The Boston Red Sox came into their weekend series with the New York Yankees on a high as they had just swept the Toronto Blue Jays. By the end of the night, the Red Sox were back down again as they suffered a beat down at the hands of the New York Yankees.
When your starting pitcher puts you in a early hole against a talented lineup such as the Yankees, it’s going to be hard to beat them or anyone for that matter. That starting pitcher this time around was Brad Penny.
He was simply awful last night. He lacked fastball command last night as it was flat and he left it out over the plate for the Yankee hitters to take advantage of. Out of Penny’s last 11 starts, he’s won just one game. One game folks, that’s just not going to get it done anymore. In those 11 starts, he’s given up 47 runs (46 earned) on 74 hits in 60 2/3 innings.
Michael Bowden was called up from Pawtucket before the game yesterday to provide depth should Penny suck, which he did. Bowden didn’t fare much better though as he was tattooed for seven runs on eight hits in two innings of work. Basically, he took one for the team last night. We can only hope that this doesn’t affect his confidence going forward.
And with Junichi Tazawa making just his third big league start, we don’t know what we’re going to get tonight either. For that reason, Bowden was sent back to Pawtucket after the game and a corresponding roster move will be announced this afternoon. It will most certainly be a pitcher to provide depth should Tazawa not be able to go long at all this afternoon.
The good thing about Tazawa, even though he’s still wet behind the ears, is that he doesn’t seemed fazed by his surroundings. He’s already been introduced to the rivalry in New York and the nerves should be behind him.
The offense last night put up 11 runs but when you’ve been trailing big time all night, 11 runs doesn’t seem like that much at all especially considering the Red Sox still lost by 9 runs. The problem right now isn’t the offense, it’s the pitching and with Tim Wakefield pretty much declaring himself ready to go, things could start to look on the up and up.
Hopefully Wake will be replacing Penny in the rotation but that could all depend on how Tazawa pitches this afternoon.
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.
And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the NY Post, NY Daily News, Newsday and Lo Hud websites.
