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 You didn't need a crystal ball or super powers to guess that the Red Sox and Yankees would but a few runs on the board this weekend, but when I said on Friday that I expected 40+ runs, I didn't expect them all to come on Friday night.
It was a Friday we'd all soon forget, but there was a silver lining to be seen, even in Froday's 20-11 loss... the offense continued to hit.
The Sox bounced back with more offense on Saturday, beating up AJ Burnett and the Yankees with 15 hits (4 HRs) and 14 runs scored. The fact that they boucned back so strongly after the most heart-breaking loss this season speaks volumes to the idea that this season is far from over.
Sure, Josh Beckett was awful last night and we lost 2 fo 3... but we're basically right back where we started on Friday: 7.5 games back in the East and in control of the AL Wild Card spot.
Would we all have enjoyed a sweep of the Yankees and the smell of the division title back in our nostrils? Sure. But I think most of us had conceded the division before this series and were really just looking for a little redemption this weekend. That didn't really happen, but there were a few items worthy of discussion:
The offense scored 29 total runs this weekend. If we were playing any team save for the Yanks or Angels, we would have walked away with another sweep. That's 9.7 runs per game this weekend and 8.8 RPG per game over the past 6 games. If we keep hitting like that, we'll have a shot at winning every series from here on out and the WC spot should be a lock.
That said, pitching wins championships, right? Well... The Sox have finally accepted the fact that Brad Penny isn't going to win us any games and they've plugged Tim Wakefeld into his rotation spot this Wednesday. If you read this blog, you know this is the best news I've heard in a month. Wake allowed 3 earned runs in 9.1 rehab inning in Pawtucket and looks good to go. Ironically, Tim and his knuckleball should actually bring some stability to this rotation.
Junichi Tazawa and Clay Buchholz have pitched well as of late and I feel much better about them as our No. 4 and 5 than I ever did about Penny and Smoltz. Tito might want to make a note that Tazawa has been solid with Tek behind the plate and struggled in the one start with Martinez catching. If it helps Tazawa and Beckett to have Tek behind the plate, I say give him those two starts every five days... but that's it. V-Mart needs to be in there as often as possible, whether it be at catcher, 1B or DH.
Bottom Line: As soon as we find out what the hell is happening to Josh Beckett - and fix it - The Red Sox will be a formitable team down the stretch. It was all about the Wild Crad befoire this series and it's stillall about the Wild Card now.
If we face the Yankees in the playoffs, we know that we can hit with them, but our pitchers will need to be on point, assuming that 4 of the 7 games to be played in the Bronx...
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