SOX GET A REFRESHING WIN

I hate the term "must-win," especially if it's used for a baseball team in July. However, last night was as close to a must-win scenarios as you can get this time of year. The Rays won, the Yankees won, and the Sox were fresh off a 2-2 split in Seattle.

The Sox won't be acquiring any big name players at the deadline, but they did add All-Star catcher Victor Martinez last night. And he immediately contributed, hitting an RBI single in the 2nd.

But the two big stories were Clay Buchholz and the collective performance by the Sox' 3-4-5 hitters. Buchholz navigated his way around danger - including a 0 out, bases loaded situation in the 2nd - and went 7 solid innings. During that bases loaded jam, his body language got all flustered, by he bore down and did his job. He's come a long way in the confidence department. He couldn't do that last year. His outing was almost spoiled by a wretched Scott Atchison appearance.

I think the Sox should invest in either one good middle-reliever, or two decent middle-relievers at the deadline. Okajima, Delcarmen, Atchison, and Ramirez are all dreadful. They've leaned on Bard all season, and I hate seeing them forced to use Papelbon to get more than 3 outs.

Back to the positives from last night, the 3-4-5 hitters (Youkilis-Ortiz-Beltre) were stupendous, combining to go 7 for 12, scoring 5 runs, knocking in 3. Ortiz hit a pair of homers, Beltre a triple.

The Sox will strive to make it 6-0 against the Angels tonight, as Lackey faces 9-2 Jared Weaver.

SOX FIND MORE WAYS TO LOSE

The Sox now find themselves 8 games behind New York, and 5 behind Tampa Bay, thanks in no small part to an unfortunate weekend in Seattle. The Mariners are more than 20 games below .500, yet they looked the better team, splitting a 4 game set with the Sox.

There was good starting pitching, but no offense, and an atrocious bullpen. Jerry Remy described Okajima's appearance in Sunday's loss as a "trainwreck," and that's extremely accurate. He allowed 2 runs off 5 hits, getting only 2 men out. This swelled his ERA to 5.81.

Matsuzaka was an accomplice to the crime. He had a nice 6 inning start, but in vintage Daisuke style, needed 110 pitches to get that far. He walked 5 and allowed 4 hits.

The Sox have an awful record against awful teams this season. They're 6-6 against Baltimore, 2-2 against Cleveland, 4-3 against the Royals, and 2-2 against the Mariners. That's a 14-13 record against the 4 worst teams in the AL. Inexcusable.

Thankfully, the Sox take on a good team down in Anaheim. They're 4-0 against the Angels so far. Buchholz opposes Joel Pineiro at 10 tonight.

FROM HITLESS TO LISTLESS IN SEATTLE

E
OK, so you're starter allows 0 hits through the first 7.2 innings. The offense scores 6 runs, and the starter finishes with 8 innings pitched, 0 earned runs, 1 total run. That sounds like ane asy win. But not for the Red Sox.

It's true that the Sox have been plagued with injuries, but the bullpen's been healthy. Maybe that's the problem. The Sox' bullpen, apart from Bard and Papelbon, has been crap. Manny Delcarmen nearly handed this game to the Mariners. Papelbon was far from sharp, but he's at least been good this season. Delcarmen has sucked.

If the Sox make any move, they should acquire a token mid-reliever that doesn't blow. Declarmen is simply awful and doesn't belong on this roster.

A win is a win, but the Mariners are 20+ games below .500. This should have been an easy win for the Sox to cruise to, and instead it got dramatic.

Josh Beckett makes his return tonight. He opposes Jason Vargas, who is 6-4 with a 2.97 ERA. Why do I get the feeling that the Sox will lose 5-2?

Photo Credit:
Getty Images

CELTIC WINS AT FENWAY

It was one of the weirdest looking events I've seen on TV. Maybe that's because Fenway looked backwards from the angle the camera shot the game. Maybe because the field looked 20 yards shorter and 20 yards thinner than a regulation soccer field.

In front of a sellout crowd, Glasgow Celtic defeated Sporting Portugal on penalty kicks (6-5).

I have to say the Sox did a fantastic job putting on this event. The timing was perfect, with the Red Sox out West and playing at 3:30 local time. The World Cup just ended so lots of people who aren't big soccer fans might tune in to see these two European teams play. And they picked a perfect team to come to Fenway. While Celtic aren't one of the elite teams in the world, they have a fanatical following almost everywhere.

I think you'll see the Sox stage another international exhibition game at Fenway next summer.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo

BUCCHOLZ IS RUSTOLZ

Clay Buchholz returned from the DL, but was visibly rusty. For the most part, he was fine, but a few pitches were left in juicy spots of the strike zone, and he paid for it. This was the first time Buchholz allowed multiple homeruns since September of '09.

But for me, the story of this game was the injuries deadening the lineup, along with the lack of bullpen depth the Sox have featured all season.

Apart from Adrian Beltre and his 3 RBI afternoon, the Sox offense was hardly noticeable.

The Sox continue to struggle against bad and mediocre teams. And this has me concerned as they go up to Seattle for 4 games. Think about this, the Sox are responsible for 1/5 of Baltimore's total wins this season.

But I'm sure Buchholz will be sharper in his next start. He was fresh off the DL, so the occasional knee-high fastball over the middle of the plate is excusable.

Lackey faces the 1-9 Ryan Rowland-Smith, who's Australian and has a 6.18 ERA, mate.

THE NHL DOES SOMETHING SMART

The NHL rejected the Devils/Kovalchuk contract, determining that it was an effort to navigate around the salary cap. A player's cap number is determined by their average salary over the life of the contract. So Kovalchuk's 17 year, $102 million deal would result in a $6 million hit for the Devils. Not bad for a guy with 338 goals and 642 points in 621 games.

The problem is, $98.5 million of that deal was frontloaded into the first 11 years ($8.9 million per season). The remaining 6 years paid $550,000 a season, and served only to lower the overall cap hit. The idea was that Kovalchuk probably wouldn't be playing for $550k at that point. He'd either sign a new deal with the Devils, or with someone else, maybe even in the KHL. But the Devils would get a decade of production from Kovalchuk, and take a $6 million hit instead of a $9 million.

I'm glad the NHL stepped up and negated this deal. I think the NHL cap is too inflexible, with no wiggle room or exemptions for homegrown talent to stay with their original team. But this is the right thing for the NHL to do.

Source:
AP via Yahoo Sports

LATE NIGHT LOSS

Well you're not going to get much better than 6 innings and 3 runs out of Wakefield. But the Sox squandered that solid outing, as Ramon Ramirez took his 3rd loss of the season. Even though it was Bowden who yielded the walk-off single, it was Ramirez who put the guy on with 2 outs, then balked him into scoring position.

Ramirez has been subpar this season, with a 4.85 ERA to go along with his 0-3 record and 1.36 WHIP. He's getting $1.15 million to do that. Which for the Sox isn't a lot, but still: damn.

But it wasn't entirely his fault. If a guy like Okajima could go more than 0.1 inning, then maybe Ramirez doesn't even get into the game. If Ramirez has been subpar, Okajima has been nothing short of craptastic.

The A's are a .500 team, and nothing more. I know it's tough being on the West Coast, but the Sox simply need to do better against an average team like this. The Sox had chances, but didn't cash in after the 2nd. They left 12 men on base. They out-hit the A's 12 to 6, and drew the same number of walks. The Sox also hit 4 doubles compared to Oakland's 2. But the Sox couldn't do these things consecutively, or they did them all in the 2nd inning.

The Sox also lost a chance to gain ground in the AL East, as both New York and Tampa Bay lost.

Clay Buchholz makes his return this afternoon against 8-6 Gio Gonzalez.

I'M PRETTY GLAD THE BRUINS DIDN'T SIGN KOVALCHUK

Ilya Kovalchuk will be a Devil for a long, long time. 17 more years, to be precise. The 27 year old stud winger signed a 17 year contract worth a total of $102 million. That only works out to be $6 million a year, on average, but the absurd length of the deal makes it worthwhile for him. He'll be receiving paychecks until he's 44. His actual salary will fluctuate up and down, peaking at $11.5 million for a 5 year stretch in the middle of the deal, and settling down to $550,000 a season at the end.

I get why Kovalchuk signed this deal. He's set for life. In my opinion, he could have gotten more salary for shorter years. But then there's a risk of being a 33 year old free agent that nobody wants because of injuries or lackluster performances. And $102 million ain't peanuts. Furthermore, he gets to play in a "big market" (at least close to one) that consistently fields competitive teams.

And while I think I understand what the Devils are thinking, I still think it's kind of crazy. He'll be drawing a $6.5 million salary in 2020. That's a long time from now. If this were Wayne Gretzky, it'd be the smartest signing in history. But as it is, the Devils have committed a lot of cap space for 17 years.

So if this is what Kovalchuk wanted, I'm glad the Bruins didn't even (apparently) place a bid. The Devils have a great scorer, and will have him for a long, long time.

Maybe Kovalchuk just wanted a deal that matched his uniform number (#17).

Source:
Puck Daddy


Photo Credit:
AP Photo