First...

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Summary:

Two straight bad starts for Buchholz. Squeezed or not, a pitcher's primary weapon should be a well-located fastball. Buch hasn't had one for awhile, and the idea that he should go down to AAA to harness it/find one isn't one I'm against at this point. If Colon really is dialing it up to/near 97, then it's time to see if he can get ML hitters out. If not in this trip through the rotation, then next. The only thing that might be able to keep Buch at the ML-level is bigger struggles from Jon Lester than Buchholz himself has had lately. 

Livan Hernandez was his usual self tonight, the typical "keep it close" pitcher. He allowed Being's 498th bomb, a two-run shot, an RBI 1B from Papi just before the HR, and nothing beyond that. Juan Rincon and Jesse Crain were effective in finishing off the Sox over the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. 

The Sox pen, however, was somehow just as effective. Javy came in in relief of Buch, got 5 outs and handed the job over to Craig Hansen, who definitely reinforced the decision to DFA Tavarez rather than demote him. 13 pitches, 8 strikes, 2 GBs and a K. It's one inning, but he looked at least close to ready to take over for the struggling MDC in the 7th/8th inning mix. Timlin came on and got 3 outs and allowed a hit on a total of 7 pitches in the 8th. The Twins were clearly ready to go home for the day.

Player of the Game:

via d.yimg.com

It's the guy on the left, of course. 498. Look at how small he looks standing next to Papi. I have to interject, however, that it was Craig Hansen that gave me a lift about this game, and made me feel all right when it was all over.

The Shortstop Position:

Alex Cora
Excellent hands and good range
Is not a hitter. Pretty much at all. Runs well, though doesn't have the speed of a real base-stealing threat.

Jed Lowrie
Good hands, worst range of all three
Is a hitter. But we don't know how much rookie "jitters" could become a factor. Is...not ridiculously slow or anything.

Julio Lugo
Excellent range, poor no hands
Runs well, .OBP is almost .350. 

So who do we go with? Honestly, it's going to be Lugo and Cora until one of the two is injured, at least for this season. Lugo is not going to continue to have the kind of defensive issues all season long that have plagued him thusfar. And even if he does, Cora will just see more PT late in games to preserve leads, which Lugo's steadily rising OBP may help to create. I love Jed Lowrie, and under other circumstances I'd be yelling loudest to bring him back up and let him start. It's just not going to happen, not until one of the others gets hurt, or Lugo starts to be a complete black hole at the plate as well.

Tavarez is gone. How does the 'pen shake out?

Well. This was a bit unexpected, if only because most people were of the belief that Hansen would simply be sent down to create room for Sean Casey, and most people thinking DFA were probably attaching Timlin's name to it. Instead, Tavarez is out. I've seen comments around the web about "who is the Sox's long reliever now?" Am I the only one who thinks it's silly to just plan for your starters to be poor enough that within one turn of the rotation, you'll at least once need somebody to come in and throw several innings in a single game? Plus, Tavarez has only twice thrown more than 1 2/3 anyway. Aardsma already has 3 2 IP appearances under his belt, and would seem to be the logical choice (or J-Lo, depending upon situations/matchups) to get the game a little deeper. All the DFA really does is indirectly cause a change in the pecking order.

• Paps
• Oki
• Hansen !?!?!
• MDC !?!?!?
• Aardsma
• J-Lo
• Um.
• F.
• Anyone.
• Mike Timlin

5.01.08 v. Jays

Summary In a Nutshell:

A.J. Burnett. Tim Wakefield. We should've seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

Burnett. .487 WPA on his own. 

Comment of the Game:

Wow. When did we become the Twins? -MerryGoByeBye

5.02.08 v. Rays

Summary In a Nutshell:

Edwin Jackson = inconsistent. We should've seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

WPA says Buch (.221). I say: SwordBat-fighting midgets.

via d.yimg.com

Comment of the Game:

I'm on Gameday. How irate should I be about the throwing error by Lugo? -nuthinboutnuthin

5.03.08

Summary In a Nutshell:

James Shields. Josh Beckett. Revenge. We should have seen it coming.

Player of the Game:

via d.yimg.com

Comment of the Game:

On the plus side...I am forced to admit that Lugo is looking sharp at the plate. WTF? -nuthinboutnuthin

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There are probably a number of Red Sox who would argue that they didn't suck at baseball this weekend. If they're not one of the above two gentlemen, they can save it.

Summary: Vaguely Coherent Rant:

No. No. No. No. No. I'm sorry. 5 runs in 3 games. Five runs in three games. 5 runs in 3 games. No. No. No. No.

One not-awful start and two great starts wasted? F no.

Credit to the Rays' pitching? Well. Absolutely. And this is a different Rays' team. I'm aware that I'm the 8 billionth person to say that. If Buchholz was good on Saturday, Edwin Jackson was able to spread his runners and mistakes out a bit more. If Beckett was mostly dominating on Sunday, then James Shields was cool, calm, collected and efficient. I also respect the argument that Buchholz was let down not only by his "offense", but also his manager.

Shields was particularly impressive, and it is today's sort of efficiency that makes him a good bet for long-term success. Think about the Rays in a year or two: Scott Kazmir, James Shields, Matt Garza, and David Price. The first two are as proven as any good young starters in the game right now. The last two might only have to realize 1/2 - 2/3 of their potential to make the Rays' rotation a "difficult" one to face. Jose Lima could be the 5th starter, and it would make no difference.

Comment Goodness:

Somebody please tell Lugo he’s playing FOR the Red Sox, not against them. I’m getting sick of these 1-out, clutch double plays. - ecoli

well I'm here...and I don't give a crap about gridiron, professional basketball, or any other, lesser sport. All I care about are the Sox and Buchholz is just awesome. -sydneysox

on the upside, Buch and Beckett both lowered their ERAs...Of course, it would have been nice if every last batter didn't lower their average, along with it. - DJDP23

via www.fangraphs.com

Summary:

Gabbard v. Buchholz

In the battle of former semi-prospect and current uber-prospect, injury won. Gabbard was unable to go beyond the second inning due to injury, and Dustin Nippert took over. Fortunately for the Sox, and not so much for the Rangers. The offense was led by DP (2-5, 2B, 2 RsBI), Julio Lugo (not kidding, 4-4, 2B, SB, 2 R, RBI, BB) and Tacoby (2-4, 2 SB, BB, 2 R). Buch was shaky early, but settled down well, striking out 6 in 6 while allowing 7 baserunners. The Sox bullpen (Aardsma, J-Lo, and MDC) was not terrific.

All I do really well is not walk people Jered Weaver v. Beckett Pauley

You know what? I'm not upset that David Pauley was, shall we say, not good yesterday. Part of it is the great team win that resulted, but a bigger part is that it was a fairly unfair situation. He didn't know what he was doing, then was told at 2 he would not be pitching, then was told at 4 that he would be pitching. Thankfully, the 'pen was mostly able to keep the Rangers from scoring (with the only blip being a solo HR off the bat of Casey Kotchman). Kudos, in particular, to Paps who lit up the radar gun on the way to an 11-pitch, 2 K, 1-2-3 9th inning. Offensively, this game belonged to DP. There was much moaning in the thread about a baserunning gaffe, but he made up for it by going 4-5 on the day, with 3 2B and a SB!. Tacoby also helped "a little" by hitting his 2nd and 3rd HRs of the season, and getting the bunt single that led to him scoring the winning run. The Sox managed 16 hits in total, with 7 (4 2B, 3 HR) going for extra bases. 

Players of the Gamez:

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Clay's 6 shutout innings were just what we (and he) needed on Monday. DP just absolutely rocked the house on Tuesday, narrowly edging out Tacoby.

Commentz of the Gamez:

Don't worry. The Rangers just misplayed Lugo's double play ball for a single up the middle. - ecoli

It's not Lugo. It's an alien using his body. There, I said it. - merrygobyebye

No Fangraph today. It'll just depress me/us.

So, as much as I semi-enjoyed the Phil Hughes mediocre party the other day in Boston, There was just as much disappointment in the Clay Buchholz blow-up show in New York. Can't candy-coat it. At least Mike Timlin and Julian Tavarez were able to continue the all-out crapfest. Good job, David Aardsma.

At least Drew, Mayor McSpeed, and "Being" were able to keep their hot starts going. 

Wow. Despite the fact that we scored a bunch of runs, I can't get excited about any aspect of this game. New one tonight, so that's good. Becks on the mound, and that's even better.

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Chien-Ming Wang made the Red Sox his whipping boys last night.

I always give credit where credit is due. The player that deserves the only credit from last night is Wang who shut down the Sox to the tune of just 2 hits and one run over 9 innings of work.

Wang has a strong arsenal of pitches, but usually not everything of his is on. Last night, everything was on. The most impressive thing may have been his fastball which hit 95 consistently. Sox batters didn't look ready for that.

Unfortunately, Clay Buchholz goes completely overlooked but he handled the Yankees lineup pretty well last night. His curveball was on and he painted the corners for most of the night. Buchholz ended up throwing 99 pitches over 6 innings, but only surrendered one run. He walked 3 and struck out 3.

The offense obviously wasn't there last night. But the man that stepped up -- AGAIN -- was JD Drew. Drew hit a dinger in the fifth inning to finally put the Sox on the board. Coco Crisp had the only other hit for the Sox.

I'm not really worried about the offense. I'm more worried about the bullpen. Mike Timlin let this game get out of hand in his first outing of the season. Timlin gave up 2 runs and only recorded one out.

Timlin looks like he doesn't have much left. I think he'll battle it out through the rest of the season, but I can't see him pitching in 2009. His tank is running on empty and I think we saw a glimer of that last night.

Hideki Okajima looked good, but only worked two batters. Javier Lopez came in, struggled, but didn't give up a run. Then my bullpen sleeper Mr. David Aardsma came in to keep it close. He surrendered a run, but he was throwing heat and got the last 4 outs for the Sox. Aardsma could develop into the Sox's 7th inning guy.

Sox look for revenge today at 3.

Comment of the Game:

"Chein Mein has no wang" - BoSox415 (Had to use this one...)

P.S. Sean Casey looked pretty good last night...

courtesy of www.fangraphs.com

I forgot how much harder these are to write when we lose, after the positive-fest that was Game 4. Sure, we had missed opportunities, but we cashed in later, and Jon Lester was pretty good. Not going to gloss anything over. We haven't played well. Some of the defense thusfar in the series has been questionable at best, on our part. Despite the negative things I might say about us, have to give the lion's share of the credit to the Jays. They've played excellent ball thusfar. I have a feeling, after two straight team losses, that Becks is going to force them to play really well if they want to win tomorrow.

Game 5 Summary:

Wake was solid. Solidly mediocre. We didn't lose because of him, but he wasn't a huge help. It wasn't really until the 6th inning that he got into trouble, but the wheels kind of fell off at that point, with the Jays scoring 3. Surprisingly enough, the Sox answered back on a David Ortiz Manny Ramirez J.D. Drew 3-run HR. My apologies for the mistakes, it just took a couple of times to reconcile that he was the one who came through for us. Thankfully for the Jays, none of Aardsma, Lopez, or MDC had it going, and the trio would combine to allow 3 more runs to make the final score 6-3.

Game 6 Summary:

If you think Game 5 was not enjoyable, you should have seen Game 6. Buch pitched pretty well. Not great, but good enough for his first ML start of the season. 8 baserunners in 5 innings, 7 Ks, and 7 groundouts vs. 0 flyouts. The 3 (earned) runs, plus one unearned, he allowed were enough to give the Jays the win (and Buch the loss), though they certainly didn't stop there. The Sox middle relief this afternoon:

Or, if you prefer, "not good". Kyle Snyder and Bryan Corey "combined" for 2 outs and 6 earned runs. After those two put the game out of reach, Batshit McCracken was able to come in, stop the bleeding, and ensure the game would be a complete embarrassment rather than a complete and total embarrassment.

On the offensive side of the game, we were able to manage 12 baserunners while plating a grand total of two. DP went 2-4 with a BB, JD Drew went 2-4 with a 2B, with both "Being" and Mayor McSpeed knocking in runs.

Player of the Games:

Drew made this decision easy. He was the strongest offensive cog in both games, and none of the pitchers save McCracken warranted much consideration. Nonetheless, nice to see Drewlicious showing the ability to come up with important hits.

Comments of the Games:

i love baseball - Classic JD. He makes you think he has no chance of doing anything, and then.... Boom -Tippecanoe

F*CK -KFC