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.

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.

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

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

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+

Red Sox Grades

This was a frustrating game for the Red Sox. It was essentially a complete pitching failure. John Lester had a terrible start, the bullpen gave up multiple runs and a good day for the Red Sox at the plate was squandered.

Jon Lester struggled for most of this game. It seemed like every hit, walk, hit batter and error came back to haunt him and put runs across for the Blue Jays. Part of this is just bad timing, but to some extent he shouldn't have been in those positions in the first place if he had been pitching well. It was disappointing to see this as Lester had pitched so well against the Blue Jays 3 weeks ago and he struggled in his previous start against Oakland as well. Hopefully this isn't Lester reverting back to his 2012 form.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: D

The Red Sox bats came through in the top of the 7th putting 3 runs up to give the Red Sox a 7-6 lead when Junichi Tazawa came on for the bottom of the 7th and struggled. After getting the first two batters out Tazawa walked Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion hit his second 2-run home run of the game to give the Jays back the lead. This was a poor showing from Tazawa, but I think it's important to keep some perspective on this. This doubled Tazawa's earned run total for the season from 2 to 4 and Tazawa leads the bullpen in innings pitched. Joel Hanrahan made his first appearance since coming off of the DL with the task of keeping the game within a run for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 8th. Hanrahan didn't help matters by giving up a leadoff single, the runner advanced on a sacrifice and was brought home by another single to make it a 2 run game headed into the 9th. I'm not overly concerned because the bullpen has some solid depth to it, but Hanrahan hasn't looked good. This was hardly a meltdown like the ones he was having before his DL stint, but this is unacceptable if he wants to get back into the closer role.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

The Red Sox had a pretty good night at the plate that went to waste because of bad pitching. David Ortiz and Mike Carp hit solo home runs in the 4th to cut the lead down to 2. Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia all hit singles in the 5th to add one more. Jonny Gomes hit a solo shot in the 6th to add another. Ellsbury hit a single, Daniel Nava reached on error and Dustin Pedroia worked a walk to load the bases for Big Papi. Papi hit a bases clearing double to put the Red Sox on top 7-6. Unfortunately, Tazawa blew the lead shortly thereafter and the offense couldn't produce anything in the 8th and 9th. Ortiz had another great night going 2 for 5 with a solo home run and a 3-RBI double. His boost to this offense has been tremendous. Pedroia had a 2 for 4 night with two singles, a run, an RBI and a walk. Jacoby Ellsbury got on base 4 times with 2 singles and 2 walks, but had a costly baserunning error in the 5th. Mike Napoli had a tough night striking out in all four at bats. Daniel Nava went hitless, but managed to reach and score a run on an error. Will Middlebrooks went hitless and hit into an inning ending double play in the 4th.
BATTING GRADE: A-

My Patriots Draft Thoughts

With all 3 Boston teams off last night I thought I might jot down my own take on the Patriots 2013 draft class and some counterpoint to The Captain.

The Captain has been pretty vocal about his position of unquestioningly supporting every decision Bill Belichick makes in this draft and has largely been his response to a free agency period that left a lot of Patriots fans scratching their heads. I don't think that this is a bad position to take and I drink plenty of the BB Kool Aid myself. Bill's personnel decisions work out a reasonable amount of the time and if not he usually puts himself in a position where he didn't really lose much, cuts the player and moves on. I also think sometimes people forget that his job in getting value out of the draft is harder when you're consistently getting natural picks that fall in the later part of the round almost every season. The lost first rounder to Spygate was a significant setback as well. The Captain is also correct that Boston is not a college football town. Most of the fans and sports media in this town, myself included, might know a little about BC football but not much else. That said, our opinions on these high level prospects coming out of college aren't derived from throwing at a dart board. I recognize that Bill has expertise in this field, but I recognize that other well informed people have formed and publicized their opinions on these players and Bill's selections as well and don't agree with the course/players he has taken. These media personalities get it wrong a reasonable percentage of the time, but Bill has also made plenty of picks that looking back haven't panned out.

The Captain's go to must answer question in his criticism of those who are critical of Bill is "Who would you take at 29?", but there's more to the equation than that prior to being put on the clock with the 29th pick. None of the talent at 29 was particularly exciting, but there did seem to be some highly regarded talent that projected to contribute immediately higher up in the draft and this was reportedly a buyer's market. This puts me in the unfortunate position of speculation, but what would it have cost for the Patriots to move up into picks 1-8 and get somebody like Tavon Austin? That's a question I'm never going to be able to answer definitively, but based on the reports of teams wanting to move down I believe there may have been a bargain to be had here. I'm just using Austin as an example here because I think wide receiver is a position of need and Austin was well regarded by talent experts, but I think there had to be somebody in this draft that was a high probability elite player that would have been a significant upgrade at a position of need and the Patriots could have sacrificed some later picks to move up and get him.

The problem I have with the Patriots approach to this draft is that they approached it in a way that would better suit a rebuilding team or a team with a lot of holes. I would really like the Patriots trade down if I were the Ravens. The Ravens had a mass exodus of players after winning the Super Bowl and they don't have the cap room to fill all the holes it seems. Trading a quality elite player for a quantity of competent warm bodies would make a lot of sense in that situation. After the free agency period and coming into the draft I feel like the Patriots are a mostly complete team and upgrading to an elite player at a position of need could be what puts them over the top. Instead of that I feel like we got some more depth and lottery tickets. This is all compounded by the fact that Tom Brady is getting older and I think everything possible should be done to maximize the opportunity to win a championship while he is still here. I think Tom himself realized this when he agreed to such a team friendly deal for what will most likely be the remainder of his NFL career.

I also don't understand why Bill seems to get so aggressive to pick players that nobody else seems to be interested in. As a coach who seems to place such a high value on draft picks it's strange to see him burn them on players that are projected to go much later in the draft  or go undrafted altogether. I can understand that maybe he/his scouts see something in a player that other teams/scouts don't, but why not try to maximize that advantage? Was he really that concerned that somebody was going to swoop in and get Tavon Wilson from him that he needed to burn the 48th overall pick to get him? People were projecting him as being a 7th rounder. You could snag him with a 4th or 5th rounder just to be on the safe side and still net a huge amount of value. The same could be said of the Duron Harmon pick this year. Maybe the Sports media completely misread the market on both of these guys and I was satisfied with Wilson's contribution as a rookie last year, but it seems like a significant value loss for minimal risk. It's possible that Bill knew something everybody else didn't about other teams being interested in these guys, but barring that he either misread or disregarded the market demand for these players.

I'm not incensed by any of these picks or think that they're serious errors in judgment by any stretch, but the picks don't make much sense to me and knowing Bill I don't think we're ever going to really get his actual thought process behind his picks which will make it more frustrating.

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+

Red Sox 7, Astros 2

This game had to heavily favor the Red Sox. The Sox have the best record in the American League and Houston has the worst record in the American League. Clay Buchholz is one of the hottest pitchers in baseball winning all of his starts and Philip Humber is one of the coldest losing all of his starts. It was almost like a trap game for the Red Sox. The Sox got to Humber early and often and chased him from the game with two outs in the 5th after giving up 7 earned runs. The Red Sox were done scoring for the night after that, but they had all they were going to need.

Although Jon Lester has been pitching relatively well, Clay Buchholz has been the Ace of the staff up to this point. This was a bit shaky of a start for Buchholz as he got into some trouble in the 2nd inning after allowing a leadoff double and a single. He got the double play on the next batter and the run scored from third to clear the bases. Buchholz struck out Rick Ankiel to get out of the inning with just the one run. Buchholz got caught with a leadoff double again in the third. Another run would score on a single. After that Buchholz clamped down and cruised for the rest of the game. Buchholz was pulled in the 8th after a two out single. Buchholz's worked 7.2 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 earned runs with 10 strikeouts on 109 pitches. That makes 5 wins and 5 quality starts in 5 appearances for Buchholz.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

Buchholz didn't leave much work for the bullpen, but Miller and Bard managed to work efficiently and not implode. Buchholz handed off the game to Andrew Miller with a man on 1st and two outs in the 8th inning of a 7-2 game. Miller collected the out on 4 pitches. Daniel Bard came out for the 9th with a comfortable 7-2 lead. We haven't seen Bard yet this year after his disastrous season last year with the attempted conversion from setup man to starter. He was recently called up from the minors after Alfredo Aceves was optioned to Pawtucket. I would like to think that Bard still has something to contribute. It wasn't so long ago that Bard was a pretty good setup man and considered the heir to the closer role once Jonathan Papelbon left for greener pastures. Bard had an uneventful outing giving up one hit and recording one strikeout in his inning of work. Not dominating stuff, but solid.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

Everybody on the Red Sox lineup managed to get something going this game as every player with an at bat managed to reach base. Daniel Nava and Stephen Drew went hitless but managed to get walks. Mike Carp, David Ortiz and Salty all managed to have multi-hit games. David Ortiz managed to raise his batting average from .500 to .550 and looks spectacular for a guy who is 37 and missed spring training entirely. He'll cool off eventually, but it's great to see Ortiz off to such a strong start this season. Ortiz also nailed his first homer of the season, a solo shot in the third. It does bother me a bit that the Red Sox offense seems to show a trend of getting complacent with an early lead sometimes. They'll knock out a starter early in the game and then just coast against the bullpen for the rest of the game. I think sooner or later they're going to get burned when a team stages a big comeback. Still, a strong outing where they managed to capitalize on some opportunities to get the easy win.
HITTING GRADE: A-

Red Sox Grades

This was a bad outing for Jon Lester. He allowed a ton of baserunners and was very fortunate not to get burned by it any worse than 3 runs. Luckily the bats and the bullpen picked up the slack and delivered Lester his 4th win of the season. The Red Sox are still undefeated when Lester starts going 5-0. The A's are a very strong offensive team as we learned Tuesday night, so hopefully this says more about their hitting prowess than it does about Lester's production dropping off. Lester's next start will be against a last place Toronto team that's middle of the pack in terms of run production. Last time Lester matched up against Toronto he threw 7 shut out innings, if he struggles there I might start to get a little worried.

This entire game was a struggle for Jon Lester. He gave up hits, he gave up walks and his pitch count soared. He got bailed out by two double plays and was lucky to get out of this game only giving up 3 runs on a 3 run home run by Chris Young in the 4th and in position to pick up the win. When he left Tazawa bailed him out of a 2 out bases loaded jam. When all was said and done he pitched 5.2 innings, gave up 6 hits, 6 walks, 3 earned runs and got 5 strikeouts. By no means an impressive start from the ace, but the game was still in their grasp so he gets some credit for that.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C

Junichi Tazawa came into a tough situation to finish out the 6th inning with 3 runners on base and 2 outs and came through by getting Coco Crisp to fly out. Tazawa seemed to be cruising in the 7th as well until Jed Lowrie hit a 2 out double and he was brought in by a follow up single. After this Miller was brought in to close out the 7th. Miller collected the strikeout to end the inning. Koji Uehara came out for the 8th with a 6-4 lead and immediately gave up a solo home run to Chris Young to cut the lead to 1 run. Young had a monster game against Red Sox pitching going 2 for 3 with a walk and two home runs. Uehara managed to settle down after this and got the next 3 batters in order with two strikeouts. Uehara has definitely cooled off from his early season form giving up a solo home run in each of his last two appearances. Bailey came on to close in the 9th and was really impressive striking out the side while holding on to a slim 1 run lead.
BULLPEN GRADE: C

The Red Sox offense was pretty quiet for most of the day, but managed to get some serious damage done in the 4th and 5th innings to provide the necessary runs to win this game. In the 4th Ortiz and Napoli hit back to back doubles to get on the board. Jonny Gomes walked and Stephen Drew hit a two out triple to score two more. It was Drew's only hit of the night, but it was a big one. The Red Sox kept the pressure on Brett Anderson in the 5th as Ellsbury lead off the inning with a single and then stole second. Victorino brought Ellsbury in with a double. Pedroia and Ortiz had back to back singles to bring in Victorino. At this point Bob Melvin had seen enough of Anderson and pulled him for Chris Resop. Resop didn't fare much better immediately hitting Napoli to load the bases. Daniel Nava got a single to bring in Dustin Pedroia from third and keep the bases loaded, still with no outs in the inning. Resop managed to get Will Middlebrooks out before being pulled for Jerry Blevins, the third A's pitcher of the inning with bases loaded and one out. Blevins got the final two outs to end the threat and keep the game in striking distance for the A's at 6 to 3. The top and middle of the order did a lot of the heavy lifting this game with Pedroia, Ortiz, Napoli and Victorino all coming in with doubles, contributing runs and RBIs. Ortiz has been a real shot in the arm for this lineup, but he's still looking for that power stroke as we wait for his first home run of the year. Daniel Nava had another good game going 2 for 2 with an RBI. Middlebrooks continues to slump going 0 for 4 in the game and 0 for 2 with runners in scoring position. David Ross also went 0 for 4 in this game and 0 for 2 with runners in scoring position. The catcher spot has been a real problem this year for the Red Sox. Salty is inconsistent at the plate and terrible defensively. Ross is a better defensive catcher, but I don't think we can realistically expect to see much production out of him at the plate.
Hitting Grade: B+

Red Sox Grades

This game was just a complete failure for the Red Sox. Right after getting arguably their best win of the season they endured their worst loss of the season. The umpires mercifully called off the game in the 7th because of the rain, but this game was over long before the end of the 7th. Alfredo Aceves had a complete meltdown. In his major league debut, Steven Wright didn't help matters on mop up duty once Aceves was pulled from the game. To top it all off the Red Sox managed only 3 hits in 7 innings on Bartolo Colon. I'm astounded Bartolo Colon is still pitching in the majors. I remember he made some starts for the Red Sox back in 2008 when he was considered washed up. Apparently, Colon is still bouncing around the league and he's currently 3-0 this season in 4 starts. Hopefully the Red Sox can move past this with Jon Lester on the mound tonight.

We all knew that Alfredo Aceves wasn't supposed to be a major league starter, but he had chugged along making some spot starts with John Lackey injured and finally we got burned by him. He had a complete meltdown in the 3rd inning that carried over to the 4th when they were hoping Aceves could at least eat some innings and preserve the bullpen. The third inning looked like a lowlight reel that should have had the Benny Hill music going in the background.

All totaled the third inning had 3 walks, 3 hits, 6 runs, 2 throwing errors and 2 balks. This was profoundly bad. They sent Aceves back out in the 4th in the hopes of preserving the bullpen, but he quickly gave up a 1 out, two-run home run at which point he was mercifully pulled from the game. There's a lot of buzz going around that they're going to release Aceves today and I wouldn't complain if they did.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: F

Steven Wright was brought in on mop up duty and didn't fare much better than Aceves in his major league debut. He induced a double play to get out of the 4th, but gave up a bunch of walks and hits in the 5th to give up another 4 runs. He walked two more batters to start the 6th and got hit up for another run on a double to create the final tally of 13-0. At least he managed to get out of a 2nd and 3rd with nobody out jam and didn't give up any more runs in the 7th. After the 7th the umpires did everybody a favor and called this game.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

As bad as the pitching was, you won't win many ball games if you don't score any runs and that's exactly what the Red Sox did. Pedroia, Salty and Gomes all managed a single and Ellsbury worked a walk. That accounts for all 4 Red Sox baserunners this game. Pathetic.
HITTING GRADE: F

Red Sox Grades: Red Sox 9, A's 6

The A's are arguably the best team the Red Sox have faced so far this season. They were off to a comparable start to the Red Sox and won the AL West last season. A.J. Griffin went 7-1 last season in 15 starts and was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA. This was one of those "Who's the top dog in the AL?" sort of games. The Red Sox rocked Griffin for 9 runs with a 3-run shot from Middlebrooks and a grand slam from Napoli. They literally doubled Griffin's ERA to 4.50 overnight. They finally were able to deliver a knockout blow and capitalize on the A's mistakes. Great teams capitalize on mistakes, shut the door and when one part of the team isn't doing so great another part steps up to compensate. The Red Sox have been reliant on their pitching to get by for the most part this year, but when the pitching was mediocre in this game the bats picked up the slack. It's also always nice to force an opposing bullpen to eat 4 innings in the first game of a series as it may limit their options in the remaining 2 games. A very encouraging win after dropping two games in that doubleheader to the Royals.

This was Doubront's best start of the season thus far. He went deeper into this game than his two previous starts and kept the run total low. This is more impressive considering that the A's lead the AL in runs scored this season. If he had wrapped up the 7th inning he would have had a quality start, but his pitch count was up to 113 when they pulled him from the game. It's nice to be getting this kind of production out of the back of your starting rotation.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+

Doubront handed off the 7th inning to Clayton Mortensen with two outs and nobody on base. Mortensen wrapped up the 7th without an issue but hit some trouble in the 8th. A walk, a hit batter and back to back doubles cut the Red Sox lead to 3 in hurry. Alex Wilson came in with Josh Reddick on 2nd and 1 out. Wilson walked a batter and was pulled for Tazawa. It was scary to see the tying run come to the plate in a game where the Red Sox scored 9 runs, but Tazawa got the next two batters to end the inning. Andrew Bailey came on for the 9th and allowed a leadoff walk but got the next three batters to end the game and pick up his fourth save. Outside of Mortensen's mini-meltdown and Alex Wilson's one batter the bullpen wrapped up this game reasonably efficiently.
BULLPEN GRADE: C

I mentioned earlier that A.J. Griffin is typically a solid pitcher, but the Red Sox nailed him hard in two innings. Ortiz and Napoli went back to back with doubles to get on the board in the 2nd inning. In the fourth the Red Sox gave themselves some breathing room with a 3-run shot from Will Middlebrooks. The 5th is when they really broke this game open. Shane Victorino lead things off with a single. Pedroia hit what was most likely going to be a double play ball, but Andy Parrino bobbled the catch and dropped the ball and everybody was safe. David Ortiz worked a walk to load the bases and Mike Napoli hit the grand slam to make it 8-3. Daniel Nava hit into an out, but another error had him safe at first. At this point absolutely nothing was going right for Griffin and they pulled him from the game. Another run scored on a double from Salty. The double from Salty was the last hit the Red Sox would have in this game. The Red Sox would reload the bases with walks to Victorino and Ellsbury, but no more runs would score. Just about everybody in the lineup managed to contribute something this game, but Mike Napoli was an absolute beast going 2 for 4 with 5 RBIs. The only Red Sox player to go hitless this game was Dustin Pedroia and even he managed to reach on error and score a run. the 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position and 8 men left on base is still concerning, but the big homers from Napoli and Middlebrooks really take the sting out of that.
HITTING GRADE: A+

Red Sox v. Royals Weekend Series Grades

This series was initially intended to be a Friday, Saturday and Sunday  weekend series, but the Friday game was postponed due to the manhunt for the remaining Boston Marathon bomber. As a result there was a day/night double header on Sunday. Unfortunately, the Sox dropped both games in the double header to lose the series at Fenway.

GAME 1: Red Sox 4, Royals 3

The offense was pretty anemic this game, but once again the Red Sox won on the back of really exceptional starting pitching from Clay Buchholz.

This may have been Buchholz's worst start of the season, but it was still a gem. He worked 8 innings, gave up 8 hits, 2 earned runs, a walk and recorded 6 strikeouts on 104 pitches. His ERA more than doubled from 0.41 to 0.90. He currently leads the majors in Wins, innings pitched and ERA. He hit a little trouble in the 5th allowing a leadoff double and then a one out single to score the runner. He struck out the last two batters to get out of the inning. He allowed a leadoff double in the 6th as well, but managed to strand the runner at third. He allowed a leadoff double in the 7th as well and this time the runner would score on a two out triple. He got into a little trouble in the 8th inning when he was in a jam with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, but he managed to get the double play to finish out his day. Buchholz collected his fourth win and the Red Sox have won all 4 of his starts this season. As good as Lester has been this year, Buchholz has been better. The continued success of this team is going to depend heavily on Buchholz's ability to stay healthy and effective.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

The Red Sox added 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to give Andrew Bailey a 4-2 lead going in to close out the 9th. It was a good thing they did as Bailey immediately surrendered a leadoff home run to Lorenzo Cain. Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain was on fire going 4 for 4 with a single, two doubles and a home run this game. Bailey made the home crowd nervous giving up a one out single and then a two out walk to put a runner in scoring position with a one run lead. Thankfully, he got the final out and collected another save. Hardly a strong showing for Bailey, but he got the job done.
BULLPEN GRADE: C-

The Red Sox bats were mostly quiet today. They didn't get on the board until a manufactured run in the 6th inning where Ellsbury hit a single and Victorino and Pedroia managed to advance Ellsbury on the out. David Ortiz made his triumphant return to Fenway by driving in Ellsbury from third on a two out single. Ortiz had a respectable 2 for 4 day at the plate with two singles, but he nearly killed the rally in the 8th by hitting into a double play. Jonny Gomes had a pinch hit leadoff double in the 8th and Dustin Pedroia worked a walk to make it 1st and 2nd with nobody out.with the Red Sox trailing 2 to 1. Ortiz's double play ball looked to be a very bad sign for the Red Sox. Fortunately Mike Napoli worked a walk and Daniel Nava brought them home with a 3-run homer. Nava is making a great case for himself to be an everyday player on the Red Sox roster. His RBI/AB ratio is among the best in baseball.
BATTING GRADE: C+

GAME 2: Red Sox 2, Royals 4

This game looked promising for the Red Sox as they put up two runs on Ervin Santana in the 1st inning, but as it turned out they wouldn't score another run for the rest of the game. 2 runs isn't going to be enough to win most ball games. Dempster and the bullpen had a solid game and kept it within reach.

Dempster had a lights out performance in the 3-2 win against the Rays on Marathon Monday, but unfortunately he couldn't replicate his performance against the Royals. He pitched 7 innings of work, gave up 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks and recorded 8 strikeouts on 107 pitches. A solid performance just shy of a quality start. He gave up a one out solo home run in the first inning. Dempster hit some serious trouble in the 4th when he allowed a single, a single and a double to score a runner to tie the game with runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs. He struck out the next two batters, but gave up a two out single to score two runs. Dempster didn't give up another hit in his remaining 3 innings of work. He allowed back to back 1 out walks in the 6th but managed to work around them. Dempster has been pretty solid so far this year, but he is still looking for his first win in a Red Sox uniform and is currently 0-2. On the plus side he is currently 2nd in the AL in strikeouts and seems to be going deeper into games.
PITCHING GRADE: B-

Dempster handed off to Clayton Mortensen in the 8th who pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Some more solid work from Mortensen. Alex Wilson came on in the 9th to keep the game within reach. He got into some trouble allowing two singles. It was nice to see some resiliency out of the rookie reliever in a jam as he got the double play and the final out to keep a run from scoring.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-

The stat that tells the story of this game for the Red Sox is the 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. The only runs that scored were in the first inning. After Jacoby Ellsbury fouled out Daniel Nava, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz all hit singles to score a run. Mike Napoli hit a ground out for the RBI and Salty lined out to end the inning. In the 2nd the Sox managed two singles, but no runs. They went hitless in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings before David Ortiz hit a one out double in the 6th. Napoli advanced Ortiz to third on the fly out and Salty struck out to end the inning. The Red Sox managed to load the bases with two outs in the 8th before Salty grounded out to end the inning. This was an awful game for Salty as he went 0 for 4, three of his at bats ended the inning with runners in scoring position. I feel like Salty either has a great game or a terrible game, unfortunately he picked a bad day to go 0 for 4. Salty isn't the only one to blame for the lack of offense in this game as Stephen Drew and Jonny Gomes also went 0 for 4 with no walks on the day. On the plus side, David Ortiz followed up on his 2 for 4 season debut with a 3 for 4 game with a single, an RBI single and a double. His bat has already had an impact on the lineup getting RBIs in both games. Daniel Nava also went 2 for 4 with two singles.
BATTING GRADE: D

GAME 3: Red Sox 4, Royals 5 in 10 innings

This was a frustrating game because of how winnable it was. Costly errors and missed opportunities piled up to create a loss for the Red Sox.

Allen Webster was one of the no-name minor league acquisitions from the Dodgers in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford/Josh Beckett salary dump trade last season. He had been doing fairly well at Pawtucket this season. Some people wanted to see him come up and get a start rather than Alfredo Aceves. This was his major league debut. He got off to a rough start allowing a leadoff double off of the monster. The next batter hit an infield single. To make matters worse, a throwing error by Pedro Ciriaco put the runner to second with no outs and a run in. It's always informative to see how a rookie handles a pressure situation like this. I thought he responded quite well by striking out the next two batters and getting out of the inning with just the one run scoring. He cruised along well until the 5th inning where he allowed two solo home runs to tie the game 3-3. All in all he pitched 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs (2 earned) a walk and 5 strikeouts on 84 pitches. Not bad for a kid making his major league debut.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B

Webster handed over the slim 4-3 lead to Junichi Tazawa in the 7th. Tazawa had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Following the script they've been following all year long Tazawa handed off the 8th to Koji Uehara. Uehara gave up the tying run on a 2 out solo home run to be charged with his first earned run of the season. Uehara would give up another single before ending the inning with the 4-4 tie still intact. Andrew Bailey came in for the 9th and pitched a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts. Going into extra innings Andrew Miller was called on for the 10th. After striking out the first batter Miller struggled mightily allowing two singles and a walk to load the bases with two outs. He walked Lorenzo Cain to put the winning run across before getting out of the inning. It's really frustrating to see the winning run walked in like that. When those situations come up you have to be able to throw strikes. All in all the bullpen combined for 4 innings of work and 2 earned runs, but those runs were very costly. It was disappointing to see Uehara blow that lead, he had been very solid all year.
RELIEF PITCHING GRADE: C+

The Red Sox had plenty of base runners this game between the 9 hits, 6 walks and an outfield error that put Mike Carp on 3rd base, but they could only produce 4 runs in 10 innings. The 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position and 9 men left on base tells the story of another frustrating day at the plate for the Red Sox. The only 1-2-3 innings for the Royals in this game were the 8th and 10th innings. Mike Napoli hit a leadoff home run to start the second inning. In the same inning Salty worked a walk and Mike Carp hit a double to score Salty from first base. Ellsbury hit a double to leadoff the third and scored off of the a single by Pedroia.  Unfortunately Pedroia was caught stealing so there was nobody on base when Mike Napoli followed up with a double. Napoli would be out on a play at home after Salty hit an infield single to end the inning. These base running errors were costly here. In the 4th Mike Carp got to third base with one out after a miscommunication between the Royals outfielders on a pop fly. Again, the Red Sox couldn't get the runner home. In the 5th the Red Sox managed a run after a one out walk to Nava and back to back singles by Pedroia and Napoli, but with runners at second and third and one out they failed to put the game away and didn't score any more runs. Pedroia managed to get into scoring position with two outs in the 7th, but Salty grounded out to end the inning. Jacoby Ellsbury got into scoring position in the 9th on a single and a steal, but  they intentionally walked Pedroia and Mike Napoli couldn't bring either of them home for the walkoff.
BATTING GRADE: C+

Red Sox 6, Indians 3

I recognize how trivial last night's Red Sox game is in comparison to the events of last night, a murdered cop and my city on lockdown; but I'm stuck at home and there doesn't seem to be much new information in the past few hours.

This was a tight game until the 7th inning when the Red Sox blew it up with a 3-run inning to create some separation. That's the first proper sweep of the season for the Red Sox (the first game of the Tampa series was postponed for rain) and they're currently on a 6 game winning streak.

Jon Lester continued to roll and recorded his third straight quality start. The Red Sox are 4-0 in his starts and he's starting to look like the ace we always hoped he would become. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, 2 earned runs and 5 strikeouts. In the second he allowed a leadoff ground rule double. The runner tagged up and moved to third on a sacrifice fly and then scored on a ground out by Mike Aviles to tie the score 1-1. The second run Lester gave up came in the 5th in a similar fashion. Mike Aviles hit a leadoff double. Aviles advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on another ground out to bring the Indians within a run at 3-2. Outside of that Lester stayed pretty clean and nobody else got beyond second base.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A-

Lester handed off the game to Andrew Miller with a comfortable 6-2 lead in the 8th inning. Miller struck out the first batter, but then hit some trouble by allowing a walk and a single. Both runners advanced on a fielder's choice to third. At this point Andrew Miller was pulled for Koji Uehara to get the final out with men on second and third. Uehara gave up an RBI double to make the score 6-3 before striking out Nick Swisher to end the threat. I think Uehara doesn't do as well coming into the game to get just one out with inherited runners. The only other time he did not have a clean inning was in a similar situation. Still, he hasn't been charged with an earned run this season. Andrew Bailey came in to close in the 9th for his third save opportunity of the season. Bailey had a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout to close out the game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B-

Jacoby Ellsbury had a pretty good 2 for 5 day with a double. Mike Napoli went 2 for 5 with a triple and an RBI. Mike Carp followed up on his great game the night before with a pinch hit RBI single to provide some insurance. Stephen Drew was a black hole in the lineup again going 0 for 4 with no walks. I noticed he hit some balls well, but they weren't well placed. He's hitting .087 so far with the Red Sox. Meanwhile Jose Iglesias is hitting .217 in 6 games at Pawtucket. Iglesias is hardly tearing it up, but I wonder how long Drew can struggle like this before they'll consider bringing up Iglesias again. The laser show added an RBI single and Daniel Nava had an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.
HITTING GRADE: B+

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+