Despite an ugly performance from Clay Buchholz on Sunday afternoon, the Boston Red Sox completed the sweep of the Baltimore Orioles for their 4th straight win.
The win allowed the Red Sox to stay a 1/2 game behind the Yankees in the AL East standings. They also a 2.5 game lead in the wild card standings.
Any time a pitcher is given an early 7-run lead it’s hard to stay focused and do your job. But for a young pitcher like Buchholz, it’s supposed to be part of the maturation process. It clearly wasn’t yesterday.
Instead of attacking hitters and letting his defense do the work, he left some pitches (mainly fastballs) out over the plate and made some mistakes that allowed the Orioles to cut the 7-run deficit to just one at 7-6. Luckily for Buchholz, the Red Sox bounced right back with 7 more runs in the next half inning.
Buchholz came back out for the 5th but allowed a leadoff home run, a walk and a single to end his afternoon without reaching the 5 innings pitched mark to pickup the win. I really have to think that this was a statement being made to Buchholz by skipper Terry Francona saying look kid you don’t deserve the win today. We expect better of you.
With Buchholz, Brad Penny and John Smoltz struggling as of late and Tim Wakefield still bothered by the bad back, the starting pitching has suddenly become a cause for concern. I’m not including Josh Beckett or Jon Lester in that because we know what we’re going to get from them each time out. It’s the other three that are wild cards right now.
As teams start to put players on waivers, is it possible that if a team puts a starting pitcher out there that Theo Epstein will place a claim to try and pick him up?
With Wakefield’s back still hurting, the other three pitchers struggling and Daisuke Matsuzaka’s status up in the air right now, I just don’t see how Theo doesn’t try to acquire another starter. You need to have three pitcherrs you can count in the playoffs and right now we have two.
And speaking of Beckett since I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday morning, is there any other pitcher in the big leagues locked in right now like Beckett is?
A lot was said about the struggles of Victor Martinez in the month of July but it seems that a change of scenery was all that he needed to get going. In two games in a Red Sox uniform, he is 6-for-11 with 5 RBIs. Right now, it’s hard for Tito take his bat out of the lineup. I do suspect though that we won’t see Martinez catching Beckett or Lester going forward this season which means he’ll probably be playing first in those games.
It also looks like Josh Reddick, who’s off to a nice start in his big league career, might stick around a little while longer as J.D. Drew tweaked his groin again in the 1st inning of yesterday’s game.
One more thing that needs to be addressed. Now this is just my opinion but the longer David Ortiz waits to address the media about what he tested positive for, the more guilty he looks. Given that it appears all the players knew they were on the list, Big Papi needs to come out and say what he took and offer his apology or whatever spin he’s going to put on it all.
Links coming up after a 10 second break for station ID on the Boston Red Sox blogging network.
Photos: Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles, July 31st [Oriole Post]
Photos: Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles, August 1st [Oriole Post]
Photos: Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles, August 2nd [Oriole Post]
Catching fire [Boston Globe]
A bloody good addition [Boston Globe]
Buchholz’s outing a cause for alarm [Boston Globe]
It’s time to inject some baseball back into this discussion [Boston Globe]
Sox start early and never stop in rout of O’s [Providence Journal]
Sox have bullpen questions; is Tazawa the answer? [Providence Journal]
Red Sox journal: Sox alter rotation to make sure Lester starts against Yankees next weekend [Providence Journal]
Reddick leaving a good first impression [Providence Journal]
Martinez leads the charge with a five-hit performance [Providence Journal]
Buchholz’ bad outing a trick of the trade [Providence Journal]
Let real games begin [Boston Herald]
Lumber primed for big series [Boston Herald]
Tim Wakefield still hurting [Boston Herald]
Hot Josh Reddick makes mark [Boston Herald]
Red Sox set for Game 7 rematch with Rays [RedSox.com]
Winners (Yaz) and Losers (Fenway Fans) In the David Ortiz Saga [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]
Five Things We Learned: The Sox Got Stronger in Baltimore [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.
And if you want to check out the enemy papers, head over to the Baltimore Sun and Annapolis Capital websites.
