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.

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?

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 Complete 4 Game Sweep of Astros

The Red Sox absolutely pounded on the Astros and completed a 4-game sweep at Fenway Park. I don't think you can read too much into this because the Astros are just terrible. They're essentially a AAA team and a prime example of abuse of the revenue sharing system by the smaller market teams. Their combined payroll this season is just over $26 million, by comparison the Red Sox are currently at $154.4 million. Of that $26 million the highest paid player by the Astros this season is Wandy Rodriguez at $5 million, but there's just one little problem: Wandy Rodriguez plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The highest paid player who is actually on the roster is their starting pitcher Bud Norris at $3 million. On the Red Sox that would put him just below our backup catcher David Ross. The entire team is on short money one year deals and they are the lowest payroll team in baseball by a wide margin. This isn't a major league baseball team, this is a scam. To their credit the Red Sox took care of business and swept them out of Fenway winning every game by at least a 4 run margin. This gives the Red Sox the best record in baseball by a 2 game margin of the Rangers. Thanks Astros, welcome to the American League, come back anytime!

GAME 2: Red Sox 7, Astros 3

Ryan Dempster matched up against our old friend Erik Bedard. You remember Erik Bedard? We picked him up from Seattle in late 2011 and he made 8 starts in the later part of the 2011 season including the epic collapse in September. Bedard had a bad year with the Pirates last season and he wound up on the Island of Misfit Ballplayers that is the 2013 Houston Astros. The Red Sox bats knocked him around and chased him from the game early and the Astros were never able to make up the difference.

Ryan Dempster had another solid start going 6 innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and recording 10 strikeouts on 104 pitches. It was nice to see Dempster finally get his first win of the season after taking some hard luck losses. The impressive thing about Dempster continues to be his high strikeout totals. He's currently third in the American League in strikeouts with 43. Astros 3rd Baseman Mike Dominguez had two leadoff doubles that eventually got converted into runs, but otherwise Dempster had a solid game. Despite their laughable payroll, the Astros are middle of the pack in terms of run production this season (15th in MLB) so I give Dempster some credit for that.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B

Clayton Mortensen came into the game with a 6-2 lead in the 7th. Mortensen immediately hit Mike Dominguez and then allowed a bunt single and Dominguez got to 3rd on an error. So immediately there was a two on nobody out jam. Mortensen got the strikeout and then got relieved by Tazawa. Definitely a shaky outing from Mortensen. Tazawa would give up the run on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3. Tazawa allowed a single to bring the tying run to the plate, but Tazawa got the strikeout to end the threat. Tazawa got himself into a dangerous spot there, but he managed to work around it and keep the 3 run lead intact. Koji Uehara came on in the 8th. Uehara has had some struggles lately having given up runs in his two previous outings incuding a blown save against the Royals. He gave up a one out double, but kept the run from scoring. The Red Sox added a run in the bottom of the 8th and Alex Wilson was brought in to finish the game with a 4 run lead in a non-save situation. Wilson pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout to wrap up the game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B

Although the Astros batting is mediocre, their pitching is just awful. They have a team ERA of 5.51, which is the worst in the major league. The Red Sox did eat up the Astros pitching as they chased Erik Bedard from the game after just 3 innings. They got to Bedard early and often. Ellsbury hit a single to lead off the game and scored on a Pedroia double in the 1st. David Ross hit a solo home run in the 2nd. Pedroia hit a double in the 3rd and then scored on a Mike Napoli double. Middlebrooks and Ross hit back to back homers to start the 4th and that was it for Erik Bedard. David Ortiz hit a solo home run in the 5th off of Paul Clemens. The Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 8th, but Jacoby Ellsbury lined into a double play that didn't score the run. Jonny Gomes managed a single to get another insurance run to create the final tally 7-3. Daniel Nava was the only Red Sox player to go hitless in this game. David Ross had a monster night going 4 for 4 with two solo home runs. A solid game against a bad pitching staff.
HITTING GRADE: B+

GAME 3: Red Sox 8, Astros 4

I could have envisioned the Red Sox losing this game. Felix Doubront has been a little shaky at times. Instead Astros pitcher Brad Peacock had the meltdown as the Red Sox rolled to another win.

Doubront pitched 6.2 innings, gave up 4 hits, 3 runs and 4 walks and struck out 8 in 103 pitches. This was Doubront's 3rd win in 4 starts, but he has yet to record a quality start. It's still a nice thing to be able to get solid starts like this out of your fourth starter in the rotation. Doubront had a tough time in the first inning giving up a leadoff single. A hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. A walk and a sacrifice fly would put 2 quick runs on the board for Houston. He gave up another walk to reload the bases with one out. That's 3 walks, a hit batter and 2 runs with one out in the top of the first at that point. Doubront got a pop out that couldn't score the run from third and a strikeout to limit the damage to 2 runs. After that Doubront cruised giving up a walk in the 2nd but getting two strikeouts. In the 3rd he struck out the side in impressive fashion. He didn't hit any real trouble again until the 7th where a leadoff single scored from a passed ball, stealing 3rd base and scoring on a ground out. Doubront allowed a 2 out infield single and Farrell decided it was time to bring in Tazawa. Doubront worked around a really tough jam he created for himself in the 1st inning and then cruised along nicely for the rest of the game and came up just short of a quality start.
STARTING PITCHING: B

Tazawa took over with a 2 run lead in the 7th with a man on 1st and 2 outs. He advanced the runner on a balk and then gave up a walk, but got the strikeout to end the inning. The Red Sox added 3 insurance runs in the bottom of the 7th and Bard came in for the 8th with a robust 5 run lead. With this substantial lead Bard decided it would be best to walk the first two batters he faced on just 9 pitches. At this point Farrell concluded that this might not be Bard's night and brought in Alex Wilson. Wilson gave up a single to the first batter he saw to score a run to create the final score of 8-4. It was nice to see some resiliency out of the rookie again with two on, nobody out and a run scored in the inning. He got the next two outs and would have had the third if not for an error by Stephen Drew. He didn't let the error phase him and struck out Rick Ankiel to end the inning. Andrew Miller came on in the 9th and had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts.
BULLPEN GRADE: B-

The Red Sox chased another Astros starter from the game early retiring Brad Peacock with one out in the 4th. They threatened to score in the first but couldn't convert, but they hung four runs on him in the 2nd. Mike Carp lead off the 2nd with a ground out, Salty worked a walk, Middlebrooks hit a double, Stephen Drew walked to load them up. Ellsbury hit a single to score Salty and Middlebrooks. Pedroia walked to reload the bases and David Ortiz double put two more runs across. Napoli would draw another walk, but a Mike Carp strike out would end the inning. Daniel Nava hit a leadoff double to start the 4th and would advance on the ground out from Pedroia. With Peacock's pitch count climbing the decision was made to pull him for Travis Blackley. David Ortiz hit the sacrifice fly to score Nava from third. The Red Sox would add more runs off of Hector Ambriz in the 7th. Jonny Gomes lead off the inning with a fly out. Salty hit a double and Middlebrooks drew a walk to set the table for Stephen Drew. Drew hit a single to score Salty from second. Daniel Nava singled to score Middlebrooks from second and Pedroia singled to score Drew from third. Mike Carp and Jonny Gomes combined to go 0 for 5, but otherwise everybody in the lineup managed to contribute.
HITTING GRADE: B+

GAME 4: Red Sox 6, Astros 1

John Lackey made his return to the Red Sox rotation matched up against the mighty Bud Norris. As you know from earlier Norris is the highest paid player on the Astros, so things looked grim with their "ace" on the mound.

I didn't really know what to expect from John Lackey. I still don't to be honest. He had Tommy John Surgery, missed a season, came back for one start and left with a minor bicep injury and missed a few starts.  I would like to think that he'll be better after the surgery and the bicep thing was just a hiccup and he could be closer to the pitcher he was with the Angels. He had a solid outing in this game, but still had some bumps along the road. He gave up back to back 2 out walks and a single in the first to put the Astros on the board. He gave up a leadoff single to start the 2nd but then he cruised for quite a while in this game retiring 13 Astros batters in a row. He got into some trouble in the 6th after giving up 3 singles to load the bases with one out, but he managed to work around them and kept the Astros to just one run. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 1 run and 2 walks while striking out 4 on 81 pitches. The pitch count wasn't that high, but given that he was shaky in the 6th and his recent injury problems it was probably best not to push the envelope. This was a really encouraging outing from Lackey and if this is close to what we can expect from him going forward it bodes well for the Red Sox.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+

Clayton Mortensen came in for the 7th inning with a comfortable 5-1 lead to maintain. Mortensen made an error to allow a runner to get on base, but worked around it without an issue. Koji Uehara came in for the 8th after the Sox added a run in the bottom of the 7th to make it a 5 run game. Uehara allowed a 1 run single that advanced to second on a wild pitch, but again he didn't allow any runs. Uehara hasn't been quite as dominant as he was to start off the year, but he's still putting in a lot of quality innings of work. Despite the 5 run lead the de facto closer Andrew Bailey was brought in for the 9th. This makes sense given that the Red Sox have an off day on Monday and he had not pitched since Wednesday against Oakland. Bailey allowed a 1 out ground rule double, but didn't allow any runs and wrapped up the game. A very solid, if not dominating, performance for the Red Sox bullpen.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

The Sox continued to put up big runs against the Astros. Bud Norris was hit on early and often, but only 3 of the 5 runs that scored against him were earned runs and he managed to go 6 full innings. Ellsbury was the only Red Sox player to go without a hit in this game. David Ortiz continues to hit well going 2 for 4 with an RBI double and an RBI single. In the 8 games Ortiz has played this season the Red Sox are 7-1, he has an 8 game hitting streak and he's batting over .500. It's a small sample size and he'll definitely cool off and hit a slump at some point, but for now he's really killing it out there. Stephen Drew's 2 RBI triple was clutch and he seems to be hitting better lately. That said I'm still waiting for Drew's first multi-hit game in a Red Sox uniform. Daniel Nava continues to perform well going 2 for 3 with a double and scoring 3 runs.
HITTING GRADE: B+

6 Sox, 1 Astros

If John Lackey pitches like that every game I will be ecstatic. He went 6 innings let up 1 run and struck out 4. I will take that any day. If he can stay like this , the Red Sox are a sure bet to be the best team in the AL East.

Also, that David Ortiz contract doesn't seem to bad now? All those people who were belly aching about giving Papi a 2 year deal can shut up, because the guy is flat out good. He has 11 RBIs in what seems like a couple games.

I can't say this enough, I love this team and love what John Farrell has done so far. He has been such a good coach over what we saw over the past few years, that it really gives you hope that they will be able to win in the playoffs.

Lackey Looks Good In Rehab Start

John Lackey, in a rehab outing with Double-A Portland, tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings in which he allowed three hits (all on ground ball singles through the infield) while striking out five and walking two. He threw 67 pitches, 45 strikes (67 percent).

I can't believe I am going to say this, but I am looking forward to Lackey being back. It's really not because he's good, I just don't like Aceves as a starter. Lackey is overpaid, sounds like Kermit, and has a face only a mother could love, but for this team right now he is a very good 5th starter, and in the little bit we did see him looked good. Farrell said that is he looked good in this outing he could make his next start. I don't think that's very smart, as it seems like he could use another outing to get his arm strength back. Either way, without a setback, it sounds like he will be back in the big leagues very soon. 

Red Sox Injury Updates (UPDATED)

The Red Sox have been playing great to start the year, but they do have a rash of injuries. Here is the latest.

Lackey is most likely going to the DL. So far the Red Sox are saying there is no sign of a tear, and it seems like he just strained his bicep. It's too bad, because he was actually pitching well, but we won't know more until the results from the MRI are analyzed. For now, the Red Sox are feeling pretty good it won't be a long term injury, and Aceves is most likely going to take his spot in the rotation for the week.

Ortiz is feeling good and has been going through base running drills. He will start extended spring training games today or tomorrow, and the tentative plan is to have play a AAA game on Thursday.

Drew will be back on Weds. He is in AA right now, and will start there for another 2 days. He is 1-10 games down there, so it will be interesting to see what they do with the red hot Iglesias who is 9 for 17 while filling in.

***UPDATE***

Lucchino on @dandcshow re Lackey: 'my understanding of the MRI is that he had a mid-biceps strain, no structural damage'