Sunday, August 15, 2010

A study in contrast

Friday night, Beckett was the deer...

The last two games in Texas have been polar opposites. Friday night, we had a heartbreaker: Josh Beckett was handed a six-run lead early in the game, and he couldn't hold on. Last night Jon Lester pitched a masterful 8 innings of shutout ball.

On Friday, the offense absolutely exploded, scoring nine runs on thirteen hits, including five homers, but the pitching was a mess, though the bullpen managed to hold on for a few innings until Tim Wakefield gave up the game-winning home run in the bottom of the eleventh.

Yesterday, the offense was somewhat anemic, only managing one run until the top of the ninth, when they scored two additional insurance runs. However, the pitching last night was phenomenal. Jon Lester was masterful, and though Scott Atchison got into a spot of trouble in the bottom of the ninth, Felix Doubront came in with the tying run at the plate and closed out the game without allowing a run.

Given my druthers, I would like to see a combination of the two performances going forward: sparkling pitching performances coupled with explosive run production for the rest of the season would be great. Daisuke Matsuzaka goes this afternoon, so we'll see if my wish gets granted.

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