The Red Sox won again yesterday afternoon, and slowly but surely seem to be emerging from their funk. Though the team is just 6-11, 4.5 games behind the firs-place Yankees, they seem to be coming to life. So since I'm sitting in class on a day when the entire country of Argentina is on holiday (again, BEST STUDENT EVER), I'll leave you with five semi-related points:
1. Clay Buchholz notched his first win of the season. Sadly, I forgot to put him in my fantasy league starting roster for yesterday, so I didn't profit from his fortune. I was unable to catch the beginning of the game, so by the time I tuned in Clay was out, but from what I hear he was pretty good until the sixth inning, when he loaded the bases with one out, which leads us to...
2. Daniel Bard: The Stopper. Saves are a wildly overrated statistic. Without Bard's brilliance in the sixth and seventh innings yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon would not have had the chance to give us all heart palpitations getting the save. Bard came in with the go-ahead run at the plate and one out - a much more high-pressure situation than the one Jonathan Papelbon dealt with (bases empty, 3-run lead, no outs). Bard is clearly capable of being poised under pressure, and I'm glad he's on our side.
3. Jed Lowrie is a champion. The 27-year-old is demanding that terry Francona find a way to put him into the lineup every day, with his .462 batting average, 3 homers, and 11 RBIs in just 13 games. The beauty of Lowrie is that he can play all four infield positions (though only 19 innings in his career at first base), and so Tito can utilize him at a variety of positions to get his potent bat in the lineup. Clearly, this crazy hot streak can't continue, but if Lowrie continues to produce better than Scutaro, something's gotta give, so stay tuned for that.
4. Despite struggles, the Red Sox CAN be successful against lefties. Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez is a southpaw, and yet the Sox managed to score four runs off of him. Notable lefthanded hitter David Ortiz was sitting, though part of that was the shuffling required to get red-hot Lowrie into the game (Youkilis DHed, Lowrie played at third). However, lefties Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Adrian Gonzalez, and Jacoby Ellsbury were in the lineup, and they managed three hits and two RBIs between them. However...
5. ...Looking ahead, the Sox have a lot of right-handed opponents. The Angels have four right-handed starters on the docket for this weekend, according to the match-ups just posted on Boston.com's extra bases Blog, and the Sox have Josh Beckett, John Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and John Lackey ready to go. With the wealth of good left-handed batters on the Sox' roster, this weekend could be a slugfest - hopefully our pitchers can build off the success they had during the last turn through the rotation.
I see good things ahead for the Red Sox. Sadly, I won't be watching much, as I'm still an hour ahead of Eastern Standard time, so today's and tomorrow's games won't end until after 2am for me... Hopefully Saturday and Sunday will find me watching some baseball.
1. Clay Buchholz notched his first win of the season. Sadly, I forgot to put him in my fantasy league starting roster for yesterday, so I didn't profit from his fortune. I was unable to catch the beginning of the game, so by the time I tuned in Clay was out, but from what I hear he was pretty good until the sixth inning, when he loaded the bases with one out, which leads us to...
2. Daniel Bard: The Stopper. Saves are a wildly overrated statistic. Without Bard's brilliance in the sixth and seventh innings yesterday, Jonathan Papelbon would not have had the chance to give us all heart palpitations getting the save. Bard came in with the go-ahead run at the plate and one out - a much more high-pressure situation than the one Jonathan Papelbon dealt with (bases empty, 3-run lead, no outs). Bard is clearly capable of being poised under pressure, and I'm glad he's on our side.
3. Jed Lowrie is a champion. The 27-year-old is demanding that terry Francona find a way to put him into the lineup every day, with his .462 batting average, 3 homers, and 11 RBIs in just 13 games. The beauty of Lowrie is that he can play all four infield positions (though only 19 innings in his career at first base), and so Tito can utilize him at a variety of positions to get his potent bat in the lineup. Clearly, this crazy hot streak can't continue, but if Lowrie continues to produce better than Scutaro, something's gotta give, so stay tuned for that.
4. Despite struggles, the Red Sox CAN be successful against lefties. Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez is a southpaw, and yet the Sox managed to score four runs off of him. Notable lefthanded hitter David Ortiz was sitting, though part of that was the shuffling required to get red-hot Lowrie into the game (Youkilis DHed, Lowrie played at third). However, lefties Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Adrian Gonzalez, and Jacoby Ellsbury were in the lineup, and they managed three hits and two RBIs between them. However...
5. ...Looking ahead, the Sox have a lot of right-handed opponents. The Angels have four right-handed starters on the docket for this weekend, according to the match-ups just posted on Boston.com's extra bases Blog, and the Sox have Josh Beckett, John Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and John Lackey ready to go. With the wealth of good left-handed batters on the Sox' roster, this weekend could be a slugfest - hopefully our pitchers can build off the success they had during the last turn through the rotation.
I see good things ahead for the Red Sox. Sadly, I won't be watching much, as I'm still an hour ahead of Eastern Standard time, so today's and tomorrow's games won't end until after 2am for me... Hopefully Saturday and Sunday will find me watching some baseball.
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