Beaneater

If Baker's gonna nibble all game long against our lineup, he's screwed. The bottom third of our lineup... ugh. The sooner we get the Halls and McD's of the world out of our regular lineup, the better. Plz get better soon Ellsie!

Is it wrong of me to be rooting for a Rays sweep? I just don't see us catching both the Yankees and the Rays this year. I'm resigned to chasing the WC (but would be happy, of course, if we caught fire and made some noise in the division). As it is, I see a not-that-great-looking Yankees squad as eminently catchable. So I say, go Rays. In game-related news, nice Buchholz!

This thread is as good a place as any to deliver my rant; it does have something to do with run prevention (or the lack thereof). About a month ago, there were a number of posters here announcing the death of the 2010 Red Sox. Cooler heads said that it was too early to make any rash statements. The pessimists said, "Well, at what point of the season can we begin drawing real conclusions about whether this team sucks or not?" The answers clustered around a date of May 15. Well, we're there. And even though I'm a glass-half-full guy, it doesn't look pretty. The whole problem is run prevention, and it's got a lot more to do with pitching than defense, as Dipre has said. We're scoring runs -- not sure what our exact rank is, but I know we're among the MLB leaders in runs scored. We're getting guys across the plate. It's just that the other team is getting even more guys across the plate. It's really hard to believe that a staff of Lester/Beckett/Lackey/Buchholz/Matsuzaka/Wakefield can be this bad, but it is. (Well, the bullpen gets a lot of the blame, too, with 9 losses.) We were constructed to win lots of 3-1 and 2-0 games, but instead were losing 11-9 and 7-6 games. I don't have many ideas, and certainly none that haven't been heard before. But I need a little rant. So here are my non-stunning points: 1) I'm all for scrapping Farrell. I don't know that he's the problem; I just know that if you gave our pitching staff to the Cardinals, they'd never lose a game again. There's no way this many good pitchers should be doing this poorly. 2) If I hear anyone else saying, "We really need a big bopper in the middle of the lineup," I'm going to stuff my head into a paper shredder. 9 runs should be enough to win. 2nd in the AL in runs scored is more than acceptable. 3) I'm not without hope. All of our starters have shown flashes of brilliance. It's not impossible that they get all their crap together for a few trips around the rotation, giving us a nice 13-2 stretch. That would narrow the gap between us and the leaders quite nicely. 4) I'm not sold on catcher's ERA as a stat. But does anyone have any clue whether a switch to Martinez as our full-time catcher is part of the problem? Are we pitching any better with Tek behind the dish?

Really good Lester outing just turned meh in a hurry.

Here's an interesting tidbit. Our lineup is almost exactly the reverse of the Detroit lineup, position by position. Sox: SS 2B C 1B DH 3B RF LF CF Tigers: CF LF RF 1B DH 3B C 2B SS Now that's trivial.

Is Detroit even going to have a bullpen left for tomorrow's game?

Pretty much what all of us were expecting from Bill Hall at that point. Right? EDIT: The best part is that Hall didn't allow McD to throttle that little rally in its cradle.

That double down the line would have been welcome last inning with the bases loaded...

I was thinking 6-1 bases clearing double kind of ugly. But, hey, you take what you can get, right?

I hope this gets ugly.

Leyland had Willis on a 7-walk leash, I guess.

I love that "DFA Player X" has become a consistently used compliment here.

You'd think Lester would have noticed that walks are bad.

Walking Adrien Beltre to bring up drew with the sacks packed. I approve! BTW, DFA Ortiz now.

And gettin' paid!

Looks like Willis is getting paid per walk.

Urg. Looks like it's going to be one of those games where there's a "Property of Boston Red Sox" sticker on the first and second base bags, and a force field between 2nd and 3rd.

Let's see that 8 more times, Jonny!

And we're almost... almost even in run differential.

Nice to win a laugher once in a while, eh?

Aaaaaaand... ball game. Buch with only the one run over 6.1. Not shabby at all. 5 BBs, but considering how Gamecast was showing the balls and strikes, I'm interested to see what someone who actually saw the game thinks. TB is three outs away from losing, so that's good. Our DH did OK too.

In other news, Texas has a touchdown and a field goal, but Toronto has kicked 5 FGs.

What the heck, Hall?