FredLynn

We have GOT to get rid of this stiff. For whoever we can get for him.

Here comes another Jon Lester Easter Egg, gift wrapped for the weak hitting Oakland A's. Lester makes me sick.

f*** Lester. He absolutely sucks. He is worthless, and it has nothing to do with luck. He simply stinks.

Hard to say. Depends on him entirely. He pitched a good inning last time out, but I didn't hear what his velocity was. He needs 95+ to be effective.

Sure coulda used some runs in the first inning there, especially with the leadoff walk. Now Lester has to show us what he is made of. Unfortunately, I already know what he is made of.

Yankmees lose.

You really think so, eh? My guess is that he will be back. Bard, probably not this year.

I sure hope this means we won't see any more of DiceK Matsusaka. If I never see him pitch again for the Sox it will be too soon.

Here are the roster updates: OAKLAND — Aaron Cook will start for the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon. That's regular rest for him. That sets up the Sox to pitch Josh Beckett (Friday), Franklin Morales (Saturday, Game 1), Felix Doubront (Saturday, Game 2) and Jon Lester (Sunday) against the Yankees this weekend. From a matchup standpoint, that makes sense. Cook pitches to contact and against the Yankees at Fenway, that's potentially trouble. Better to pitch to contact against Oakland at Oakland Coliseum. The Yankees also have only a little lower OPS against lefties (.780) than they do against righties (.792). In other news: • Mauro Gomez was called up and Daisuke Matsuzaka was put on the DL. Gomez has played 71 games at third base in the minors, but none since Single A ball in 2009. He's basically here as a righthanded hitting pinch hitter. • RHP Justin Germano is on the way to Oakland. Once he arrives, RHP Clayton Mortensen is likely to be optioned. Adding Germano to the roster would require opening a spot on the 40-man roster, too. • Will Middlebrooks is improving but is not yet on the field. Bobby Valentine said they can always back-date the DL stint if he has a setback, but they're hoping he can get on the field this weekend.

Yankmees and Angels are both losing. We have no more time to waste. Lester must step up and avoid throwing another of his many eggs, and the offense has to get off tonite. There is little time to waste now.

Gonzales again....f***.

He pitched one good inning. Thats what I read anyway.

I was responding to your claim that Beckett is one of the best postseason pitchers ever. While that was true five years ago, this is a different pitcher now. Older. Less consistent. All the postseason numbers are small sample sizes but the fact remains that he has not produced in five years.

Is that because you SAY its not debatable? Of course it is. A crapshoot implies that the outcome is fairly unpredictable. While its not totally predictable, there will be team that is favored and one that is not. Its not even odds at all. We WILL be the underdog in any one game playoff we play, and there is a very good chance it will be on the road. Betting on our chances there would be a fool's bet.

Excellent assessment. Sound logic.

Of course we could win that game. All I am saying is that its most likely going to be a road game against either the Rangers or the Angels, and I don't like our chances given that scenario.

Lackey was useless long before TJ. So was DiceK. Jenks was never useful at all. And as I keep saying, and you keep avoiding, injuries to our position players have failed to keep us from scoring lots of runs. We are second in the AL in runs scored. Sure we would have scored more with Ellsbury and (maybe) Crawford in there, but their replacements have generally overperformed anyway. Our problem is pitching. Here is Mazz's article, which I happen to agree with: Fact: Of the Red Sox' 80 games to date, 69 have been started by Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard and Felix Doubront, their season-opening five-man rotation. Until Beckett and then Buchholz went on the disabled list late last month, not a single one of them had missed more than a start to injury. Further, the Red Sox are 6-5 in games started by Daisuke Matsuzaka, Aaron Cook and Franklin Morales, the last of whom currently looks like a potential discovery. In games started by Lester and Beckett this season - the alleged aces of the staff - the Red Sox are 14-17. At a time when pitchers are reclaiming the game, neither has an ERA under 4.00. Boston's two best starters (in theory) rank 21st (Beckett) and 31st (Lester) among the qualifying 44 AL starters in ERA, which simply is not good enough. And so, when someone like Saltalamacchia refers to "pitching injuries" as he did to the Globe's Nick Cafardo on Monday, he's twisting the facts. Even minus any real contribution from Andrew Bailey or Mark Melancon, Red Sox relievers rank fifth in the AL in ERA (3.10), and they could be as high as second (Oakland, 3.00) by the end of the night. Injuries have not been the real problem on the pitching staff. Execution has.

Yeah, thats Ellsbury's ball. So he calls for it and if Beltre doesn't back off he has to know that Beltre weighs about 100 lbs more than he does. The right move if Beltre keeps coming is to avoid the collision and let the foul ball fall. After Buster Posey got his ankle smashed blocking home plate last he was ordered not to do that again. Let the run score. He is too valuable to risk that kind of injury again. Similarly with Ellsbury, he has to learn to avoid collisions like that whenever possible.

Running into another player because you weren't paying attention was not his fault. Right. Couldn't have been avoided. I will have to try that one on my car insurance carrier next time I nail a tree.