Red Sox Try to Defy the Odds and Slug Their Way Through the Season
Can you slug your way to a pennant?
The Red sox are certainly trying to do just that.
Will they be successful?
Without settling into a reliable five man rotation it will be very difficult.
Pedro Martinez throws over 120 pitches per start, not a good thing for the fragile hall of famer to be. Derek Lowe now sports an ERA more typical of a pitcher on his way out. John Burkett is steady, but unspectacular in big games, Casey Fossum is not ready for prime time, Tim Wakefield, up and down with his knuckler, and Jeff Suppan is an adequate fourth or fifth guy.
This all adds up to hoping the hitters can carry the game to the bull pen and then pray they get it done. It’s been the same story for Boston since game number one this season.
The Red Sox come into Oakland next week for four games, which will test the mettle of the team. They will face Hudson, Zito, Mulder, and Lilly in that order. If they don’t hit the ball with the authority of the 27 Yankees, they won’t get very far, even if the A’s continue to hit like a team without a clue.
With only one lefty possibly going for Boston next week, the A’s lefthanded batters will get some decent swings after seeing Pedro Monday night. If Oakland wins on Monday, it will be no less than three of four for them by the time Boston leaves town on Thursday night.
Today in Chicago, Ted Lilly faces Jon Garland. The Sox are playing much better and having Carl Everett on the team is a big plus for the Sox because Everett, as a Ranger this year, has hurt the A’s with his bat and glove and lo and behold he did it again last night.
Runs will be plentiful in this game, the bull pens are well rested for both teams, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see each team in the pen by the sixth inning.
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Seattle needs Gil Meche to step up in the game today versus the Yankees and Andy Pettitte. Meche threw over 100 pitches in six innings in his last start, not a good omen for today’s game. I’ve often said Nick Johnson has the best eye of any young hitter in the game, he drove in five last night and when healthy is a major plus to the Yankee lineup.
Andy Pettitte came close to pitching a no hitter in his last start Sunday against the A’s, so he should be on top of his game today against a sluggish Seattle team.
The Mariners are playing .600 baseball, meaning if their current slide continues, it will probably take 93 wins to win the west, not the 96 I predicted two months ago.
The Giants are gleefully churning along to the NL West title, only a catastrophic collapse can stop them. The injuries to everyone other than the guy who carries this team (Barry Bonds) eventually will catch up to the team in the playoffs (they need Ray Durham healthy) when you have to be on the top of your game. Unbelievable that through all the nagging injuries, this team is still winning at a .626 clip.
Jesse Foppert is one of the best fifth starters in baseball. Last night, 5.3 innings, two hits, and one run is a pitching line any team in baseball would love to have from its last man in the rotation.
The Phillies don’t hit much. The Philly pitching is nice and steady, without someone getting red hot, this team will be watching the playoffs from their living rooms.
Marlon Byrd is a very stiff leadoff man, Pat Burrell is hitting .195 Jim Thome can rip the ball, Mike Leiberthal, a good hitter is just not a clean up hitter, Jimmy Rollins, a dynamite kid, is struggling with nagging leg injuries and is wasting away hitting eighth in the lineup. On paper, they look promising, on the field the manager is waiting for some offense which has not appeared in 110 games.
The Marlins are rolling and one of their best kept secrets lefty Mark Redman will put them into the wild card lead today against the sorry Brewers.
Johann Santana came through with eight spectacular innings for Minnesota against the Tigers. Minnesota is absolutely in this race and will fight the White Sox down the stretch.
Jae Seo is throwing in the low 90’s, once the Met rookie gets command of another pitch, he will be tough to beat because he throws strikes. Until then Art Howe has to hope his bull pen can bail the kid out after six innings or so. Arizona let one get away last night, wasting a decent performance by Brandon Webb, but that has been the story of Arizona’s season so far, good pitching wasted in low run games.
The NL Wild Card will go down to the wire. You can’t count out the Dodgers either. Four perfect innings from their bull pen last night made Andy Ashby’s start successful over the Cubs.
St. Louis fell to Russ Ortiz who added to his Cy Young credentials with eight solid innings against one of the top hitting teams in baseball.
Livan Hernandez and Jared Fernandez, a broadcasters nightmare trying to keep those names straight in Houston tonight. Meanwhile Livan will get his big contract (incentives kick in soon) next season and he deserves it, while Fernandez and his knuckleball become important for Houston with Roy Oswalt on the shelf.
Mike Sweeney is back for the Royals who may need the US Cavalry to stop their slide instead.
The A’s and Mariners will have a steady diet of the Orioles and Devil Rays for two weeks at the end of August and early September. These AL East bottom feeders will be tougher than expected this time when they normally are snoozing through the last month of the season. Just ask the Red Sox who lost two to Baltimore Friday.
Damian Moss in Fenway today against Tim Wakefield, who may be the second best starter on this Red Sox staff right now.
Things are getting tense around Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston and it is just August 9th.
0 comments
Marty,
Maybe the Red Sox don’t have to hit like the ‘27 Yankees to beat out the A’s for a wild card.
Perhaps all they need to do is hit like the ‘03 Red Sox, (that would be 2003 not 1903). After a quick refresher of my baseball encyclopedia and the current totals for the Red Sox I find the offensive comparison very similar.
The Yankees slugging percentage. was .489, the Sox come in at .503
The Yankees OBP was .383, the Sox .361
The Yankees team avg. .307, the Sox .293
The Yankees team homeruns, 158, the Sox 172 and counting
Yankee runs 975, the Sox 702 and counting.
From what I see the murder’s row ’27 Yankees weren’t all that or perhaps the ‘03 Red Sox are a little more than you give them credit for.
Martinez may be throwing some pitches but he’s coming off one of the strongest complete game outings of his year and still throwing 97 MPH in the 9th. He looked anything but fragile.
All Wakefield and Burkett do is give you a consistent six or seven innings and a decent chance at victory as their mutual 9-5 records indicate.
As for Lowe. He’s had two bad starts in his last two outings to beef up that ERA over 5.00. Somehow he’s managed to win 11 games and did you know in his previous 11 outings prior to those last two starts the Red Sox have won 10 of those games? He may not be pretty all the time but the bottom line is all that really counts…true?
Suppan? Who knows how he’ll fair in this picture but even if he’s nothing but a “adequate fourth or fifth guy†he serves the purpose. Personally I can see him doing somewhat better than that. Although I think the Questec hurts his style while pitching in Fenway.
The Sox shored up their bullpen 100% and what was a huge problem and responsible for so many loses in the beginning of the year is now a strength. Matter of fact if that pen hadn’t blown so many games we may not even be having this discussion. You’d be trying to figure out how the A’s could take the wildcard spot over from the Yankees, ( ummmm, that would be the ‘03 Yankees)
Mark
Forty seven games to go, will the A’s play two games better than the Sox over that span? Somehow, pitching seems to get the job done, so I feel that that will be the difference between these two teams. The A’s are tough to beat with their rotation, the Sox have trouble within their own division with theirs. frankly, I think the Sox have a better chance to beat the Yanks than the A’s, but hey this discussion is why we love the game.
Marty
Marty
Good points by both you and Mark about the Red Sox.
I agree I would rather have the A’s great pitching and mediocre hitting over the Red Sox’s killer hitting and mediocre pitching.
Frankly though, the way it looks to me, both the A’s and Red Sox make the playoffs.
It’s Seattle that looks most vulnerable as their starting pitching seems to be showing signs of wear and tear. Moyer and Pineiro (who has been lights out), were beaten by Cleveland and Garcia has looked lost for a while. Meanwhile, the Benetez pick up does not help the bullpen nor does it alleve the concerns of the team and fans that “Stand Pat” Gillick’s habit of doing nothing at the trade deadline to boost the team, has once again stymied the team’s chances for postseason.
Reno Bill
Reno Bill thanks for the comments. The Bizland server has been a real problem for me for about four days now, it took me about one hour to get the Dish on the site today, my web expert Alma says it is Bizland’s problem, but I can’t seem to get a clear answer from anyone involved. If anyone has an explanation or is having similar problems let me know. Anyway. Bradford is my player of the game tonight if the A’s hang on, one tough sinker, getting out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth, striking out Thomas with the bases loaded was the key point of the game. Shooty Babitt and I have Inside Baseball Saturday night after the A’s talk show on KFRC 610 AM tonight.
Marty
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