Red Sox Grades

The excuses for the Red Sox losing this game were already written. Justin Masterson was tied with Clay Buchholz for the lowest ERA among starters in the AL at 0.41 and was coming off of a complete game shut out against the White Sox in his last start. Alfredo Aceves is making another spot start in place of the injured John Lackey and looks like he could implode at any second. The Red Sox were coming off of the emotional high of the recent terrorist attack on their home city. That's not how this game went down though. Justin Masterson got roughed up for 4 runs and 11 hits. Masterson had given up 1 run and 10 hits in his first 3 starts combined.

Do you understand Alfredo Aceves? Because I don't. I have no idea what to expect from him on a nightly basis. He allowed a number of base runners. Shane Victorino bailed him out nicely with a good catch in the outfield and an outfield assist. I want to talk for a bit about Victorino. His hitting has been good and often timely, but what's really impressed me about Victorino is his defense. I knew Victorino had won some gold gloves in the past but it seems like every other game he's making a crucial outfield assist to rob somebody of a double or making a tough catch in the outfield. It's been a nice unexpected bonus from him. John Farrell left Aceves in for one inning too long and he had a mini meltdown in the 6th inning. He gave up a leadoff walk to Carlos Santana and then back to back home runs to Nick Swisher and Jason Giambi to cut the lead to 2 runs. He also allowed a double to Mark Reynolds before being pulled.He ended up throwing 104 pitches, which is probably a bit much for a reliever making a spot start. Overall, he managed to not completely blow the lead before being pulled from the game, but 5 innings three runs is nothing to get excited about.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C

Aceves handed off the 6th inning to Junichi Tazawa with no outs, a man on second and the tying run at the plate. Tazawa quickly collected the three outs and kept the run from scoring to keep the Red Sox lead at 2. In the 7th Tazawa struck out the side in an impressive display. 2 more clean innings for Tazawa and 4 strikeouts. Koji Uehara came on to pitch in the 8th with a 3-run lead to protect. Uehara had another clean inning with two strikeouts. Have I mentioned that I am very impressed with Uehara? That's 6 1-2-3 innings in his 7 appearances this season. Andrew Bailey came in to close in the 9th with a three run cushion. Bailey blew his last save opportunity but collected the win in the 3-2 walkoff win against the Rays on Marathon Monday. There was no dramatics this time as Bailey pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to collect his first save of the season. The Red Sox bullpen combined for 4 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks and 8 strikeouts. Very impressive work.
BULLPEN GRADE: A+

I feel like I've been doing this a lot lately, but I'm going to complain about the Red Sox offense after they score 6 runs in a game , 4 of those runs against one of the hottest starting pitchers in the American League. The problem is that the Red Sox had some great opportunities to deliver an early knockout punch to Masterson but couldn't capitalize. They got to Masterson in the first for 3 runs, but they had a 2 men on base with no outs and couldn't put any more runs across. With Aceves starting the Red Sox really needed all the insurance they could get. They loaded the bases again in the second on Masterson with no outs, but couldn't put a run across. They loaded them up AGAIN in the 4th with one out and AGAIN they couldn't score a run. Finally, Mike Carp was able to score Stephen Drew from 1st base with a triple in the fifth. In the 6th with Masterson gone they managed to get a run off of Corey Kluber and still had men at first and third with one out, but a failed steal by Nava (may have been a failed hit and run) and a fly out by Middlebrooks ended the threat. Jacoby Ellsbury would score another insurance run for the Red Sox in the 8th after a single, advancing to second on a wild pitch, advancing to third on the sacrifice bunt by Shane Victorino and scoring on the throwing error. The final result was 10 men left on base and 8 for 19 with runners in scoring position for the Red Sox. Still, Masterson is a good pitcher, 6 runs will win you most games and they had to get enough hits for me to be disappointed with the number of runs in the first place. Despite all this offensive production there were still some no-shows in the lineup with Middlebrooks and Salty both going 0 for 5 in the game. Stephen Drew also went hitless going 0 for 3 with a walk. Everybody else in the lineup had multi-hit games. Mike Carp had a monster game going 3 for 3 with two doubles and an RBI triple that nearly made it over the fence.
BATTING GRADE: B+