Beckett Gives Himself a Birthday Present

Since Josh Beckett was booed off the field last Thursday, the Sox rotation had made 4 very good starts in a row. If Beckett didn't make it 5 against a weak Seattle lineup, on his birthday, and in front of Tim Wakefield, then I think people would have spat on him as he left the field. In other words, there was no excuse to not pitch well today. He certainly hadn't been strained in his previous start. Hell, he'd only thrown 2.1 innings in May.

He did his job yesterday. He struck out 9 Mariners in 7 innings, making quick work of a lineup that has 0 players hitting over .300, and 2 hitting below .200. Only Ichiro gave Beckett a problem with a pair of singles and a pair of stolen bases. Beckett only threw 93 pitches in his 7 innings, and easily could have gone deeper into the game.

That was unnecessary. The bullpen was fresh thanks to Lester's CG on Monday. And the Sox had a 4-0 lead. With the way Beckett was pitching, and the way Seattle was missing, a 4-0 score looked like a 14-0 score. Ortiz hit his 8th homer of the season. Aviles had an RBI double. Middlebrooks had an RBI single. Aviles added another RBI double in the 8th to erase any doubt.

The Sox ended their homestand on a positive note, with 5 straight wins. They're still very streaky. They were streaky last year, too. Streaky is the mark of inconsistent starting pitching. Good SPs prevent losing streaks. Streaky teams might win 5 straight (the Sox have done that twice), but they'll also lose 5 straight (the Sox have done that twice, as well).

Even after winning 5 straight, the Sox are still 2 games under .500.

So they've made steps. They have more steps to go. Beckett and the Sox are very similar. Inconsistent and unpredictable. We've seen brilliance from Beckett before. That's never been his problem. His problem has always been consistency.

The Sox go down to Florida for a two game series against the Rays. This will be a good test for them. Tonight Buchholz faces 3-0 Jeremy Hellickson. Unlike Buchholz, Hellickson has actually earned his wins.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Rangers Block Devils

Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 21 shots that reached him last night. His teammates kept 25 more shots from reaching him at all. Dan Girardi and Marc Staal each blocked 5 shots. Girardi also scored the Rangers' first goal of the game, which didn't come until the start of the 3rd period.

Chris Kreider, who struggled during the Washington seires, scored a Power Play goal. Girardi had an assist on that one. It's Kreider's 3rd goal of the playoffs. This guy has never played a regular season NHL game. How weird would it be for him to win an NCAA Championship and a Stanley Cup in the same season?

The Rangers are just a little bit better than the Devils in a few key departments. Lundqvist is better than Brodeur. The Rangers' defensive system is slightly better than the Devils'. The Rangers are better at capitalizing on mistakes and scoring breakaway goals.

For the Devils to win, guys like Kovalchuk and Parise must have a huge series. And that's going to be tough against Lundqvist.

Game 2 Wednesday night in New York.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Wes Welker Likely to Sign Franchise Tender

Wes Welker stated he had "9.5 million reasons to play" football in 2012. The remark essentially announced that he would accept the franchise tag and not holdout.

This is great news for the Patriots, who have added a busload of players at WR, but none of them are as prolific as Welker. Brady is extremely comfortable with Welker, and the two have been in sync since Welker arrived in New England in 2007.

It doesn't look like he'll participate in off-season workouts. But will be dressing in blue, red, silver, and white when the games mean something.

This off-season has been the most joyful Patriots' off-season since 2006-07.

Lester Sinks Mariners

This was the type of start the Sox needed and Lester needed. Jon Lester scattered 8 hits, didn't walk anyone, only allowed 1 run, and went the distance.

He was efficient. He finished the game with 119 pitches, but 22 of those came in the 9th. He only needed 97 pitches to go 8 innings. He retired the first 11 Mariners he faced, and by the time Seattle started to make him work, the Sox were already up 5-0.

Daniel Nava was a big reason for that lead. He hit a 2 run homer in the 4th. Kelly Shoppach hit a solo shot later in the inning.

Nava has been hot since joining the team. He's 7 for 12 (.583), with 4 doubles, a homerun, and 6 walks. He's gotten on base in three fourths of his plate appearances. Pawtucket has given the Boston Red Sox some nice boosts this season.

I know that some have speculated that when Youkilis comes back, the Sox might keep Middlebrooks at third and put Youk in left. But which outfielder do you sit? Ross, Sweeney, even Byrd have all been solid. And now Nava.

The Sox are a better team than the Mariners, despite having similar records. They should beat Seattle. They did it once. It'd be great if they could do it again and end this homestand on a positive note.

But guess who's starting for the Sox today...

Josh Beckett. He'll face Blake Beavan, who is 1-3 with a 4.32 ERA and dealing with elbow problems that shortened his last start. So it's Beavan and Butthead (Beckett). Lame joke, I know.

It's a weird start time today. 4:00pm.

Photo Credit:
Jim Rogash/Getty Images

Celtics Can't Complete Comeback

Let me start with the illegal screen Kevin Garnett was called for. It was a foul. Stop complaining about it, people. I'll talk more about that call later.

The 82-81 score is misleadingly close. The game was tight, but not that tight.

The Celtics dug themselves a hole again. But they couldn't recapture the same clutchness that propelled them to victory in Game 1. Frankly, they didn't play very well in the 4th quarter after they'd made it a close game. They had several chances to take the lead from Philly, but didn't hit the shots.

Then there were some bad decisions. Why is Rajon Rondo shooting jumpshots with less than a minute left? I'm a big Rondo supporter, and don't mind him shooting when he wants to, but in that situation? The Celtics had let the shot clock tick down and Rondo didn't have much of a choice. But why let it come to that?

Philly had turned the ball over with a shot clock violation. Rondo took the ball up the court. KG was setting screens, trying to get Ray Allen open. Pierce and Bradley were on the other side of the court standing around. Rondo was also standing still, directing Garnett and Allen. The shot clock ticked away and Rondo missed a rushed 16 footer.

Philly got the rebound and Evan Turner gave them a 76-75 lead.

The Celtics wasted an opportunity. The 76ers took advantage of one.

After that, Ray Allen missed a weird sideways fade-away. There was time for the Celtics to work for a better shot (13 seconds on the shot clock), but I guess the called play was to get Allen the ball. He got it. He wasn't in good shooting position. He shot. He missed. Philly scored again.

Then it was 78-75, and that's when Garnett committed a foul. And notice how I phrased that. I didn't say "was called for a foul." He committed a foul. The ref called it. Boston is exploding in rage over an official making a correct call.

There will be moaning from Celtics fans about how it was a foul but the ref shouldn't have called it because there were 10 seconds left in the 4th quarter. So the ref made the right call at the wrong time?

There's some weight to that argument, but not much. It was a foul. Garnett was called for the same thing earlier in the 4th.

And the Celtics were still down by 3 even if the call isn't made.

I hate NBA officiating. It's one of the reasons I find regular season games almost unbearable to watch. The refs are inconsistent. To me, it's an unpredictable variable. Like the weather. The key is to be good enough to win in any weather, or win no matter what inconsistency the refs have on a given night. Last night's inconsistency was that KG was called for the same foul at 7:46 and at 0:10 of the 4th.

The Celtics weren't good enough last night, regardless of what the refs called. Before KG's foul, Rondo messed up, Allen messed up, they missed shots, they scored a total of 24 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, they allowed Philadelphia to go on a 14-0 run in the 3rd quarter.

There are legitimate things the Celtics have had to struggle through. Pierce is clearly hurt. Losing Bradley for most of the game had an impact. But the refs didn't cost the Celtics this game. The Celtics cost themselves the game.

Game 3 in Philly Wednesday night. I'm still very confident.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Supporting Cast Carrying Sox

Overall, I think we've all been quite disappointed by how poorly the Sox have played this season. Even the most optimistic Sox fans now have a generally negative feeling for this club. But there are a few bright spots, a few pleasant surprises. And if not for them, the Sox would be in even worse shape.

Two of these guys are legitimate stars. Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz. Pedroia is hitting .319 with 18 RBI, 25 runs scored, 5 homers, and a .381 OBP. Ortiz has knocked in 25 runs, is hitting .348, has 7 homers, an OBP of .421 and an OPS of 1.026. He showed up to Spring Training in great shape, and his performance has reflected his desire to be a better player.

Apart from these two guys, the big names on the Sox have been disappointing. Adrian Gonzalez hasn't had many big hits. We'll give Youkilis and Ellsbury a pass due to injury. And then on the mound, Beckett might be the most hated man in Boston, Lester is nowhere near as elite as he claims he should be considered, and Buchholz has 4 wins but an ERA of 8.31.

It's been the supporting cast that's carried the load for the Sox.

Ryan Sweeney is hitting .333, with a .364 OBP. This guy was a 4th outfielder for the A's. And now he has the second best average on the Boston Red Sox. He's being paid $1.75 million.

Cody Ross has 23 RBI, second on the team behind Ortiz. His average isn't good (.254), but he's hitting for power with 6 homers (2nd on the team) and 7 doubles. He's only making $3 million.

Mike Aviles, who almost didn't make the starting lineup, is third on the team with 21 RBI. He's hit 5 homeruns. His previous career high was 10. And he's only 30 RBI shy of matching his career high of 51. He's making $1.2 million.

Sweeney, Ross, and Aviles are paid a total of $5.95 million. That's about 4% of the Sox' total payroll of $146.4 million. But they've knocked in 55 runs, or 32.4% of the Sox total RBI.

Will Middlebrooks has exploded in 2012. He's already hit 4 homers and knocked in 13 runs in only 10 games. He's making $480,000. Add his RBIs to Sweeney, Ross, and Aviles, and that's 40% of the team's runs knocked in, by only $6.43 million of payroll. That's less than a third of what Adrian Gonzalez gets paid.

Felix Doubront makes $484,000. The 5 pitchers that are currently in the Sox rotation make a total of $30.7 million. More than half ($17 million) of that goes to Beckett.

Doubront isn't a Cy Young Award candidate. But he's 3-1 with 4 Quality Starts, a 4.46 ERA, more innings than Beckett, higher K/9 than Beckett, and much more consistency than Beckett. Doubront has not missed a start. He is worth $484,000, and then some.

Beckett makes more than 35 times as much as Doubront. More than twice as much as Lester. The Sox don't pay Lester and Buchholz much compared to what our expectations of them were. But they've still been disappointing. None of them have an ERA below 4.

At the start of the year, I thought Ross was a joke, Sweeney would be a serviceable 4th outfielder, Aviles was a defensive liability, and Middlebrooks was in AAA Pawtucket. Now they're responsible for 40% of the team's RBIs. I thought Doubront might manage to be a not-so-bad 5th starter. But he has as many Quality Starts as any other starting pitcher.

I have two points I want to make with all this data. The first is that there are some players on this team that are worth rooting for. Sweeney, Ross, Doubront, Middlebrooks and Aviles are hungry, hard-working players. And I enjoy seeing them making the most of the opportunity they have found here. Also, Ortiz and Pedroia are busting their ass to produce for this team.

The second point I want to make is that the "stars" on this team, particularly in the rotation, aren't pulling their weight. Their weight is being pulled by the supporting cast. Watching this team play is like watching a movie with the star actors mailing in their scenes, and the supporting guys stealing the show. So maybe in the future, instead of big budget blockbuster action-films loaded with big names, the Sox should try to find more Paul Giamatti types. Quality players with talent and motivation.

I miss Mark Bellhorn, Bill Mueller, and Kevin Millar. Sweeney, Ross, and Aviles remind me of them. They're just overshadowed by clowns like Beckett and no-show stars like Gonzalez.

Sox on a Winning Streak

I thought about using a headline like "Sox on the Warpath," but racist article titles are the domain of CBS Sports and I wouldn't dream of trying to outdo them.

Can Felix Doubront and Clay Buchholz pitch every game for the Sox? The team is 5-2 when Doubront starts, 4-3 behind Buchholz (9-5 combined) and 6-14 whenever anyone else starts. .563 with Doubront or Buchholz, .300 with Beckett, Lester, and Bard.

Doubront had another very good start Saturday night. He's been a pleasant surprise this season. Imagine if he'd been struggling these last few weeks, how bad the Sox would be. Saturday night he went 6 innings, only allowed 3 hits, and earned victory #3.

Yesterday, the Sox simply annihilated Justin Masterson. He had no chance. I'm surprised he lasted 6 innings. The Sox swung and missed only 7 times against him. That's it. He wasn't fooling anyone. Nava was 2 for 2 with a pair of doubles. Middlebrooks hit his 4th homerun. Saltalamacchia exploded, going 3 for 4 with a homerun and 5 RBI.

Bard looked shaky. He only allowed 1 run (he walked it in), but in his 6 innings he gave up 6 hits and 4 walks. Way too many walks, especially with the Sox taking a big early add and consistently adding to it. Throw strikes. A few double play balls saved him, and the Sox building a big lead helped even more.

At least he had 0 balks.

Bard is still a project. I'm not sure how well he'll do in the rotation. As a starter in the minor leagues, he had problems with walks. He's walked 20 guys already, in only 37.2 innings. He's had three starts with 4 or more walks. It's a problem. The good news is if he doesn't work out in the rotation, he'll help out the bullpen. Maybe even close.

The Sox will try to make it four straight wins tonight against the Mariners. Lester opposes Jason Vargas, who is 4-2 on a 16-20 Seattle team. He has a 2.79 ERA, 5 Quality Starts, and his last outing was an 8 inning gem against Detroit. In other words, this is not Justin Masterson.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

Celtics Are Grinders, 76ers Are Hoagies

Not only does the word "grinder" aptly describe the Celtics and how they play, but it also irritates Philadelphians when you call a sub a grinder.

The moment that encapsulated the game was in the 4th when Avery Bradley blocked a Lou Williams layup, Rondo took the ball down the court, handed it off to KG, who made the layup and got fouled. Philly had an 84-83 lead with the ball with 3 minutes left. So instead of the Celtics trailing 83 to 86, they go up 86 to 84. A 5 point swing in one sequence.

After that, it was the Celtics' game to lose.

Kevin Garnett had another fantastic game on both sides of the ball. 29 points (9 in the 4th), 11 rebounds, and superb defense. The C's were behind for most of this game, but were able to stay close and eventually comeback because their defense contained the 76ers.

KG had help. Pierce had an off shooting night, but made all his free throws and finished with 14 points. He also had 6 assists, and 4 of those came in the 4th. Rondo had 13 points and 17 assists. As a team, the 76ers only managed 19. Bass had 10 points, Bradley had 8. Ray Allen scored 12 off the bench.

The Celtics didn't even shoot that well, and they won. They were 2/18 with their three-point attempts. And both teams shot exactly the same from the field (36/82, 43.9%).

When Pierce and Allen start hitting shots and dropping 20+ points, this could get very fun to watch.

Game 2 Monday night.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo