The Sox offense gave him 5-1, 6-0 leads by the 3rd inning. He was blessed with great early offense. All pitchers get in a groove when that occurs. He never fell apart in a start, which was amazing in itself. Even in this game, he is poised with not really much command and so far only 1 run.
If you watch HanRam, you'll notice he is really not trying to do much...just keeping his bat lined in the zone..hence lots of base hits, not trying to hit out of the park with that big-butt, braids flying, helmet falling off swing we used to.
Bst, I really believe they have no idea how to pitch to Astros hitters...it's winging it along at this point. Look at Sox pitching coach. His head is down like wondering "what the f*** can we do here? ummm, well, if we can just keep 5 of their hitters from hitting bombs...Oh f*** it, Rick, just guess."
Amazing that as bad as Rick is, he is still the best Sox SP all series....that was excruciating, I'l take 1-run deficit 9,027 pitches, 1 hour first 2 innings just to give up ONLY 2.