BECKETT BACK AT IT

Matsuzaka and Lester may be struggling, but it's starting to look like Josh Beckett is back on his game. 7 innings pitched, only 3 hits allowed, and 8 strikeouts. That's only 1 earned run in his last 15 innings, and only 3 in his last 22 innings. 5 straight quality starts for Beckett, who is now 3-0 in May.

You know Beckett's doing well when you use the word "only" about a dozen times in a paragraph.

Jason Varitek continues to be solid on offense. It doesn't belong in the 3, 4, 5, or even 6 slot; but he's contributing. And actually, with Ortiz and the crapfest at the bottom of the lineup, maybe Tek belongs in the 6 spot. 2 more homeruns this afternoon and he now has 10. He's already more than halfway to his RBI total from 2008, and only 3 HRs shy of his total from last year.

The Man of the Game:
This is tough because Varitek and Beckett played so well. But I'm gonna give it to Beckett this time. When in doubt, go with pitching.

The Sox go to Toronto this weekend to face the slipping Blue Jays. Wakefield faces Casey Janssen Friday night.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Jim Mone

SOX SET SOME UNFORTUNATE RECORDS

Daisuke Matsuzaka's 4 wild pitches tied an 80 year old Red Sox record for most in a game. The 6 total wild pitches thrown tied a Major League record.

7-10. That's the combined record of Beckett, Lester, and Matsuzaka. All I'm going to say about Dice-K is that his starts should be shown to detainees at Guantanamo Bay as a form of coercive interrogation. So many deep counts, so little aggression.

And I never want to see him pitch in the WBC again.

But you know what? You score 2 runs, you're going to lose 95% of the time. The Sox lineup saw sporadic production from Ellsbury, Youkilis, Lowell, and Bay last night. But Ortiz, Kottaras, Green, and Drew all did nothing.

Man of the Game:
Kevin Slowey - 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER

Bitch-Goat:
Daisuke: 0.4
Delcarmen: 0.2
Ortiz: 0.1
Kottaras: 0.1
Green: 0.1
Drew: 0.1

Josh Beckett faces Anthony Swarzak this afternoon at 1.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Jim Mone

PATS ADD LB DEPTH

After ILB Tyrone McKenzie ended his season with an ACL tear, the Pats desperately needed to add some depth at inside linebacker. They did that today by signing former Lion Paris Lenon. Lenon is 31 and led Detroit with 121 tackles last year.

While leading the Lions in tackles isn't too remarkable, at least he can tackle. Last year, watching Bruschi and Vrabel miss tackles almost drove me back to smoking.

Source:
Boston Herald

SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH JON LESTER?

Single, flyout, infield single, single, groundout, walk, homerun, groundout. That was the play-by-play from last night's bottom of the 5th.

Jon Lester is 3-5 with a 6.07 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. Opponents are batting .307 off him. But what's strange is that he's striking out more batters than he did in '08, and he's also walking fewer. So why are his performances so much worse now than last season?

He's missing up in the zone. So when opponents do get hits, they're more often extra basehits, and homeruns. Homers have been killing Lester, and turning 1 run innings in to 3 run rallies. He's allowed 11 already. He only let up 14 in 2008.

I don't want to say that Lester had a "lucky" 2008 season, or that it was a fluke. "Luck" is far too broad a word to use. But I do want to use a poker term to describe his 2008 success and his 2009 struggles: variance.

A good poker player will win money over the course of thousands of hands, just like a bad one will lose money. That's why there are professional poker players. But over a short stretch of hands, good luck and bad luck become more and more apparent. You can get a hot stretch of cards and make tons of money, then a cold stretch and lose tons.

Last year, Lester's overall performance was partially due to fortunate groundballs that found their way into Red Sox gloves. For instance, opponents grounded into 27 double-plays against Lester last year. This year, he's on pace to induce 12 double-plays. The Sox also had the 7th best fielding percentage in baseball, this year they rank 24th.

The Red Sox surrender 49 unearned runs in 2008. Only 3 of those were with Lester on the mound. Think about that. Lester pitched 14.5% of the Red Sox' innings last year and only allowed 6.1% of the unearned runs. Part of that is due to being a good pitcher, but part of it was good fortune.

He's not getting that good fortune anymore. It's actually the opposite. Lester is NOT a 6.07 ERA pitcher. He'll get more groundouts, and fewer bad breaks. However, he is also NOT a 3.21 ERA pitcher. At least not in the long term. Lester is a 3.75 to 4.25 ERA guy. That's not bad, but it's all too clear to me now that he's not the 2nd Ace we thought he'd be.

Of course, he's only 25, so there's plenty of potential to improve. I'm just saying that right now, he's not an Ace. In fact, not even close.

Sources:
ESPN.com
Baseball-Reference.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid

SOX CONTINUE TO PROTECT THEIR HOUSE

The Red Sox have turned Fenway Park into a fortress. They've also gotten themselves a half game out of 1st place with a sweep of the Blue Jays, the first time the Sox have ever swept a Blue Jays team that was holding 1st place.

Jacoby Elssbury's hitting streak reached 16 games with a 1 for 4 performance.

Jason Bay has hit 11 straight multi-run homeruns, tying a Red Sox record. Who the hell is the guy who looked this up? Can we get a "Real American Heroes" commercial for the dudes who look these obscure things up?

If Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, Ortiz, and Bay are hitting, the top of the Sox lineup becomes very, VERY fierce.

The best part of the night was seeing Jon Lester put in a quality start. 0 homeruns, that was a relief. He scattered tons of hits, but only 1 of them wasn't a single. This was Lester's first homerless start since April 24th.

Very interesting night in the Fens coming up. The Mets are in town, and Johan Santana (5-2, 1.36 ERA) squares off against a returning Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa

FINALLY...

David Ortiz's homerless streak finally ended, with a bomb to center field in the 5th. It was one of 5 homers the Sox belted, as they exploded for 8 runs. They had 10 extra basehits. Every starter had at least 1 hit.

Kevin Youkilis was 3 for 5 in his return to the Sox. There was absolutely no rust apparent, and he's now hitting .404, which would lead the League if he had more plate appearances. He has a .509 OBP to go with that.

Jason Bay knocked out his 12th homer and knocked in his 41st and 42nd RBI. That's the 2nd most in baseball.

Brad Penny was decent, if a bit lucky. He scattered 9 hits over 6.2 innings. He and the Sox were fortunate that only 2 Blue Jays came across home plate.

Ellsbury tied a Major League record with 12 putouts (catches), the most in a 9 inning game. He also extended his hit-streak to 15 games.

The Sox have played out of their minds in Fenway Park. They're 15-4 at home, and 9-12 on the road.

Man of the Game:
David Ortiz, 2/5, 2 RBI, double, homer

Jon Lester faces Robert Ray Thursday night, looking for the sweep.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Elise Amendola

SOX RIDE THE WAKE BOARD ONCE AGAIN

Tim Wakefield has carried this rotation. The three supposed Aces we all thought we had have been crappy, inconsistent, or injured. Wake has been a secret weapon for the Sox, as well as clearly their best starter. I don't know how long this run will last, but I think it's important to appreciate Wakefield. It's also important to imagine this team without his help, and where we may be once this run of good pitching ends.

I fucking hate Kevin Millar. Well not him, he's fine. But I hate the pink hat love affair around him. Folks, the Sox didn't win it all in 2004 because he gave everyone Jack Daniels and said "Cowboy Up." The Sox won because of pitching. Because Derek Lowe was red hot in October. Because Pedro and Schilling came thru in the World Series. And because Keith Foulke, Alan Embree, and Mike Timlin were money.

Man of the Game:
Ummmmm, maybe Tim Wakefield? 8 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, brilliant.

Brad Penny takes on Brett Cecil. I've never heard of him, but he's 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA, and he's a lefty, so I wouldn't look for HR #1 from Ortiz tonight.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Elise Amendola

BANGED UP BRUINS

It turns out the Bruins were fairly hurt during their series with Carolina. We already knew Andrew Ference had a serious issue, and it turns out that it was a torn groin. Phil Kessel had a torn rotator cuff and labrum. David Krejci had a problem with his hip. And Chuck Kobasew broke two of his ribs in Game 1.

Krejci, Kessel, and Ference will all require surgery. Kessel and Krejci will miss 4 to 6 months, which means missing at least the start of the 2009-2010 season.

This isn't an excuse for losing to Carolina, but it's a partial explanation. Those are three lines which lose their ferocity with injured players.

The silver lining to this is that Kessel and Krejci are both restricted free agents. Other teams may be more reluctant to give them big offer sheets (and potentially forfeit draft picks) when these guys are fresh of a surgeon's table.