Red Sox Skid Continues Against Toronto

This stretch of bad baseball just keeps on going. The Red Sox dropped their third series in a row by losing two games to Toronto at home. This is especially disappointing as Toronto hasn't been a very good team so far this season and we had our two best starters go out and make some great starts. When you get really good starts from Buchholz and Lester you need to be able to turn those into wins. The Sox are now firmly in 3rd place in the AL East behind the Yankees and Orioles.

GAME 1: Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 0

Jon Lester was amazing. He carried a no hitter through 5 2/3 innings and pitched a 1-hit complete game shut out. This was essential until the Red Sox put 4 runs on the board in the 7th to give him some breathing room. The Red Sox desperately needed a win and Lester managed it almost single-handedly. It's games like this that make you think that he could be an ace.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A+

BULLPEN GRADE: N/A

As I mentioned in my last Red Sox Grades Jays starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz is an older journeyman who has been bouncing around the minors and hasn't made a major league start in years. There shouldn't have been a problem hanging some runs on this guy. Ortiz did his best to help them out by allowing 4 hits and 5 walks in his 5 innings of work, but the Red Sox just couldn't convert, getting just one run. Ortiz also made a throwing error to try and help the cause, but the Red Sox just couldn't capitalize. Maicer Izturis tried to help out with a throwing error to create a 1st and 2nd 1-out jam, but the Sox couldn't get any more runs in that inning. The Red Sox left 9 men on base and went an astounding 3 for 17 with runners in scoring position. They finally got to the Jays bullpen in the 7th and touched them up for a big inning and four runs to give Lester some breathing room. 5 runs is 5 runs and a win is a win, but this game was much closer than it needed to be. David Ortiz's slump continues going 0 for 3 in this game with a walk, he had runners in scoring position for all 3 of his outs. Mike Napoli and Stephen Drew both went 0 for 4 and 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position. Victorino, Pedroia, Salty and Middlebrooks were the workhorses this game all having multi-hit games.
HITTING GRADE: B

GAME 2: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 2

This was the first Clay Buchholz start that the Red Sox have lost this year and I don't feel that the blame lies with Clay for this one. He went out and pitched another very good game. He pitched 8 innings and gave up just two runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. You can't realistically ask much more from your starting pitcher. He got himself into a dangerous spot with bases loaded in the 3rd, but managed to get the out to end the inning.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

With Hanrahan done for the season and Bailey on the DL with bicep issues our 3rd closer Junichi Tazawa took the mound in the 9th with the task of holding on to the tie game. Tazawa wasn't up to the task and gave up a solo home run to the first batter he faced in Adam Lind to put the Jays back on top. Tazawa handled the rest of the inning thanks to a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play, but the damage was done. Since being named the closer Tazawa has given up two runs in two innings of work.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

In keeping with the theme of this series, the Red Sox couldn't turn baserunners into runs again. They went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left 8 men on base. That's impressively non-clutch. Mark Buehrle looked more impressive than he had been recently. The only Red Sox starter to not reach base was Jonny Gomes. Even after Tazawa blew the lead Will Middlebrooks got them off to a great start with a double to lead off the 9th, but they couldn't get the tying run.
BATTING GRADE: D

GAME 3: Blue Jays 12, Red Sox 4

Ryan Dempster got shelled this game. He only worked 5 innings and gave up 6 earned runs and 3 homers. Just bad.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: F

Andrew Miller gave up a leadoff homer and then gave up a single and walked a batter while only recording one out. Clayton Mortensen came in and finished off the inning, but not before allowing a home run to score all the inherited runners. Mortensen came back out for the 7th on mop up duty with the Red Sox down 9 runs and pitched a 1-2-3 7th. Craig Breslow pitched a 1-2-3 8th  Jose De La Torre made his major league debut in the 9th and got roughed up for two more runs.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

Another 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position for the Red Sox offense with 8 men left on base. So the aggregate from this series is now 3 for 36 with runners in scoring position and 25 runners left on base. Ciriaco and Napoli hit solo home runs and some runs scored on sacrifices. Mike Napoli had a pretty good game going 3 for 4 with a homer and a double.
BATTING GRADE: C-

The Sox are looking to get back on track in Tampa on Tuesday night against Matt Moore. Moore is 6-0 in 7 starts for the Rays.

Blue Jays @ Red Sox Preview

Things aren't going well for the Red Sox. They re losing guys left and right, and are losing games. One could blame the injuries, and it certainly isn't helping, but more than that they are playing really sloppy baseball.

Yet, I think this series against the Blue Jays is going to go really well. Toronto sucks, they spent a ton of money on a bunch of guys that can't stay on the field and are paying for it. Tonight we get Ramon Ortiz (hahahaha), vs Jon Lester.

Lester started out really hot, but has cooled off over his last two starts letting up 8 runs. That being said he is still 4-0 and has an ERA of 3.30, so bitching needs to be kept to a minimum. What does have to worry you is that the last time Lester played the Blue Jays at home he let up 11 runs.

Ortiz is 1-2 with a 5.58 ERA in five career starts at Fenway, he is pitching tonight because Morrow has a stiff neck and had his start pushed back.

Red Sox win 11-4
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 7:10pm

Red Sox Grades

This was an awful series for the Red Sox. I could forgive the sweep by Texas in Arlington, but to drop 3 out of 4 games against a mediocre team like Minnesota at Fenway is a bad sign of the direction this club is headed. This drops the Red Sox out of first place in the AL East and into a tie for 2nd place with the Orioles and behind the Yankees on percentage points. That also makes them 1-6 in their last 7 games.

This was a strange outing for John Lackey. He worked 7 innings with 1 earned run. That looks like a pretty good start, but there were 4 additional unearned runs scored. Those runs scored on an error by John Lackey, so although he hasn't been charged with those runs as earned runs, I still feel like he's responsible for them. He did have some good stuff and some strong innings otherwise, so I'll try to take that as a silver lining.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C+

Koji Uehara struck out the side in order in the 8th for an impressive outing to keep the game close. It's nice to see a little more of that dominant early season form from Uehara again. Craig Breslow came in for the 9th, still a tight game at 5-3. Breslow got hit hard by the Twins on Tuesday when he couldn't record an out and gave up 3 costly hits and a walk to blow the game wide open. Breslow performed much better last night. The leadoff batter reached on an error from Middlebrooks, but he didn't let that phase him and got the next three batters out. It was nice to see him bounce back against the same team that rocked him a few nights ago. Two no-hit/no-walk innings from the bullpen in a tight game is a very solid showing.
BULLPEN GRADE: A+

This was a frustrating game for the Red Sox. The production was there, but it didn't translate into runs like it should have. The telling stat for the Red Sox offense in this game is the 10 runners left on base despite a respectable 3 for 6 with runners in scoring position.. Pedroia, Victorino and Nava all had multi-hit games and managed to contribute to the runs that the Red Sox did put on the board. David Ortiz failed to get on base and went 0 for 5. In all 5 at bats David Ortiz would be the out that ended the inning. Every time Ortiz stranded a base runner at 1st base. It just goes to show how much this lineup needs David Ortiz to be productive. David Ross and Mike Carp combined to go 0 for 4 from the 9 spot as well.
BATTING GRADE: D+

Hopefully the Red Sox can pull out of this skid tonight against the Jays. The Jays starting pitcher will be Ramon Ortiz. Ramon will be 40 in two weeks (maybe older as he was born in the Dominican Republic) and has spent his career bouncing around from the minors to the pros of various teams and even spent some time in Japan. He spent last season with the Yankees AAA affiliate and has been bouncing between Toronto and their minor league club the Buffalo Bisons. Ortiz's only appearance this season was in relief against the White Sox on mop up duty in mid April. He worked 3.1 innings and gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits. That said, he is 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA in the minors. Still, this guy is an older journeyman type and the Red Sox bats should be able to get back on track against him.

David Ortiz Is Pissed At Shank

Dan Shaughnessy basically accused David Ortiz of taking steroids the other day and since then he lost his hit streak and went 0 fer yesterday. I hope your happy Dan, you ruined David Ortiz. He was having the greatest year of his career and you have to shit in the apple pie and accuse a Boston legend to steroids screwing up his whole mind. Who the fuck do you think you are. Just another dick move in the long life of Dan. Ortiz obviously isn't on steroids and all the other steroid shit is speculative at best. Much like KG and Pierce and their potential last run with the Celtics, we should be enjoying what Ortiz will and has done for the Red Sox over the next 2 years, he's the closest thing to infallible to me in Boston sports right now. He doesn't need your shit Dan, he just needs you to go and try to create headlines by saying obnoxious things about the Celtics or Patriots. Stay away from Papi you jerk.

5 Twins, 3 Sox

WTF is going on here. Why the fuck did we just lose 3 to the Twins (who are horrible) and 6 of our last 7. Who do we think we are. Here I am talking about how we are going to win the damn championship and this is the lackluster effort they put out there? Throwing errors and shit, like my predictions don't matter.

In the 6th inning up 2-1 with one out and two on, Lackey induced a comebacker that should have been an easy double play. But nope, Lackey plants his feet like a dickhole and throws the ball Ellsbury instead of Pedroia, classic mistake, I know, but still what an asshole. Then Lackey decided to go full retard and then let up a sacrifice fly and then threw a ball that was crushed by a god damn rookie into the pen. That put the Twins up 5-2. Eventually Nuva ring hit an RBI single to make it 5-3 and then that was the game.

They should probably pull their heads out of their ass!

Fire Farrell?

Twins 15, Boston 8

This game was just a flat out embarassing. Allen Webster was atrocious and Felix Doubront was just as bad. It was really encouraging to see the Red Sox offense rally in the bottom of the first to make it a 5-4 game, but the joint meltdown of Webster and Doubront in the 2nd was just soul crushing. I had to switch to the Bruins game after that. The real kicker here is that the Twins are typically a mediocre hitting team, but they haven't looked like that in this series against the Red Sox. The Twins have scored 26 runs in the first 3 game of this series.

I'm not sure whether to include Doubront as a starter or reliever here. He technically came in as the reliever, but he's traditionally a starter and worked more innings than Webster. Either way, both of them were horrible failures. Webster looked solid in his first start against Kansas City with the quality start, but this was just a disaster. I thought after the Sox gave him the lead back he'd settle down and we might get some good innings out of him, but he couldn't give the runs back fast enough in the second. This gives me some serious concerns about Webster as a major league starter.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: F

Felix Doubront came into the second inning to "relieve" Allen Webster. This was still a very winnable game when Doubront entered the game. There was a man on second, but two outs in the inning with the Sox trailing by just two runs. Walk, single, single, double 11-5 game that's now realistically out of reach. Doubront ate some more innings and gave up some more runs. Andrew Miller struck out the side in the 8th. Junichi Tazawa came in to mop up in the 9th and the first 3 batters reached and another scored on a sacrifice fly. Normally this would be a bad inning for your "closer", but given the 6 run lead the Twins held I can't really blame him for phoning it in on this one.
BULLPEN WITH DOUBRONT GRADE: F
BULLPEN WITHOUT DOUBRONT GRADE: B-

I can't put too much blame on the Red Sox bats here. They got put into a hole early and dug their way out immediately and even gave Webster a lead. 8 runs will win you most games, it's just disappointing that this was the night where they decided to have an offensive explosion was the same night the pitching would have their biggest implosion. Ironically, the only starter who didn't reach base was David Ortiz to end his hitting streak. Jonny Gomes had a grand slam to tie it up in the bottom of the 1st and put together a nice 5 RBI night for himself, it's a shame that it went to waste like this. Salty, Drew, Napoli, Pedroia and Victorino all had multi-hit games as well.
BATTING GRADE: A

Twins 6, Red Sox 1

This game was a no show for the Red Sox offense and that's why they lost this game along with some terrible defense. If not for a 9th inning solo home run by Salty this game would have been a shutout. Scott Diamond isn't a bad pitcher, but he's not a great one either. He's certainly not good enough that he should be pitching 7 innings of shut out baseball while only allowing 3 hits and no walks. The Red Sox pitching obviously could have been better given the 6 runs on the board, but only 3 of those runs were earned runs and they were sunk by costly errors from Pedro Ciriaco and Salty. To add injury to insult, a collision on a foul ball between Will Middlebrooks and David Ross caused both players to be pulled from the game. It doesn't seem that either injury is serious, but the errors made by their replacements were costly in this game.

The fact that four runs came across on Dempster's watch is a bit deceiving. Only two of the runs were earned and Craig Breslow allowed two of the runners he inherited from Dempster to score. To start off the 8th Pedro Ciriaco had back to back errors to allow the batters to reach. I think it might be a good idea to not play Ciriaco at 3rd base again. So essentially Dempster went 7 innings, gave up 2 runs and left the game in the 8th with two baserunners on that weren't his fault anyways. That's technically a high quality start from Dempster.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+

Craig Breslow came on for his second appearance in the 8th with 2 runner on and nobody out. It's a tough situation, but Breslow didn't rise to the challenge at all. Double, Walk, Single, Single; and it's now a 5-0 game. Alex Wilson came on still looking for that first out in the 8th inning. He was able to get a fielder's choice for the first out, but a throwing error by Salty put another run across. Wilson wrapped up the 8th and also pitched a clean 9th. This is a tough one to grade since Breslow was about as bad as could be and Wilson was about as good as could be expected.
BULLPEN GRADE: C

The Red Sox bats were the big disappointment in this game. Scott Diamond is a solid pitcher, but he looked like Justin Verlander last night against the Sox lineup. Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes, Will Middlebrooks, Pedro Ciriaco and David Ross all went hitless/walkless in this game. Jacoby Ellsbury was the only player to get on base more than once this game. That's just unacceptable. The lone run came on a leadoff solo home run from Salty in the 9th. Too little, too late unfortunately.
BATTING GRADE: F

Twins @ Red Sox Preview

The Twins suck. They really do. There isn't much I like about their team, I hate the way they wait forever for their prospects to get to the majors, I'm sick of their endless supply of shitty pitchers.

Sorry, it's just I used to kind of like/respect the Twins and I just don't anymore.

A guy I am gaining respect for is Ryan Dempster. I'll be honest when the Red Sox got him I was not excited at all. He got lit up in the AL last year, he isn't young, and really there was just not much to think he was anything better than a 4/5 starter. Yet, he really has settled in nicely in the middle of the Red Sox rotation. Sure, he is no #1 starter, but he is right where he should be, a #3. Dempster is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA, and has 47 Ks in 36 innings. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in four of his last five starts. He hasn't been good against the Twins in his career (2-1 6.16 ERA), but was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA against them last year.

Going against him Scott Diamond. He has had a nice start to the season (2-2 with a 3.97 ERA), but he is yet another shitty Twins pitcher. The Red Sox should light him up, and Dempster should be able to easily control this crappy Twins lineup.

Red Sox win 12-3
Player of the Game: Dempster/Pedroia
Game starts at 7:10pm

Who Is The Red Sox Closer?

Bailey is on the DL, and Hanrahan had to leave the game last night, so there is a serious question about who will be the Red Sox closer until one of those guys return. Most people think it'll be Koji Uehara, which I'm fine with. He has been playing well, and I like the way he is always way overexcited. 

Yet, I have a feeling I agree with DP here that I would rather see Tazawa. It's not that I don't think Uehara can do it, because I think he can, it's more about changing roles on a team. I like Uehara in that 7th/8th inning spot, and Tazawa has done nothing wrong over the last two year to make me think he can't handle thing. 

Going forward is going to be really interesting for the Red Sox. I like Bailey a lot, but he never stays healthy. It's hard to be impressed by anything Hanrahan has done. Even if Tazawa or Uehara take over the closer role and do well the Red Sox are going to have some bullpen problems if Bailey and Hanrahan can't be healthy and effective. Going into the season I thought the Sox bullpen was actually the strongest part of their team, now it looks like it could be the one part they made need to improve through trade.

I say trade because there doesn't seem to be a ton of internal options if these guys end up not being able to stay on the field. Bard seems to be a lost cause. I guess if the season was coming to a close you could call up young starter and have them do it, but they have all been doing well and I don't want to fuck with their progress. I hate flip flopping starters to relief roles, way to many cautionary tales to go down that road again.

Red Sox Grades

This game was tougher than the Red Sox than it should have been. The pitching matchup alone should be reason enough for confidence. Buchholz came into this game the best pitcher in baseball. Vance Worley came into this game with an 0-4 record on the season and lost 7 straight decisions going back to last season. The Red Sox offense had disappeared in Arlington, but had otherwise been prolific this season. The Twins are a mediocre hitting team so far this season. But of course you have to actually play the games and nothing went as planned.

The Twins started on Buchholz early hitting him for two quick runs in the 1st to put the Red Sox into a 2-run whole to start the game. He gave up 2 doubles, a single and two walks with 1 out in the first inning before he seemed to find his bearings and struck two batters out to get out of the inning. After that he cruised through the 2nd and 3rd with 1-2-3 innings. A pair of back to back 1-out doubles made it a 3-run game. In the 5th a  ground rule double, a single and a sacrifice fly would add another run to make it a 4-1 game. Buchholz settled down again for a 1-2-3 6th inning. This was an awful start for Buchholz compared to his body of work thus far this season. He had allowed 5 earned runs in his previous 6 starts, he gave up 4 in his 6 innings of work this game. Luckily, a bad start from Buchholz is about the same as a good start from John Lackey or Felix Doubront and the game was still easily within reach when Buchholz left the game after 6 innings. This unfortunately ends a 6 game winning/quality start streak for Buchholz.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B-

Alex Wilson came on for the 7th with the Red Sox trailing by just 1 run. He immediately put on the first two batters with a single and a walk before getting his only out of the inning on a strikeout. Andrew Miller came in to clean up Wilson's mess and struck out the next two batters to end the threat. Ever since taking the loss in that 5-4 loss to the Royals on April 21st Miller has been in really good form. He has come into some tight spots and performed well. We got our first look at Craig Breslow this season as he recently came onto the roster with Andrew Bailey coming off with some bicep issues. Breslow worked a 1-2-3 8th and started his season off on a good note. The Red Sox took a 1-run lead in the bottom of the 8th and with Andrew Bailey on the DL Joel Hanrahan was brought in to close. Hanrahan gave up the tying run on a solo home run to make it 5-5. He got the second out and gave up a walk before leaving the game with some sort of ailment. Hanrahan is having some serious issues this season between the blown saves, injury problems and ineffective relief appearances. It's a shame that the closer at the beginning of the season has become one of the least reliable arms in the bullpen for the Red Sox. Mortensen got the last out to end the inning. Mortensen gave up two free passes in the 10th with 1 out, but got himself out of the jam without giving up a run. He kept them off the board in the 11th as well. This was a nice outing for Mortensen going 2.1 innings in such a tight game was clutch. The bullpen had a significant chunk of innings to eat with a short start from Buchholz and the extra innings and got away clean outside of the blown save by Hanrahan.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

This was an interesting game for the Red Sox. They did a pretty good job of getting on base and eventually put up some runs, but were crushed by 4 double plays, Pedro Ciriaco getting caught trying to steal third and a bad call on a play at the plate against Stephen Drew. Shane Victorino broke the ice with a solo home run to put the Red Sox on the board in the 4th. Daniel Nava lead off the 5th with a double and Stephen Drew brought him home with a single. Jacoby Ellsbury followed up with a double that should have scored Stephen Drew from 1st base, but the umpire blew the call and called him out to end the inning. On the replay there was no doubt that Drew had beaten the tag and scored the run. I really think baseball needs to add instant replay. The umpires are only human and the technology is available and has been implemented successfully in the NFL for years. I may be upset when a call is overturned that doesn't favor my team, but knowing that they got it right makes it easier to take. There's nothing worse than being on the wrong end of a blatant and costly blown call by an umpire. Anyways, back to the game. Victorino and Pedroia lead off the 6th with back to back doubles. David Ortiz hit into a double play to kill the chance for a really big inning, but advanced Victorino to 3rd. Mike Napoli would follow up with a single to add another run to make it a 1-run game. After being denied a run in his last time on base, Stephen Drew took matters into his own hands with a solo home run in the 7th to tie the ballgame at 4-4. Dustin Pedroia added a solo home run over the monster to lead off the 8th and give the Red Sox the lead. This was the first home run of the year for the Laser Show. David Ortiz extended his hitting streak with a double and was pulled for Pedro Ciriaco to pinch run. For whatever reason Ciriaco chose to steal third after Salty had drawn a walk and was tagged out at third to end the inning. In the 11th Salty and Middlebrooks hit back to back 2-out singles and Stephen Drew brought the winning run home on a walk off double. This was the first real breakout game for Stephen Drew going an impressive 4 for 5 with a walkoff double, a home run and 3 RBIs. It was a nice all around effort with everybody in the starting lineup getting a hit. Pedroia and Victorino both had great games going 3 for 5 and a solo home run for each of them. David Ortiz managed to extend the hitting streak with his double in his last at bat, but the two double plays he hit into were devastating.
BATTING GRADE: B

6 Sox, 5 Twins

Stephen Drew saved the day last night where he hit an RBI double in the bottom of the 11th to cap off his best day as a Red Sox, by going 4-5 with 3 RBIs.

Joel Hanrahan had his chance to win his job back and to win the game, except he gave up a HR to Brian Dozier. And if that wasn't awesome enough, he seemed to tweak his elbow and not even finish the inning. Thankfully Clayton Mortensen came through huge, picking up where Hanrahan left off and went 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Looks like with Bailey on the DL and Hanrahan blowing, my prediction of Tazawa becoming the closer. Which he should, he's our best reliever.

Clay had his worst outing of the year, four runs over six innings. He did get nine strikeouts though and his ERA is still a ridiculous 1.60 on the year.

Victorino hit his first home run, and Napoli had an RBI and Ortiz extended his hitting streak to 26.

Rangers Sweep Red Sox in Weekend Series

This was a big series for the Red Sox. Coming into Arlington they were the best team in baseball going up against the class of the American League. If they did well here it would be hard not to consider the Red Sox the best team in baseball. If they did poorly it would introduce some doubts about this team's ability to beat high caliber teams. The Red Sox didn't come through in this series and were on the wrong end of a series sweep. The Red Sox bats must have gotten lost by the airlines as they did not show up for this series scoring a combined four runs in 3 games. The one caveat to this series is that we saw their three best starters in terms of ERA this season (Darvish, Holland, Ogando) and they missed our two best ERA starters (Buchholz, Dempster). Regardless, it was a poor performance from the Red Sox and they will need to be better than they were here to get through Texas if they make the playoffs.

GAME 1: Red Sox 0, Rangers 7

Felix Doubront got roughed up for the first time this season and didn't make it out of the 4th inning. His stat line for this game isn't pretty going 3.2 innings, giving up 12 hits, a walk and 6 earned runs and picking up just 2 strikeouts on 97 pitches. It's worth noting that all 6 runs charged to Doubront came with two outs in the inning. It's a setback for Doubront who had looked very solid in his last two starts.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: F

Alex Wilson came in after Adrian Beltre hit a bases loaded double to score 3 runs to make it 5-0. Wilson didn't do Doubront any favors and gave up a single to the next batter to make it 6-0 and close the book on Felix Doubront. Wilson got the next batter out to end the inning, but the damage was done. Wilson ate a few more innings and gave up another run. Clayton Mortensen came into the 7th with one out and a man on first and got the next two outs. He hit a little trouble in the 8th, but didn't give up any more runs. Doubront left the bullpen in a tight spot and with plenty of work left to do and they mostly managed to stop the bleeding.
BULLPEN GRADE: B-

On the other side of this game Derek Holland pitched 8 shutout innings against the Red Sox. Salty, Middlebrooks, Mike Napoli and Dustin Pedroia all failed to reach base. Jacoby Ellsbury was the only player to have a respectable game going 2 for 4 with two singles. All 6 hits for the Red Sox were singles and Jonny Gomes worked their only walk of the game. The only time the Red Sox even threatened to score was in the 6th when they hit back to back singles with one out. As bad as Felix Doubront was, even one run would have been enough against the anemic offense in this game.
BATTING GRADE: F

GAME 2: Red Sox 1, Rangers 5

John Lackey made his 3rd start of the season in this game. He looked good in his last start against the Astros, but this start was not as encouraging. Still, 3 earned runs in 5 innings of work is hardly an implosion. If the Red Sox had been hitting better they might have been able to make a game out of this. Will Middlebrooks didn't do Lackey any favors with two throwing errors.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C

Andrew Miller came in for the 6th and gave up a leadoff single, but got the next three batters. Tazawa came in for the 7th and gave up a leadoff single and then struck out the next 3 batters. Koji Uehara came on for the 8th and gave up a 2-run home run to make it 5-1. It was really disappointing to see Uehara giving up crucial insurance runs late in a tight game.
BULLPEN GRADE: C+

The lone Red Sox run in this game came off of a leadoff double from David Ortiz and a single to drive him in from Daniel Nava. The Red Sox had some opportunities this game but couldn't capitalize going 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men on base. Dustin Pedroia was the only Red Sox player to not reach base this game. Shane Victorino and Stephen Drew both went hitless in this game, but worked the only two walks given up by Rangers pitching. Jacoby Ellsbury was, again, the only player to have a multi-hit game going 2 for 5 with two singles and a stolen base.
BATTING GRADE: F

GAME 3: Red Sox 3, Rangers 4

It fell to Jon Lester to attempt to salvage a game from this series going up against Japanese sensation Yu Darvish. Darvish is what I think the Red Sox were hoping for when they signed Dice K, but Darvish seems to have come closer to meeting the high expectations. Lester got roughed up in his last start for the first time this season against Toronto. Lester had a better outing this time and got through 6 innings and limited the Rangers to just 3 earned runs. He left the Red Sox with a very winnable 3-3 game and ate a reasonable number of innings.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B

Koji Uehara came in for the 7th after a bad outing the previous night where he gave up two runs in a tight game. Uehara gave up a leadoff single, but kept the run from scoring. A nice bounce back appearance for Uehara. Junichi Tazawa came in to start the 8th, got one batter to foul out on one pitch and was pulled for Andrew Miller.  Miller gave up a single, but got two strikeouts to end the inning. Clayton Mortensen came in for the bottom of the 9th and struck out the first two batters, but then gave up a single to Elvis Andrus. Andrus got to second on a wild pitch. They intentionally walked Lance Berkman and Adrian Beltre hit the walkoff single to score Andrus from second. Tough break for Mortensen and the Red Sox bullpen who had a tough task trying to hold onto that 3-3 lead for 3 innings.
BULLPEN GRADE: B+

David Ortiz ensured his hitting streak would continue early in this game when he hit a 2-run home run off of Darvish in the top of the 1st. David Ross would add the third Red Sox run on a solo home run in the second. After this Darvish settled down and struck out an impressive 14 batters in his 7 innings of work. The Sox managed to get baserunners and threatened more runs, but couldn't get anything done going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and 7 runners left on base. Jacoby Ellsbury, who had done well in the previous 2 games, went 0 for 5. Daniel Nava and Mike Carp also failed to get on base. David Ross and David Ortiz both had good nights; each had a home run and added walks.
BATTING GRADE: C-

This was a tough series for the Red Sox against a good baseball team on the road. Hopefully coming home to Fenway tonight with Clay Buchholz on the mound at home against the Twins and their 0-4, 7.22 ERA starter Vance Worley will help right the ship.

Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 1

I'm really enjoying having Ryan Dempster in my starting rotation. His performances don't vary too much and he is rarely dominant the way Buchholz has been, but I feel like he always gives the Red Sox a chance to win the game. His ERA is down to 3.00 now, which is lower than our "Ace" Jon Lester. I was glad to see the bats and the bullpen come through to get Dempster his 2nd win of the season. The Red Sox offense squandered a lot of good opportunities in this game going 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and leaving a staggering 12 men on base. One or two timely hits would have turned this game into a laugher. Fortunately the 3 runs they did manage to put across was good enough for the win.

Dempster had another Dempster-like start. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 3 walks, a run, and struck out 4 on 100 pitches. The only atypical part of that stat line is the strikeouts. he has been piling up the strikeouts and this was his lowest strikeout total from a start this season. He started off the game by giving up a solo home run, this would be the only Blue Jays run this game. He also gave up a single in the first, but was bailed out by a double play to end the inning. He gave up 3 walks in the 3rd inning to load the bases for the Jays with one out, but got out of the jam with another double play. Other than that it was a fairly quiet outing for Dempster.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+

The bullpen still had work to do with 3 innings left to eat. Andrew Miller was a bit shaky giving up a hit and a walk and recording two outs. Tazawa was brought in to wrap up the 7th, which he did after giving up a walk to load the bases. Koji Uehara gave up just a single and got two strikeouts in the 8th. Normally, this is when Andrew Bailey would come in to close, but he's been experiencing some bicep discomfort since his last appearance against Houston so Joel Hanrahan came in for the 9th. Hanrahan gave up a hit and ended the game on a double play, but it's certainly an improvement over his last few appearances. The bullpen was a bit shaky, but 3 innings of work and no runs given up in a tight game is still a solid outcome.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

The last time the Red Sox went up against J.A. Happ they couldn't get much going and had to wait to get into the Jays bullpen to score some runs to win the game. They chased Happ from this game after just 3.2 IP, but only actually put up 2 earned runs on Happ. Mike Napoli lead off the 2nd inning with a double. A Will Middlebrooks walk and a Mike Carp single would bring home Napoli for the first run of the night. David Ross walked to load the bases with one out in the 2nd and Middlebrooks would come in with a sacrifice fly from Stephen Drew. Jacoby Ellsbury flied out to end the threat. Jonny Gomes hit a leadoff double in the third and Daniel Nava drew a walk, but no runs came across in the third. In the 4th Mike Carp had a leadoff walk, but David Ross hit into a double play to clear the bases. After that Happ would walk Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonny Gomes to load the bases again. At this point it was clear that Happ couldn't find the strike zone and he was pulled from the game with two outs in the 4th inning. Happ gave up 7 walks in this game, he had only given up 11 total walks in his 5 previous starts this season. Brad Lincoln would get Dustin Pedroia out to end the threat. The Red Sox added an insurance run in the 6th when David Ross worked a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Brad Lincoln. Lincoln was pulled at this point for Steve Delabar. Delabar gave up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury to score Ross from second for the Red Sox third run of the night. The Red Sox almost got something going in the 9th with a leadoff single from Jonny Gomes and Dustin Pedroia reaching on error with nobody out, but Mike Napoli hit into a double play and they couldn't score Gomes from third. I think the Red Sox really missed David Ortiz in the lineup, as Ortiz got the day off for this game. It was a really rough night for Dustin Pedroia going a dismal 0 for 5 and 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position. It was nice to see that when the Bats weren't getting much done the pitching was able to step up and keep the Jays to 1 run and get the win.
BATTING GRADE: C

Red Sox Grades

I wonder how much longer Clay Buchholz will have to pitch like this before I'll be able to believe that this is who he is now. Buchholz has been solid and shown flashes of brilliance in the past, but this is the most consistently dominant I remember him being. It's still only a month into the season, but Clay Buchholz is 6-0 in 6 starts with 6 quality starts and he leads the major leagues in wins, innings pitched and wins above replacement. He has the best ERA in the American League and is just a hair behind Jake Westbrook in St. Louis (Westbrook has pitched two fewer games than Buchholz). With the resurgent pitching I think that the explosiveness of the Sox offense hasn't been as noticeable as it might have been. Since that 13-0 rain out stinker against the A's the Red Sox have averaged over 7 runs per game and never had fewer than 6 runs in a game. They lead the league in OBP, OPS and Total Bases and trail only the A's in a number of other categories. This is in large part thanks to David Ortiz finding the fountain of youth. He's only been in 10 games, but he's been amazing. It's incredible that as well as the Red Sox have been and as banged up as the Yankees are, the Yankees are hanging in there and trail the Red Sox by just two games. That puts the Yankees in a three way tie for the second best record in baseball.

What more can you really say about Buchholz at this point? His stat line says it all: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. Both hits were singles and no Jays player got past 1st base until his last inning in the 7th. The only snag he hit was in the 7th when he allowed a 1-out walk and a single where the batter was out at 2nd trying to stretch it into a double. He got the next batter out to wrap up the inning to preserve the 8-0 lead. Another gem from Buchholz.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

With Buchholz's pitch count over 100 and the Red Sox holding an 8-0 lead Alex Wilson was brought in for the 8th inning. Wilson struggled in the 8th, but with such a substantial lead some of it can be written off as pitching for contact. He got two strikeouts, but gave up a single, a triple to score the lone Jays run and then a walk. Clayton Mortensen came in to collect the final out in the 8th. Mortensen came back out for the 9th. Mortensen gave up a leadoff walk, but got the double play and then a strikeout to end the game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B-

The Sox bats were no slouches either coming up with 5 runs on Mark Buehrle and another 5 on the Jays bullpen. Stephen Drew had by far his best game in a Red Sox uniform going 3 for 5 and hitting a two run home run to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the 2nd. Somehow, Drew still managed to hit into two double plays this game. Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava hit back to back solo home runs to start the 4th to increase the lead to 4-0. They put the game out of reach in the 7th. Buehrle got the first two outs in the inning before giving up a walk to Jonny Gomes. With his pitch count climbing Buehrle was pulled from this game for Esmil Rogers with two down and Gomes on 1st base. Pedroia hit a single to advance Gomes to 3rd. Gomes would score on a wild pitch from Rogers to make it 5-0. David Ortiz was intentionally walked and they tried their luck against Mike Napoli, who already had a solo home run in this game. Napoli punished them with a 3-run home run to make it 8-0. Mike Carp added a solo home run in the 9th to make it 9-1 and a Mike Napoli double and a Daniel Nava single would add one more to make the final result 10-1. The Red Sox showed some great power this game with a total of 5 home runs. Everybody managed to contribute something. The only player to go hitless was Jonny Gomes and he managed to reach base twice on a pair of walks.
BATTING GRADE: A+

10 Sox, 1 Houston

Clay Buchholz is the Red Sox ace this year. I have had a lot of questions about him during his whole career, but this year, he's been phenomenal. Buchholz finished the night throwing seven innings and allowing two hits, three walks, eight punch-outs, and no earned runs.

Then on top of that, the bats woke up. Stephen Drew, Daniel Nava, Mike Carp, and Mike Napoli (twice) all went yard.

I can't believe how shitty the Toronto Blue Jay fans are. That was a pathetic showing last night. I thought going into the season that they would be a great team, and obviously it hasn't worked out that way, but the lack of fan support is outrageous. Were there even 2,000 people there last night?

Red Sox @ Blue Jays Preview

Lester was a letdown last night, but tonight the Red Sox have Buchholz on the hill and he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball. He is currently 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA. He has also been very good against the Blue Jays in his career going 8-4 with a 2.60 ERA.

Going against Buchholz is one of my favorite pitchers in the MLB, Mark Buehrle. He is 6-8 with a 4.64 ERA lifetime versus Boston, but has been pretty terrible this year going 1-1 with a 6.25 ERA.

Everyone is wondering if Ortiz can keep up his incredible pace. Since coming off the DL nine games ago, Ortiz has 18 hits in 36 at-bats, and is 22 for 61 (.361) with three homers and eight doubles against Buehrle.

Red Sox win 9-3
Player of the Game: Buchholz
Game starts at 7:07pm