Sox split 4 with the Angels at Fenway

The sox split four games with the Angels at Fenway park and there's quite a bit to talk about. Clay Bucholz made his first major league start and got his first major league win. Eric Gagne managed to throw away another game for the Red Sox. The Sox bats seemed to wake up for the first 3 games of this series and then posted one measly run in the finale.

Clay Bucholz has been a highly touted prospect all season long and got his first taste of the big leagues in the day game of the day/night double header on Friday. He pitched reasonably well all things considered. He pitched against the offensively powerful Angels, but he caught them at an excellent time as they flew in from Toronto the night before and had to play a double header the following day. So I would guess that that evens out. The sox bats took the Pressure off Bucholz early by posting six runs on John Lackey in the first. Bucholz had some trouble with giving up leadoff walks/hits, was helped on multiple occasions by double plays, seemed to struggle with control at times, only pitched six innings and gave up four runs to keep the Angels in the game; but all in all I still felt this wasn't a bad showing for his first outing in the Majors. He'll likely benefit from some more time in Pawtucket and could be a strong contributor for the sox in the future.

Eric Gagne managed to do it again. The entire town of Boston seems to have collectively lost it's patience with the struggling reliever who once again gave up the lead and probably the win. The only people that haven't lost their patience seems to be the Red Sox themselves as Gagne was put in the game with a 3-1 defecit in the final game of the Angels series where he again allowed multiple runners on base before closing out the inning. I would just love to have something to cling to so I could defend Gagne. One situation where he comes out, throws a clean inning and heads back to the dugout. Since he's been in a Sox uniform he just has not been able to deliver on this for us and it's starting to concern me.

Curt Schilling had a rough outing in his start. Fortunately, the sox bats provided him with 10 runs to smooth out the rough edges and this less impressive start by Schilling got swept under the rug as he took home the win. Since his return from the DL Curt has put up a 4.50 ERA, not terrible, but not that great either.

Julian Tavarez put up a solid 6 IP 2H 2 ER in the finale which would unfortunately go to waste as the sox bats were unable to produce the runs to capitalize.

Kevin Youkilis' slump continues going 2 for 14 in the series with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk.

This upcoming series in Tampa will hopefully settle the Red Sox down. The road trip continues to a 4 game series with another division cellar dweller in the White Sox, then an off day and then a three game series in the Bronx. The Yankees will take 3 games against the Angels on the West Coast, an off day, and then 4 games against Detroit in Detroit before meeting the Sox in the bronx. This is an excellent opportunity for the Red Sox to make up for some lost ground by playing the AL's worst while the Yankees play the AL's best.

DiceK gives up so many runs even the Rays bullpen can't blow it!

It's amazing how playing against a team like the Devil Rays changes your perception of what's good. Anything short of a sweep against the Rays feels like a failure. The sox managed to eventually score some runs off the starter Sonnanstine and almost won another game off of the weakness of Tampa Bay's bullpen. Fortunately, the Yankees dropped their series to the Orioles after hitting a 3 run home run in the 9th to put the game into extra innings. This two game losing streak may be indicative that the Yankees are cooling off once again. Both Yankee losses must be disheartening given the 12-0 pounding they took in the second game and then losing after a dramatic ninth inning comeback and hopefully this will carry over into their next few games. At this point I almost feel like a Yankee loss is better than a Red Sox win as I'd prefer it if the Yankees didn't win the wild card. Facing and losing to the Yankees in the Post Season would feel like a colossal failure after dominating them in the standings all year long.

Sox Pitching
Daisuke had a pretty terrible outing, his worst since early July. He's still adjusting and he's put up some solid numbers in his last few starts, so that's not what concerns me. The troubling part about this game was that he got beat up by the Devil Rays. Daisuke only had one clean inning and most of his others looked shaky right from the start.

Julian Tavarez would take over and pitch a clean inning and got into a bit of trouble in his second inning of work before handing off to Mike Timlin.

Mike Timlin wrapped up the eighth and threw a clean ninth and has looked extremely strong lately. Outside of Timlin's meltdown in Seattle back on August 3rd where he took the loss, he's been light's out in his recent appearances and could become a key contributor if Eric Gagne isn't as reliable as we had hoped.

Sox Hitting
The sox did the same thing all three games of this series. The Tampa Bay starter gave a good start and was pulled after 6-7 innings despite their lights out performance and the bullpen would come into the game and efficiently give up whatever runs were necessary to ensure a loss. It had worked in the first two games of the series, why not the third? Unfortunately, Daisuke gave up one too many and the sox bats couldn't pull off the late inning heroics despite both Ortiz and Manny coming to bat in the ninth with the opportunity to win/tie the game. This is another episode in a disturbing trend where Big Papi and Manny both seem to have lost their ability to get the big hit when it really matters. Our late game heroics have been coming from the likes of Mike Lowell, Coco Crisp, Jason Varitek and even Julio Lugo this season.

Kevin Youkilis has not looked like himself all series long going 1 for 13 with 6 strikeouts and no walks over the course of this series. All three stats are astounding given that he's been a consistent hitter all year who is good at drawing walks and rarely strikes out. Dustin Pedroia, JD Drew and David Ortiz also went hitless today although Ortiz was able to draw 2 walks.

Sox walk off in ninth to drop the Rays 2-1

The sox really needed a nice easy series against the Rays to bounce back from the terrible showing against the Orioles over the weekend. Tonight Red Sox nation is resting just a little easier. Jon Lester had an extremely strong outing, which he desperately needed given the three shaky starts he posted prior to this game. Eric Gagne is still without a clean inning, but managed to hold onto a one run lead and hopefully built up some self confidence and gained some goodwill with the hometown faithful after a the weekend from hell in Baltimore. He even picked up the win for his inning of work. The Red Sox again showed that when absolutely necessary they do have what it takes to come back and win. A solo homerun from Mike Lowell, a double that almost left the park from Jason Varitek and a single from the ill Coco Crisp was enough to win the series against the Rays. While this was going on the Yankees fell very flat against the O's in a 12-0 rout bouncing the Red Sox lead in the AL East back up to 5 games.

Sox Pitching: B+
Lester: A-
Manny Delcarmen: C-
Mike Timlin: Incomplete
Eric Gagne: B+

Lester's only blemish on the day came in the form of a Carl Crawford leadoff double in the 4th followed by a single and a sacrifice fly. 5 of his 7 Innings were clean and minus an inconsequential leadoff walk in the first he retired the next 3 batters easily. He really made the Tampa Bay Devil Rays look like.......the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Manny Delcarmen looked shaky allowing a leadoff single and a walk to put himself in a 2 on and no out situatuion in the 7th. Luckily MDC pitched his way to two outs, intentionally walked Carl Crawford before handing off to Mike Timlin who finished off the inning. Gagne would come in for the ninth and looked sharp striking out 3 of the 4 batters he faced. The two out double by Harris keeps Gagne from recording his first clean appearance by the sox, but he still managed to get the job done.

Sox Hitting: C-
Heroes: Mike Lowell (1 for 4, HR), Jason Varitek (1 for 2, 2 BB, R), Coco Crisp (1 for 4, RBI)
Goats: Julio Lugo (0 for 4), David Ortiz (0 for 3, BB)

I have alot of respect for the pitching abilities of Scott Kazmir, ever since his rookie season I've noticed him as one of the bright spots on a team without many bright spots. I often wonder if he would be a household name if he were on a team that could put up some runs for him. That said, the Red Sox still looked incredibly lame against Rays pitching for eight innings. One of the benefits of playing the Rays at this point in the season was manifest as they pulled Kazmir after 6 innings despite only giving up 4 hits and working on a shutout. With the Rays unable to make the post season this move makes perfect sense and again the sox reaped the benefits by scoring their runs off the Tampa Bay bullpen. It looked as though the sox would start turning the tide immediately in the 7th with a leadoff walk to start the inning, but a botched bunt attempt by coco crisp and double play ball by JD Drew would end the inning. The eighth was an uneventful 1-2-3. A borderline strike 3 call on Manny Ramirez for the first out of the ninth had me sweating bullets, but fortunately Mike Lowell delivered with a home run over the monster. Youk would strike out on another questionable strike 3 call before the magic began. With two outs Jason Varitek hit a shot deep to right, just a few feet shy of a home run. Coco followed up with a hit, the throw was off and Varitek was able to score from second without a play at the plate.

Public Enemy #1

I wonder how much Steinbrenner paid to get Gagne to throw every close game he entered? That's the only explanation I can come up with to explain his dismal performance ever since joining the sox. This is the second easily winnable game that Gagne has handed to the lowly Orioles and cost the Red Sox another game over the Yankees as the lead in the AL East fell to four. He's managed to waste two excellent starts by both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Curt Schilling.

Pathetic...

Pathetic, that's the only word I can think of to describe Eric Gagne's perfomance in the opener against the O's. He has been shaky in his first few appearances for the sox, but this was the first time when he just flat out blew it. He gave up 3 runs in 1/3 of an inning before getting pulled for Okajima. Okajima also fell flat and would give up the tie and then the win the following inning. This is possibly the most disappointing loss of the year for the Sox. It should have been an easy win, but Eric Gagne couldn't hang onto a four run lead for more than a third of an inning. Okajima couldn't keep inherited runners from scoring or pitch a scoreless inning to allow the Orioles bullpen a chance to give the sox the game like they always have this year. I'll try to make a more well rounded post about this game later, but I'm too pissed off to think about it too much right now.

Reggie Miller....seriously?

It has been reported that the Celtics have encouraged Reggie Miller to leave his job as a TNT analyst, don the green and white and help the Celtics win a title. You're kidding right? The guy retired back in 2005. At age 42, for Reggie to get back in shape and be able to play at anywhere near his old form would require a herculean effort. On a personal note, I hate Reggie Miller. Tommy Heinsohn always pointed to the "flops" from Miller who would flop back to the floor at the lightest touch in order to get the call from the referee. He got 3 emmy nominations and two thumbs up for his performance.

I think Danny might be trying a bit too hard to silence the "You need 5 players not 3" naysayers like Bob Ryan. If this year's Eastern Conference proves anything it's that you don't need a well rounded team to make it to the finals. Lebron James carried the Cavaliers to the finals like lambs to the slaughter. If Lebron can drag a team full of nobodies to the finals then Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and KG should have a chance to win a championship with some nobodies in tow.

Wakefield falls apart in the 5th, Angels win 10-4

This is Tim Wakefield's worst start in quite some time. The more I see of Wakefield the more I get the impression that he can't pitch to good teams. It seems like everytime he's put up against a team that can produce offensively his knuckleball is getting hit all over the park. Against younger, less experienced teams who haven't seen the knuckleball very much he's unhittable.

Sox Pitching: F
Wakefield: F
Delcarmen: C-
Tavarez: D+
Snyder: C+

Tim Wakefield had one good inning, the third. He went 1-2-3 in that inning, but would look shaky in the first, second and fourth innings and would have to be pulled early in the 5th when his game completely fell apart. Wakefield gave up the lead and handed Manny Delcarmen the baseball with inherited runners and no outs in the inning. Delcarmen didn't do him any favors by allowing both inherited runners to score in his inning of work before finally bringing this inning to a close. Julian Tavarez's one inning of work also looked terrible with coco crisp making an error and another two runs to score. This is about where I decided to go watch something else. From what I can see this is where Tavarez induced a double play to end the inning. Kyle Snyder put up the only respectable pitching performance for the sox by eating two innings. He posted a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th, quickly got two outs in the eighth, allowed a solo homerun and then got himself into and out of trouble to end the inning.

Sox Batting: C
Heroes: Doug Mirabelli (1 for 4 HR, 2 RBI), Kevin Youkilis (2 for 4, 1 RBI), Dustin Pedroia (2 for 4, 2 R)
Goats: David Ortiz (0 for 4), Julio Lugo (0 for 4)

Even if the sox had a better day at the plate I don't think it would have made too much of a difference given that the pitching staff gave up 10 runs. There were some missed opportunities. Sending Mike Lowell home with no outs in the inning seems like a terrible idea in hindsight and probably cost the Red Sox two runs. Mike could have scored on the ground out by JD Drew that followed and coco could advance and then score on the ground out by Doug Mirabelli that followed. Instead, the sox got nothing out of this inning. Although it did yield a run, I felt that the two men on with no outs situation in the first was squandered with both Ortiz and Manny sacrificing. The Red Sox posted 4 1-2-3 innings and that's just not going to win games.

This drops the AL East lead down to just 5 games as the Yankees have won 5 straight and 8 of their last 10. If the Yankees don't cool off soon we might have a race on our hands. Fortunately, the Yankees get Halladay in Toronto tonight and then 3 games in Cleveland. The Red Sox finish the last of their west coast games tonight, head to Baltimore for 3 games and then come back to Fenway for 3 games against the Devil Rays.

Oh....and Barry Bonds hit a homerun and broke a record of some importance...