The Sox were swept last night by the Tampa Rays for the second time this season. I repeat, the World Champion Boston Red Sox have been swept twice by the Tampa Bay Rays before the All Star break. Last night's game was especially disturbing since the Sox had a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th, and lost 7-6. So the question for me is not how bothersome this loss was (answer: very), but rather what was the most disturbing aspect of the loss/sweep. Let's look at some of the candidates: #1)Dice-K's continued inability to eat innings. Despite allowing just 2 hits and 1 run he also walked 5 and as a result it took him 101 pitches just to pitch 5 innings. #2)Middle Relief. Oki gets moved out of the setup role and pitches a strong 6th but then Manny D and Hansen combine to face 6 batters in the 7th, retire none, and all 6 score. #3)Ellsbury goes 0-4 and leaves 4 on base. In his last 15 games he is 11-59 (.186), 5 runs, 2 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2-3 in SB, 10 K and just 2 BB. #4)Varitek's slump. Since getting 2 hits on May 21 Varitek has gone 12-102 (.118) with just 4 extra base hits (3 2B, 1 HR). In that span he has 11 walks and 34 strikeouts. Not good. Wednesday night he was 0-4, 3K, 4 LOB. #5)Tito's rally killing. Calling a hit & run with the tying run on base in the 9th, the very slow Mike Lowell running and the super-slumping 'Tek at bat? Is that serious? #6)Manny was 0-11 with 5 Ks in the Tampa series and the Sox are now 0-5 since his "incident" last Saturday. Since June 11 (62 at bats) he has as many home runs as attacks on senior citizens. #7)Tamps is now 3.5 games up on the Sox, losers of 5 straight, and their fans (with brooms and cowbells) and franchise are growing more obnoxious and annoying by the day. I can't believe I'm being forced to waste energy on hating the Rays!
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9 comments:
That loss last night made me slightly sick. My solutions are:
Dice-K needs to start going 6 (minimum). Let's hope once he's fully recovered that happens.
The Sox just need ONE of Oki, Manny and Hansen to step up....next in line is Aardsma. It reminds me of the year they brought in Ortiz, Jeremy Giambi and Millar and just needed SOMEBODY to work out for them. That's not asking too much, is it?
Ellsbury needs to get going. We are 1000 times better when he's on and stealing. Hopefully the break will be good for him.
Varitek looks awful. Some slumps are the bad breaks of hitting it at guys, but he's missing by a mile. I pray he didn't make the All Star team because he REALLY needs the time off to try and get his act together. If this continues I'm not sure what Plan B will be....I'm only asking for .250
Tito is fine, I think he was just trying to do "something" to get Tek going and concentrating on mere contact...clearly it did not work. I'd love to say you can't blame him for trying, but....
Currently I'm more worried about Manny's lack of power than his clubhouse antics. .279? Not good. A big series in NY can change how everyone, me included, is feeling about him at the moment (though shockingly most of you seem to want to pick up his option).
Not worried about the standings, it's not even the All Star break. Nobody cares who is in first in early July except for Tampa and of course Dan Duquette.
winning cures everything. Take 3 of 4 vs. Yanks and the Rays series is forgotten
Agreed, but lose 3 of 4 (or 4!) and these issue are all multiplied 10-fold
Just so I am not being totally negative here....
Pedroia is playing out of his mind and JD Drew was just named AL Player of the Month for June.
I dont mind Tito calling the hit and run, i do however having a problem with him calling it on back to back pitches. Tek's bat is so terrible right now maybe the first pitch worked cause he made contact, but the 2nd he's gotta make contact twice in a row, he's barely making contact twice a game. Even with all that said My biggest problem with the Sox right now is middle relief. And i am getting kida tired of Dice-BB and his 5 inning max.
My biggest problem right now, aside from the Papi injury that they have no control over, is the middle relief as well. I do think Manny D has been pitching really well lately with the exception of that final game in Tampa though and his stuff is certainly good enough to be a dominant set up guy. It's funny, Delcarmen and Hansen both look like All Stars when they are "on". The curveballs Manny threw A-Rod today were ridiculous.
I am absolutely shocked that in the poll related to this article Jacoby Ellsbury hitting the wall is people's #1 worry. I wasn't even going to make that an option. People are seriously more worried about that than Manny, Lugo or Tek?
Especially after today I would think Tek and Lugo would go to the top of the voting (sweet job in the 9th!) but I still say Papi's injury is the biggest concern to me, especially since we still do not know when we are going to get him back.
I think of the most worrysome of the stats listed in the article are, Tek and Ellsbuy's play. The great thing about the Sox (when successful, and more and more in recent times) is that the non-big name guys always step up.
Whether it is Bill Mueller, Millar, Youk, or Pedroia, Drew, and TEK. To know that you have those guys, who I won't call role players, is something that is super necessary to our success. You know Manny will come through in October, and Papi never causes too much worry (except at the beginning of the season) - but how we get it done, is those 5 - 7 batters, our good setups by 1 & 2....
This is why we don't have to have everyone after our "4" batter averaging 15 mill a year (ala the Yanks)
and technically, I'm pretty sure you aren't actually a senior citizen til 65, but funny line....
I forgot to mention Trot Nixon who also came through in many crucial situations.
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