 2 HRs that day. David Ortiz was scratched for this game, but Varitek couldn't play due to neck spasms, shifting Martinez behind the plate, Youkilis to 1st, Lowell to 3rd, and opening up the DH spot for Ortiz (simple as that). Ortiz was 2 for 3 with a double and a homer. He knocked in 3 and walked twice. He's 5 for his last 11, with 7 walks mixed in. That's an OBP of .667.
Tomorrow night it's Clay "Can't Catch a Break" Buchholz against Roy Halladay. The Sox' bullpen is depleted, and I'd look forward to Thursday's game.
The whole John Smoltz situation has become very confused. He didn't seem to want to be a reliever for the Red Sox, the Sox didn't seem to want to turn him into a reliever, and now it looks as though the Cardinals want him as a reliever. But also, it seems like he wants to be a reliever for them.
John Smoltz's tenure in Boston will probably be a sidenote in Red Sox and baseball history, but the next time the Sox sign a scrap-heap pitcher who is either overweight...
or over the hill, I hope the rest of Red Sox Nation will be as cynical, skeptical, and pessimistic as I am. As a fanbase, we've been far too optimistic about guys the Sox take shots with.
And as far as the Red Sox go, I am sick and tired of their recent tendency to acquire 3 or 4 mediocre arms, and hope that 1 or 2 pan out. Getting a guy like Smoltz, or even Colon is fine. But when you depend on undependable pitchers becoming dependable, you can depend on finding yourself in a bad situation.
ESPN and the rest of the mainstream sports media have been discussing beanballs non-stop. They make it seem like every pitcher in baseball is hurling the ball at their opponent's heads at least twice an inning. The other night Ian Kinsler took one in the noggin and the guy on SportsCenter doing the highlights remarked: "We've seen a lot of this lately."
Why a HBP made the highlight reel is beyond me. There were no ejections, no fights, not even any words between Kinsler and Sox pitcher Fernando Cabrera. ESPN didn't mention how awful Cabrera was pitching either.
Nobody wants to see batters get hit in the head, except Joba Chamberlain. It's amazing how often he gets a free pass considering how many times he's blatantly gone very up and very in. But he usually gets out of trouble with light punishment.
But apart from the clearly intentional stuff, I think the combination of crappy pitching league wide, along with hitters REFUSING to bail out on pitches is why you see more HBPs. And HBPs induce more HBPs, as pitchers feel the need to "retaliate."
But most retaliation is not necessary. Why does a great hitter like Kevin Youkilis get hit? Because he's on top of the plate. And kudos to him for going out on his own to speak his mind. AL pitchers get lamented for not having to go up to the plate themselves and face the music, but how many AL and NL hitters hide behind their pitchers' arms to protect them?
Here's a problem with baseball today: pitchers aren't taught HOW to throw inside. You can throw up and in without aiming for the head. Throwing inside should be a tool in the pitcher's arsenal, not a means of retaliation. And throw at backs, thighs, and butts. You avoid joints and the head. You can throw over a guy's noggin to put the fear of God in him, but that's it.
I had absolutely no problem with Youkilis charging the mound. I had no problem with him being suspended for 5 games. The League office should consider the situations when dispensing punishments both for beaning and charging the mound. Had Youkilis charged the mound after a less blatantly intentional beanball, then Youk's suspension should be higher.
When Gerald Williams charged Pedro Martinez a few years ago, Williams should have had the book thrown at him. Williams only got 5 games for that, even though Pedro's beanball was certainly less clearly intentional than Porcello's.
Or maybe they should just allow one-on-one fighting like in the NHL.
The Pats used their depth on the D-Line to improve their 2010 draft. They sent Le Kevin Smith to the Broncos, along with a 7th round pick. In return, the Patriots received a 5th rounder. But one of the conditions of their deal for Derrick Burgess was that if they could acquire a 5th round pick, it would be sent to Oakland instead of a 4th rounder.
So in effect, the Pats used a DE that was likely to be cut, to upgrade a 7th round pick into a 4th rounder.
The Sox have lost 8 of their last 9 road games. And when visiting teams that are .500+, the Sox are 1-12 since the All-Star break. In the playoffs, you face good teams, and you face them on the road. The Red Sox, right now, do not look like a playoff team.
Junichi Tazawa was decent for 5 innings, and second-guessers will argue that he shouldn't have been out there for the 6th. But the Sox bullpen has been so depleted, so worn down, and hasn't exactly been lights out either. I have no problems with trying to get a few more outs from Tazawa.
This is do or die time for the Sox. They had a chance to knock Tampa Bay out of contention last week and failed. They had a chance to regain the AL East lead in New York, and instead dug themselves into a hole. They had a chance to build a Wild Card cushion with the Rangers, but now they're on the outside looking in. The Sox have been doing considerably more dying than doing the past few days.
Things don't get too much better. The Sox travel up to Toronto, which has been a house of horrors for them in 2009. Tuesday night Josh Beckett faces Ricky Romero, who the Sox have knocked around quite a bit.
With Jed Lowrie sidelined, the Sox went out and traded for old friend Alex Gonzalez. They apparently sent A infielder Kris Negron to the Reds in exchange for Gonzalez. The 11 year vet can't hit much. He's hitting .210, which is .012 below the Varitek line. Gonzalez's OPS is a dismal .554. But he brings a .977 fielding percentage to short-stop, which gives the Sox some needed defense at the position.
