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.

Blue Jays @ Red Sox Preview

Things aren't going well for the Red Sox. They re losing guys left and right, and are losing games. One could blame the injuries, and it certainly isn't helping, but more than that they are playing really sloppy baseball.

Yet, I think this series against the Blue Jays is going to go really well. Toronto sucks, they spent a ton of money on a bunch of guys that can't stay on the field and are paying for it. Tonight we get Ramon Ortiz (hahahaha), vs Jon Lester.

Lester started out really hot, but has cooled off over his last two starts letting up 8 runs. That being said he is still 4-0 and has an ERA of 3.30, so bitching needs to be kept to a minimum. What does have to worry you is that the last time Lester played the Blue Jays at home he let up 11 runs.

Ortiz is 1-2 with a 5.58 ERA in five career starts at Fenway, he is pitching tonight because Morrow has a stiff neck and had his start pushed back.

Red Sox win 11-4
Player of the Game: Ortiz
Game starts at 7:10pm

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 @ Blue Jays Preview

Lester was a letdown last night, but tonight the Red Sox have Buchholz on the hill and he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball. He is currently 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA. He has also been very good against the Blue Jays in his career going 8-4 with a 2.60 ERA.

Going against Buchholz is one of my favorite pitchers in the MLB, Mark Buehrle. He is 6-8 with a 4.64 ERA lifetime versus Boston, but has been pretty terrible this year going 1-1 with a 6.25 ERA.

Everyone is wondering if Ortiz can keep up his incredible pace. Since coming off the DL nine games ago, Ortiz has 18 hits in 36 at-bats, and is 22 for 61 (.361) with three homers and eight doubles against Buehrle.

Red Sox win 9-3
Player of the Game: Buchholz
Game starts at 7:07pm