| 03 August 2009
With the Yankees on a tear and August approaching, it looked like the Sox were gonna make things difficult for us down the stretch. But a weekend series with the O's and a trade for Victor Martinez have sparked the offense.
After sweeping the Orioles in Camden Yards, the Red Sox are now 11-2 against the O's in 2009... and we still have five more games against them this season!
We saw another mediocre start from Smoltz on Friday and it took a game-winning, 2-run ding dong from Youkilis to steal that victory. Beckett dominated on Saturday because, well, that what Becketts do best. And the Clay Buchholz fumbled him way through four innings on Sunday while the offense posted 18 runs on 23 hits and 7 walks.
I sure am glad we refused to trade Buchholz for Halladay...
In his second game as a Red Sox, VMart blasted his way into the hearts of Red Sox fans on Sunday with a 5 for 6, 4 RBI day while spelling Jason varotek at catcher. Everybody hit in Sunday, but the following should be noted:
Jacoby Ellsbury has 2+ hits in 9 of his last 10 games and is hitting .444 with a homer, 6 RBI, 12 runs and 7 stolen bases during that span.
Youk hit .244 in June and .264 in July but he's 16 for 29 (.551) in his last seven with two ding dongs and seven RBI.
Mike Lowell is riding an 11-game hitting streak. He hit .389 in 10 July games and wenth 3 for 5 with thre RBI yesterday... Tito is gonna have a tough time bencing one of our hottest hitters in an effort to get VMart into the lineup...
Jason Bay got the day off yesterday and watched rookie Josh Reddick go 2 for 6 and hit his first major league home run. Bay hit .192 in July and had just one home run, after hitting 19 in the frst three months of the season. He fanned 29 times in July, but I was suprised to see that he also whiffed 27 times in June and May, so the K's aren't really out of wack. He also walked 23 times in July, so it would appear that balls just aren't dropping in for Bay like they were earlier on. I think that day off (and a few more here and there) will help...
Daniel Bard is nasty. I'm done with the Buchholz experiment and wish we had moved him at the dealine, but Bard is a keeper and I'm glad Theo held onto him. Bard has 22 K's in 13 innings of work from July 1 to today. With Bard, Okajima, Ramirez and Delcarmen all setting up for Paps, we should be pretty tough to beat once we hit the playoffs.
Which leads me to the starters... Beckett is our ace and I trust Jon Lester in a big game, but Brad Penny is not the No. 3 I want in the postseason. I'm really hoping Wake can come back strong this month, but even he scares me with the season on the line... I have no faith in Matsuzaka contributing in 2009 and Smoltz and Buchholz just aren't panning out. So what do we do here?
Penny will get his chance to prove me wrong with two playoff atmosphere games in Tampa and New York this week. If he doesn't rise to the occasion, we could be in a real pickle come October.
Bottom Line: The guys are fighting to keep it close with the Yanks, making this upcoming series in the Bronx even more crucial... we haven;t lost to New York this seaoson, so I expect both side to come out gins a'blazin' ... but first we have to beat Garza and Price...
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