View from the Monster 5-26

What a start to the week for the Red Sox! Jon Lester opened the four game set with the Royals with a no-hitter. What a comeback for this kid! After battling cancer successfully and returning to the majors, he started the final game of the World Series and now this! Fellow youngster Justin Masterson out-dueled Gil Meche 2-1 for his first major league victory in the second game behind 6 1/3 innings of solid pitching. He allowed three hits and three walks against his five strikeouts, but only allowed the one run in the effort.

Game 3 featured Bartolo Colon’s return to the majors and Red Sox debut. He threw 74 pitches over five innings as the Red Sox are keeping to their plan of bringing him along slowly. He allowed two runs on six hits and two walks, while striking out four and earned his first Red Sox victory. Daisuke Matsuzaka started the getaway game and ran his record to 8-0, largely thanks to the first offensive onslaught of the series. J. D. Drew and Mike Lowell each hit a grand slam to provide the run support. It turned out to be needed as Craig Hansen and David Aardsma each worked through rough innings to tighten the game. Jonathan Papelbon worked through a bit of touble himself, allowing two hits in the ninth, before closing it out for the save and the four game sweep of the Royals.

After completing the homestand undefeated at 7-0, the Red Sox ventured to Oakland for their second visit of the season and were promptly swept. Like the Celtics, the Red Sox cannot seem to lose at home (10 wins in a row, including three consecutive sweeps) and cannot win on the road (seven straight losses and two consecutive series sweeps). Through a nearly even number of home and road games (one extra roadie thus far), the Red Sox are an astounding 11.5 games better at home! They have a third of the road slate out of the way, but I would like the see the Red Sox a little closer to .500 on the road than 10-17.

In the series opener, the A’s jumped on Tim Wakefield early on their way to an 8-3 victory. The Athletics had seven runs in before Dustin Pedroia homered to put the Red Sox on the board. The Sox bats were even quieter in the second game, mustering only a single hit: a seventh inning David Ortiz single, to break up Justin Duchscherer’s possible no-hitter. Duchscherer pitched a fantastic eight innings, out-dueling Josh Beckett, and yielded to Huston Street to save it with a perfect ninth.

Lester took the mound for the final tilt of the series, hoping to join Johnny Vander meer as the only pitchers to throw consecutive no-hitters. However, he allowed seven hits and two walks in only five innings, while giving up four runs, though only three were earned. He did strike out three, but it took 94 pitches to get through the five innings. Since the Sox could only get three runs, Lester took the loss, his second in three starts against the A’s this season.

Craig Hansen gave up a run in his one and two-thirds innings, while Javier Lopez threw three pitches on his way to recording a single out, however, one of those pitches left the yard. Manny Ramirez had three of the seven hits and drove in two of the three runs, but did not homer…again. Big Papi did connect in the first inning, providing the Red Sox their only (and brief) lead of the series, before Oakland tied it in their half of the inning.

After this Jekyll and Hyde week, the Sox dropped half a game out of first behind the Rays, of all clubs. Personally, I could not have predicted that the Rays would have the best record in baseball heading into Memorial Day, though they are an improved team. I guess all they needed to do was drop the ‘Devil’ from their name!

The Red Sox will continue on the road this week, with three in Seattle and four in Baltimore. With each team occupying the basement of their division (and Seattle sporting the worst record in the game), this would be a week to build some confidence on the road.

The Mariners are in the bottom third of the MLB in most major hitting categories, most notably on-base percentage: worst in the American League, second-worst in all of baseball at a paltry .310, mostly because Ichiro Suzuki has not yet hit his stride (he will eventually) and is hitting only .289. The team will steal some bases, paced by Ichiro’s 21, and does have decent power, led by Adrian Beltre’s 10 home runs and Richie Sexson’s nine.

Seattle’s pitching is not much better than its hitting, a bad sign for the team because their home stadium is a pitcher’s park. They are third to last in MLB team ERA, second to last in MLB in batting average allowed, near the bottom in blown saves and save percentage, and have yet to register a quality start, though nine other teams can make that claim as well.

Felix Hernandez, who will match up with Colon in Game 1, has not been the dominant pitcher many had expected thus far, though still good. He is only 2-4, but has a respectable 3.34 ERA and very good 7.62 strikeout per nine inning rate. To his credit, with the team struggling, they are taking it easy with him as it would be foolhardy to overexert his arm to salvage this season.

Part of the relief issues are due to the now-healthy J. J. Putz’s early season disabled list stint. However, a team that spends as many innings in the bullpen as the Mariners do is just the type of team the Red Sox should feast on, and with the anemic offense, Colon and Dice-K (who draws the versatile, but hittable Miguel Batista) can hopefully remain undefeated. Perhaps Wakefield can get back on track in his start against Erik Bedard, who the Mariners acquired this offseason to much fanfare, but has been inconsistent so far.

The second consecutive road trip will end in Baltimore, hopefully with better results than the last. Beckett, Lester, Colon, and Matsuzaka would appear to be the starters in this series. Lester will face off with Daniel Cabrera in a return match from the series a couple weeks ago. Cabrera got the win, but Lester threw six strong innings before the bullpen blew the game.

The Orioles were rolling until this week’s road trip when the Yankees took two of three and the Rays swept them. They will be opening the homestand with three against the Yankees before the Sox come into town. The Orioles do not look to be all that good on paper, so they appear to be settling into where they should belong and the emotional toll of the losing in divisional play appears to be catching up to them. If the Red Sox can get some revenge, the O’s may actually be looking forward to getting on the road and out of divisional play.

Other notes:

• Manny was held homerless on the week again and still sits on 498. He has not homered since May 12 and has only two in the month of May. Maybe he will warm up with the weather.
• Jon Lester announced that his father, John, is fighting cancer, an unhappy commonality between the two. The elder Lester will probably not get his shot at tossing a no-hitter, but we certainly hope that, like his son, he can defeat the disease. This makes me appreciate the season he is having and the no-hitter even more as he has been silently carrying this around with him all season. Only Terry Francona knew until recently, even after the no-hitter. Might he be even better now that he has shed the burden of knowing and will have the emotional support of his teammates?

Tags: Daisuke Matsuzaka, David Ortiz, Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Manny Ramirez, Red Sox, View from the Monster

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