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?

Twins 15, Boston 8

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

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

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

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

Twins 6, Red Sox 1

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

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

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

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

Twins @ Red Sox Preview

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

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

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

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

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

Red Sox Grades

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

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

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

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

6 Sox, 5 Twins

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

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

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

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