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.

Red Sox Grades

The Red Sox suffered their first major pitching meltdown of the season. It was inevitable, but I didn't expect it to come from our all-star closer. There's a little other blame that can go around, but I'm putting most of this loss on Hanrahan's shoulders. Maybe it was the rain, but the Red Sox also committed their first two errors of the season, both were costly errors that lead to runs. Hopefully this doesn't ruin Hanrahan's confidence. He had been doing reasonably well prior to this. This was also the end of the Fenway sell out streak. It's sort of a shame that it ended with this team rather than the shit show last season like it should have.

The bats were a little quiet tonight. The run total was good (5), but that came on 5 hits and the help of 4 walks. The only players with hits in this game for the Red Sox were Daniel Nava, Jacoby Ellsbury and Salty. Fortunately, all 5 hits were for extra bases as Ellsbury hit a triple and Nava hit a home run. Salty had an exceptional game going 3 for 4 with a homer and two doubles to his credit. Shane Victorino had a sacrifice fly for an RBI. JBJ managed to work a walk. Stephen Drew went 0 for 4 in his Red Sox debut. I wonder how badly Drew would have to struggle before they would bring back Iglesias. Will Middlebrooks went 0 for 4 and seems to have cooled off again. Mike Napoli went 0 for 3, but managed to work a walk. Pedroia was also 0 for 3 with a walk. It's a shame that so many guys were no shows on offense tonight. They might have been able to provide the insurance runs that would have made Hanrahan's meltdown irrelevant or maybe he wouldn't have come in at all.
HITTING GRADE: B

I remember thinking that when the rain delay hit that Ryan Dempster sort of got bailed out of this game. He looked like he got knocked around pretty good, but when you look at this final stat line it's not all that bad: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. He hit some bad breaks with errors in the field that ended up costing him runs (hence the 3 runs given up, but only one earned run). I'm not sure how much more he would have pitched without the rain delay, he was already up to 93 pitches after 5 innings.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C+

If you take Joel Hanrahan out of the equation, this bullpen had a lights out performance combining for 3 1/3 innings, no hits, no runs, one walk and 6 strikeouts. Unfortunately, this was one of those, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" situations.  Have I mentioned that I like Koji Uehara? He pitched another hitless/scoreless inning last night, just like his two earlier appearances this season. Tazawa bounced back nicely from his previous appearance where he blew the save, but lucked into getting the win anyways. Andrew Bailey allowed a walk, but recorded two strikeouts in his one inning of work. That's one hit in 4 appearances for Bailey this season. Joel Hanrahan came in to close with a two run cushion in the ninth. Just like in his last appearance against the O's on Monday, Hanrahan immediately surrendered a lead off solo home run. Unlike Monday, however, Hanrahan didn't collect the necessary 3 outs and collect the save. He got the next two batters with a strike out and foul out, but then he imploded with two outs. It started innocently enough with a single to Ryan Flaherty. It's worth noting that Flaherty had struck out in his 3 previous at bats this game and this was his first hit of the season. Alexi Casilla would come on to run for Flaherty in the one run game and immediately steal second. Salty overthrew second by a mile, but Casilla wasn't able to capitalize on the bad throw and stayed at second. Then Hanrahan issued back to back walks to Nolan Reimold and Nate McLouth to load the bases. Still, all Hanrahan needed was to collect the final out to collect his fourth save. This is when Hanrahan threw a wild pitch to allow Casilla to score from third and tie the game. Still, this was a tie game and certainly winnable. Hanrahan couldn't compose himself and gave up the back breaking 3-run home run on the next pitch. Hanrahan was pulled in favor of Andrew Miller. Miller collected the final out on 6 pitches with a strikeout. If I was giving out individual grades Uehara, Bailey, Tazawa and Miller would all get A's and Hanrahan would get the F, unfortunately Hanrahan tanked the bullpen's performance as a whole.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

8 Baltimore, 5 Red Sox

I can take a loss like this. Championships will have bumps in the road when your striving to it. Joel Hanrahan had a bad game...... whatever. Not a big deal.

The positives are that Ryan Dempster had a pretty decent outing with 5 innings, 1 ER, 7 Ks and then the crazy 88's in Uehara and Taz both pitched hitless innings with 2 Ks each and Bailey (despite the walk) pitched pretty well.

If this becomes an issue with Hanrahan I would feel comfortable making any of those guys the closer.

So is Nava going to be the next hype train guy the Sox are going to pump up, dude has cranked the ball since being in there for Jackie Bradley Jr.

It sucks we blew the game, but like I can say, the positives heavily outweighed the negatives in this game.

Still winning the championship.

Red Sox 7, Yankees 4

The Red Sox are making hay when the sun shines, taking advantage of the injury ridden Yankees, and starting their season 2-0 for the first time since 1999. The Yankees lost starter Hiroki Kuroda in the 2nd when a ball hit his finger. The Red Sox capitalized as Kuroda struggled, then went to work on the Yankees bullpen.

Clay Buchholz scythed his way through the JV Yankee lineup, needing only 96 pitches in 7 innings of work. The one blemish on his outing was a Travis Hafner solo homerun. Buchholz typically struggles against the Yankees and in April. It's April, and these players were technically the Yankees, so good for him.

It was a game the Red Sox should have won. Which is good news for two reasons:

#1. The Red Sox are back to being a team that is supposed to win games.

#3. The Red Sox are winning games they should win. They didn't do that often enough last year, or in 2011.

Are they the best team in baseball or their division? Impossible to tell after 2 games against a hodgepodge Yankee roster. Are they taking care of the business that should be taken care of? So far, yes. That's an improvement. It's refreshing.

Not so refreshing was the fact that Alfredo Aceves allowed a 3 run bomb by Vernon Wells that made the late innings interesting. This worries me because Aceves wasn't reliable at all last year.

In the 9th, Joel Hanrahan was on the opposite end of the spectrum. He looked very sharp, hitting 96 and 97 on the radar gun, with movement.

Jackie Bradley Jr. continued his ROY/MVP/HOF campaign with an RBI single in the 3rd. His first Major League hit.

Jose Iglesias went 2 for 4, and is hitting the softest .556 in history.

The Red Sox knocked in 5 runs with 2-outs. That's my favorite stat of the night. That's the difference between winning 7-4 and losing 4-2 right there, just a few 2-out at-bats.

Ryan Dempster faces Andy Pettitte tonight. With that matchup and Jaromir Jagr coming to the Bruins, I feel like it's 1999 again. I'm going to check my smartphone for the Y2K bug.

-The Captain

I'm Glad To See Andrew Bailey Isn't Throwing A Hissy Fit Over Not Being The Closer

We didn't really get to see much of Andrew Bailey last season. He was brought in to fill the big shoes left by beloved closer, and noted Toradol user, Jonathan Papelbon. Bailey went down with a thumb injury in spring training and didn't make an appearance until mid-August when the Red Sox were already trailing significantly for a playoff spot. When Bailey finally did get the opportunity to contribute he was unimpressive. His final stat line for the season:
19 G
W-L 1-1
ERA 7.04
WHIP 1.891

During the offseason, the Red Sox acquired Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan and immediately gave him the closer role that Andrew Bailey probably expected to assume prior to that trade. Across all sports when a player gets a demotion it's typically the beginning of a bitch fest, especially when the player getting the demotion has any high profile achievements on his record (Bailey was a 2-time all-star with the As and won the Rookie of the Year in 2009). I was pleasantly surprised to see Bailey handling the situation with some humility and class, which has been lacking on this Red Sox team lately.

“Ben had given me a little heads up on that and I said, ‘Hey, whatever makes us better.’ I only get to play this game a certain amount of time and I want to win,” Bailey said Wednesday. “All the accolades are great in the role of a closer, but ultimately everyone here wants to win and that’s the goal.”

“I love it here,” he said. “The team we have is a winner, a contender. We do have a deep bullpen. Starters only have to go four or five innings, really. It’ll be fun down there, for sure. Obviously, everyone’s goal as a reliever is to close, and I’ve said this before, I don’t think my closing days are done and I certainly hope they’re not done in Boston. I love the city. I love being here and it’s close to home (Connecticut) for me.”

“I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do last year, or had that opportunity because of the injury,” he said. “I’m excited about this year to come in healthy and show what I can do.”

This was almost a perfect media answer. I think Bill Belichick would be proud. He prioritizes the team's goals above his own ambitions, admits past disappointments and presents a positive outlook going forward by saying that he expects to close again in the future. I haven't been really happy with what Andrew Bailey has done in a Red Sox uniform thus far, but I do feel good about his attitude.