SawxBlog

Jon Lester Loses A Little Luster in May

_{Jon Lester reacts after another disappointing May outing. (AP Photo)}

As we enter the last day of May the Red Sox are in a virtual tie with the Yankees, and are coming off a month that saw them playing the best ball in the Big Leagues. They won 19 of 28 games during the month, and led the league in nearly every offensive category. Last nights 7-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox is only their second back-to-back losses of the month, with the other time coming back on May 5th against the Angels. As the Red Sox flourished in May, Jon Lester, their lefty ace, seemed to hit a bump in the road.

Lester was one of the best pitchers in baseball during April, and posted a 2.52 ERA in six games started. In May Jon saw his ERA inflate to 4.45 in five games started, while he pretty much had the same amount of walks vs. hits in both months, he did pitch nine innings less in May, with the big difference being in opponents batting average. Players hit a lowly .214 off of him in April, but that got bumped up to .275 in May. All this said, it's not like Lester had an awful month, but he didn't have a Jon Lester month, and was flirting with danger more than your accustomed to seeing during repeated starts. This is normally OK, but with both Lackey and Dice-K still on the DL, the Red Sox are going to need to rely on their Big 3 (Beckett, Lester, Buchholz) a little more than normal. And with back-to-back losses by Beckett and Lester, the Red Sox now turn to the surprised success of Alfredo Aceves tonight, who has allowed only two runs in 11 innings.

The Definition of Superstar

_{Both Ortiz and Verlander carried their Team's to Victory yesterday. (AP Photos)}

su·per·star - noun - \ˈsü-pər-ˌstär\

Definition of SUPERSTAR
1 : a star (as in sports or the movies) who is considered extremely talented, has great public appeal, and can usually command a high salary

2 : one that is very prominent or is a prime attraction <a diplomatic superstar>

Yesterday we saw this definition being applied to two very different, yet two very talented athletes. The word Superstar is not passed around lighly, and in order to become one, you have to do extraordinarythings over an extended period of time. All due respect, but Jose Bautista is not even close to a Superstar, and is quite possibly the biggest fraud to hit the scene since Sammy Sosa. But that's another story for another day. The point I'm trying to make is that in order to become a Superstar you have to perform like one for more than a year or two. Superstars are not allowed to be a flash in a pan.

When it comes to baseball, Superstars do things that ordinary, or even great ballplayers, couldn't fathom doing on their best day. Things such as pinch hitting in the Top of the 9th and hitting a go-ahead home-run against the opposing Team's closer. Or facing off toe-to-toe with the hottest pitcher in baseball, and not even out-dueling him, but outlasting him, all the while throwing 132 pitches in an effort that would make Walter Johnson proud. What Big Papi and Justin Verlander did yesterday is will their Team's to victory in their own special and unique ways. They made the impossible real, and showed why they have the titles, salaries, and reputations they carry around. You don't get the title of Superstar just because, you get it because.

Double Trouble in Detroit Today

^{Buchholz and Beckett face-off against the Tigers today and tonight. (SawxBlog Illustration)}

With yesterday's game being rained out, the Red Sox will play a double header today. From looking on Weather.com it's looking a little dicey for today's games, with scattered thunderstorms predicted in the Motor City for both today and tonight, but if they do play the games, the Sox will have their two hottest pitchers taking the hill. In each of their last starts Beckett and Buchholz have combined for 14 IP, 3 ER, 9 Hits, and 10 K's. Their combined ERA on the season is 2.50, with Josh Beckett having the third lowest ERA (1.69) in all of baseball, and the lowest in the American League. The Sox now have a 1.5 game lead in the AL East, and can extend that by at least a half game today if they continue taking care of business, and with these two on the mound, they have a great chance.

I Can Haz Cup?

_{I Can Haz Cup? Hopefully the answer is 'Yes' in the coming weeks. (SawxBlog Illustration)}

No need for a long post today. The weather is gorgeous in Boston, it's a long Memorital Day Weekend, the Red Sox are in first place, and the Bruins are on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals. So get off your computer, get yourself outside with friends and family, and enjoy it, for it appears that the watermark was raised to a new level last night. 

The Ducky Boys - Boston, U.S.A.

Red Sox Get Offensive in Detroit

_{Carl Crawford may finally be coming out of his shell. (AP Photo)}

New city, different opponent, same result. For the second day in a row the Red Sox pounded out 14 runs en route to pulverizing the Tigers on a rainy afternoon in Detroit. Carl Crawford, more than any other Red Sox in 2011, has been visibly pressing for success at the plate, instead of letting it come naturally to him. A large portion of this is derived from the $14,857,143 he's making this year, but I also think it goes well beyond the large paychecks he's cashing, and it has to do with his pride. Time will tell if Crawford can handle the pressures and expectations of playing in a market like Boston, but he sure has shown glimpses he can.

Carl's been most famous this year for his three walk-off hits, but aside from those nights, it's been a grind for our new left fielder. He's now had back-to-back four hit games, and Wednesday was the first time he's had more than two hits in a game all year. Still, getting eight hits in two days is a sure fire way to raise your batting average, and he's now up to .244 on the year. This is after he hit .155 in all of April, so that's no small feat.

In contrast, Crawford's been hitting .306 in May, and over the last week has been scorching hot, hitting.429. Seeing him being able to reach out at stroke outside pitches opposite field really starts to give you a sense of how good this guy is. He's bringing an amazing depth to this Team, and I wonder if Tito would ever consider flopping him and Pedroia in the line-up. Petey's been struggling mightily, and it'd sure be fun to see Jacoby and Crawford hit back-to-back while leading things off. I know Tito would never do this because it'd be two lefties in a row, along with his unwavering loyalty to Pedroia, but if they're both hitting like this, what does it matter?

Red Sox Get Offensive in Cleveland

_{Darnell McDonald and Jacoby Ellsbury celebrate yesterday's beat-down. (AP Photo)}

The Red Sox offense has turned into a Monster. It's big, fearsome, fast, and relentless. Yesterday afternoon it unleashed it's fury and exploded for 20 hits and 14 runs in a blow-out of the Cleveland Indians. The scariest thing about this is that the Red Sox as a collective Team haven't even been hot at the same time yet. When that happens the beast will morph into a juggernaut, and that's when the Sox may begin to out-pace the rest of the AL East. The Sox offense couldn't have picked a better time to begin heating up either, with their rotation being in some limbo due to injuries to Dice-K and Lackey, they'll need to score more runs to win games, and that they're doing.

The only "bad" thing about yesterday's win is that you wish they could have saved those runs for a less capable pitcher than Jon Lester. But you'll take 'em when you can get 'em, and right now the Red Sox are scoring runs in bunches, and the Monster is showing his teeth, flashing a smile that's menacing to opponents, and beautiful to the Faithful.

Team Offensive Rankings - May 2011 (MLB Ranking)

• Runs Scored - 122 (1st)
• Hits - 241 (1st)
• Doubles - 49 (1st)
• HR - 26 (3rd)
• Total Bases - 388 (1st)
• RBI - 116 (1st)
• Avg - .294 (1st)
• OBP - .356 (1st)
• SLG - .472 (1st)
• OPS - .799 (1st)

The Captain Strikes Back

_{Jason Varitek turned back the clock on Tuesday Night in Cleveland. (AP Photo)}

I've been hard on Jason Varitek. OK. Maybe I've been extra hard on him. Maybe I should allow the slack so many other Red Sox fans seem to give without hesitation. Jason's been with the Sox since 1997, has caught multiple no-hitters, won two World Series, a Gold Glove, appeared in numerous All-Star Games, and has called countless gems. I respect these accomplishments to the utmost degree, and for me, a 32 year old guy who graduated from High School the same year Tek came to Boston, in my mind he's the best Red Sox catcher of all-time. With all due respect to Fisk of course, but I never saw Carlton play live, or on a daily basis like I have with Jason. I'm of a different generation, and Varitk is my catcher, and he helped bring the Sox and their staff to the Promise Land. Twice.

So why have I been so hard on him? Simply put, to balance out the Sox fans who blindly clamor for 2004/2005 Tek, when it's six years later, and he hasn't hit higher than .255 since. Part of it also has to do with my hope in Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who because of Tek's spectacular career, has bloated expectations from the Faithful and a very short leash. My attempt to balance the homer heads was starting to go too far though, and I was forgetting what our Captain has meant to this franchise. I tweeted last night the following:

When catching with runners on base, Jason Varitek is a liability. When hitting with runners on base, Jason Varitek is a liability. #Pattern

Call it a reverse jinx, call it what you will. But Jason went on to hit a two run HR which ended up being the difference in the game, and he also threw out two runners on the base paths while calling another great game. Now, before you get too excited with pie, crow, and told you so's - this was Jason's first Homerun in nearly a year, he's still only hitting .209, and with those two throws he doubled his total with caught base stealer's (4 out of 22), and is now good for catching people at only a 15% clip. I still think he's well past his prime, but I'm going to try and better appreciate the game's he's in, because there's not that many left. Pedroia should get the 'C' once V-Tek hangs up his spikes, but in the meantime he's still our Captain, and last night, although only for one game, he showed all the reasons why.

Bard & Jenk's Struggles Point to Papelbon's Value

_{Tito helps Pedroia off the field after what looked like a serious injury. (AP Photo)}

I was still basking in the glow of the Bruins Game 5 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning when I switched from Versus to NESN, and instantly my feel good mood turned a little sour. Daniel Bard, who is entrenched in the worst slump of his short professional career, had again given up runs late in a game, costing another Red Sox starter a deserving win, and putting his offense in a tight spot, with very few outs to work with. Such is the life of a set-up man I guess, and really any reliever when you think about it. The margin for error is razor thin, and a string of appearance's on the wrong side of the line can not only affect a fan bases confidence, but also a player's, and I think Bard's is at an all-time low right now.

You don't know if you'll be getting Dr. Jeckle or Mr. Bard when he comes out of the bullpen, and he's far removed from the lights-out set-up guy he was in 2010. It seems like even he doesn't know where his pitches will end up, and lately looks like a one trick pony, throwing fast and hard, while hoping for good results. Over the last seven days Bard's pitched 3.2 innings, given up four hits, three runs, and has a 7.36 ERA during that time. Having some additional support from Jenks would be nice right about now, but this all comes back to Jonathan Papelbon, who I think has been taken for granted these past few years.

It was all but written in stone in Spring Training that either Bard or Jenks would be his successor in 2012, and two months into the season neither look like a viable replacement. Meanwhile, Paps has bounced back from an off year and is looking like the dominant closer of old. He's going to command top dollar in the off-season, but isn't he worth it? Who has been more valuable to the Yankees over the past 15 years in the playoffs, Derek Jeter, or Mariano Rivera?

I know Bard will most likely turn it around, and this is hopefully just a down period for him, but I think it points strongly towards Papelbon's value, which should finally start being realized again, or nights like last night, may be the norm in 2012.

Tim Wakefield is the Richard Alpert of the Red Sox

_{Tim Wakefield's knuckleball baffled the Chicago Cubs Sunday Night. (AP Photo)}

Tim Wakefield pitched a vintage game last night, giving up only one hit through five innings, and only four total on the night. The 44-year old knuckle baller once again proved why he's been one of the most valuable and versatile players in Red Sox history. Wake always steps up to the mound and does what's asked of him, and from a pitching stand point, has worn every possible hat you can imagine with the Red Sox. He's pitched as a top of the line starter, a closer, middle reliever, in long relief, and everywhere in-between. Last night he took on the role of spot starter, and shined brightly in front a National audience on Sunday Night Baseball.

When you're asked to do a job and you do it well -- I take a lot of pride in that. - Tim Wakefield

Wakefield began pitching in the Major League's in 1992 with the Pirates. Think about that for a second. That's 19 seasons in the Big Leagues. What were you doing in 1992? I was a 12 year old punk whose favorite player of all-time was Mike Greenwell. I loved Greenwell so much that I even changed my batting stance in honor of him, pointing my left toe-up, much to the chagrin of my Dad and Coach. Mike Greenwell's last year as a player was in 1996, meaning he was a Teammate of Wake's for two full seasons, which I find pretty incredible. 

Those Teams with Mike Greenwell, Mo Vaughn, and Jody Reed seem like they happened about five lifetimes ago, and in a baseball sense - they did. Wakefiled is like the Richard Alpert of the Red Sox. He's just always been around, and has been through so many incarnations of the Team. From different Owners, Front Offices, Managers, and Teammates, Wakefields always been the one constant for Red Sox fans, and I think we often take him for granted. He was with us through some pretty lean years in the 90's, he pitched that ball to Aaron Boone on the darkest of days. Wake came out of the bullpen in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS for the better of the Team, and he's now a mentor and silent leader on the Team, and an absolute saint off the field, doing more charity work than any Red Sox player, possibly ever.

I bet that if you look back on those pictures from the 1918 World Series you'll see that familiar face smiling at you from the back row, for I'm beginning to believe Wake's always been there to help steer the Sox in the direction of good, and it probably won't be until he's gone, that we'll truly understand all that he's done for the Sox and their fans.

Sloppy Eighth Ends Sox Win Streak

_{Men in period costumes announced hitters to the Fenway crowd last night. (AP Photo)}

First off, let's hope last night is the last time we ever (and I mean ever) have to see the Red Sox in those God awful uniforms. Only David Ortiz looked cool in it, and that's because he looked like the Black Babe Ruth, he also looks good in pretty much anything, bedazzled dragon t-shirts included, so that really doen't tell us much. Aside from that though, I'm not going to read too much into last night's loss collapse. Apparently Terry Francona watched the Bruins choke job earlier in the day, and decided to pull a Claude Julien and not make a move until it was too late.

I understand Wake's starting tonight, and Francona wanted some fresh arms for the game, but last night we had a two run lead and only needed six more outs for the win. When you're that close to victory, stubbornness is not a virtue. Albers was out there waaaaaay too long, and ultimately that's what cost the Sox the game. The Red Sox did play like a bunch of Tee Ballers after that though, dropping balls, and throwing them with the reckless abandon of an eight year old in need of some ritalin. They looked pathetic, and it was a disappointing way to end the game.

This all said, we were bound to lose a game eventually, and the Sox have been pretty lucky with some of their wins as of late. I'll take winning seven out of eight games though, I just hope their sloppiness doesn't carry over to tonight, where we'll have to endure some more awful announcing with ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball Crew.