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.

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 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 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+

3 Red Sox, 2 Rays

Before the Terror, we kicked off Patriots day with an 11 o clock start time of the Red Sox vs the Rays.

And let me tell you, yesterday made me think there is no doubt that these Red Sox are going to win the World Series. Jon Lester seems to be back, Clay Buchholz is unhittable, and Ryan Dempster just went out there and pitched like he was still with the Cubs and made the Rays looks like the Astros. He went 7 innings let up 1 run and K'd 10. The one shitty thing about this game is that Bailey blew the save (but got the win) and cost Dempster the W.

I really love everything about this team. I like the players, I like the coach, the pitching staff, our bullpen, it seems a lot like a certain cowboy up team we had during a certain world series year.

Maybe one critique on Farrell is that I wish he sent Jackie Bradley down to get more acclimated for the game. Pitchers know that if you go inside on him he won't hit it and he hasn't. Just start Nava until that magic runs out, then figure something else out.

But yea, World Series.

Red Sox Pitching MUST Remain at High Level

This is not the same Red Sox team as last year. Clearly. You can talk about clubhouse chemistry, the coaching staff, the baserunning, and that's all well and good. The true difference maker is pitching.

So far this season, the pitchers are reaching their potential. Last year Beckett was a bum, Lester had a wasted season, Buchholz had a crappy April. Things are so much different this year. So far. And for this team to contend the pitchers must remain at this level of quality, because the offense isn't able to bail them out.

Jon Lester has 2 Quality Starts out of the 3 he's made. He started off 2012 with 2 very good starts, then he struggled. He must remain consistently at or near this level. He's the Ace now. And the Sox rotation is so top heavy that Lester and Buchholz have to collect as many Wins as possible.

The Sox are 6-0 when Lester and Buchholz start. Last year they were 28-34 in those games, and 13-20 when Lester started.

Buchholz had two things to prove this season. Could he have a good start to the season. And could he maintain durability for a whole year. He's answered the first question. And now it's about staying healthy and performing for a full season. The Sox need Buchholz. As I mentioned above, they're 6-0 behind Lester and Buchholz. That means they're 2-4 in their other games.

Ryan Dempster could anchor the middle of the rotation. And how the Sox do in those starts could be the difference-maker in the playoff race. He's looked good. Today he was brilliant, striking out 10 in 7 innings. He's struck out 25 batters already.

These pitchers have to perform. Because the offense isn't that good. Sorry folks. I know you think that aggressive baserunning and "manufacturing" runs is going to make up for the lack of power on this team. But it doesn't. And once the weather warms up and homeruns really start flying for other teams, that deficit will become noticeable.

Coming into today the Sox were 12th in runs scored, 10th in OBP, 13th in SLG. They're averaging 4.7 runs a game. Take out the 13 runs they scored on Aprl 7th, and they're averaging 3.9. That's not good. It's not horrible.

For this team to win, they NEED a good start, they NEED the bullpen to hang on to almost every lead, they NEED to win 1-run games. They will not be able to come back from 5 run deficits. They won't win 13-10 slugfests. The offense just isn't there. The Red Sox blueprint for victory is all about pitching.

Things are once again pleasant at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have a 1-game sellout streak going. The pitchers look good. And they need to continue to look good.

-The Captain