This could be THE year

©Kayla Chadwick 2013

The Red Sox have had two walk-off wins to begin the month of August - both of them coming on August 1st. The more dramatic and fun (if there's such a thing as a "lesser" walk-off win) was undoubtedly last night's affair, when the Sox scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

I had essentially written off the game as a loss before it started. The Red Sox had already taken the first two games from the Mariners, and when you see Felix Hernandez on the lineup card, sometimes you just shrug your shoulders and look forward to a fantastic pitching performance, even at the expense of your team.

King Felix didn't disappoint,  pitching seven solid innings and holding the Red Sox to a single run - but as he's undoubtedly come to expect, the Mariners bullpen coughed it up.

As frustrating as that must be for Hernandez, it was great fun for Red Sox fans, and for Red Sox players:

There is something special about this team. They could not be more different from the 2011 version, which was showered with praise from the get-go before proving to be mostly a collection of spoiled stars looking out for themselves. Last year's team was a simple disappointment - the expectations were never as lofty as 2011, and Bobby Valentine helped them to clear the bandwagon of fair weather fans in a hurry.

This team is different. No one picked them to do anything special - they were never supposed to win so many games, never supposed to be in the hunt for the playoffs so late in the season. But somehow, here we are. The Red Sox were buyers at the trade deadline, and remain in sole possession of first place. Manager John Farrell summed up the team's attitude after last night's improbable comeback win: 

“We don’t quit. Ever,” he said. “There’s no quit in this bunch. They truly believe there’s a chance to do something special, whether it’s on a given night or over the course of a given year. That one would be this year.” 

An outlook like that is even better than a 50-home run guy. It's better than a closer who throws 103 MPH. It's the kind of team-first philosophy that makes a city (and a region) embrace a franchise. This team is special. This year is special - this could be the year. And I for one am thrilled to be along for the ride. 

Red Sox end West Coast losing streak

Image source: Boston Globe

Before last night, I was beginning to get a little worried that my support was acting as a jinx for Red Sox prospects. I'm probably the least superstitious and most skeptical person I know - except when it comes to baseball. I don't utter the words "no-hitter" when one is happening, I wear the same shirt to the ballpark as long as the Sox win when I do, and I won't leave my seat (at home or at the park) when there's a rally going on.

So when I bought Jackie Bradley Jr. and Will Middlebrooks shirts at the beginning of the season, and they both struggled before being demoted to AAA, I was worried. My concerns were only exacerbated when I decided to hold off on the purchase of a Jose Iglesias shirt, and he went on to have an incredible first half, both defensively and at the plate.

So I'm essentially convinced that I'm a jinx. Or I was, until Jackie Bradley Jr. contributed a home run to the Red Sox win last night. In fact, Bradley's homer was the blow that finally put the Sox on top for good in a game full of offense and somewhat devoid of masterful pitching performances on both sides.

The victory stopped what had become a string of Red Sox losses, albeit at only three games long. Indeed, had the Sox not come back to win last night, it would have been the very first four-game losing streak of the 2013 season. The West Coast has not been friendly to the Red Sox this week, but hopefully last night's game is the beginning of a turnaround: they're 2-3 so far on this road trip, but they have another two games against the Mariners and then three against the A's before the All-Star Break.

As long as I hold off on buying any more player t-shirts, I think they have a good chance of ending the West Coast trip on a positive note.

West Coast takes its toll

Source: The Washington Post

Before last night's loss, the Red Sox hadn't lost three games in a row since May 11-14th against the Blue Jays and Rays. The beginning of May was rough on the Sox, as they lost three in a row three separate times in a span of just over two weeks, but the beginning of July isn't shaping up too well, either.

Since making it over to the West Coast, the Red Sox have just one win in four games, and they're playing like they hate the time change as much as I do. The first loss was credited to Craig Breslow, but we all know that the big loser was Andrew Miller, who hurt himself and will be out for the rest of the season.

John Lackey actually pitched very well on Sunday, allowing just two runs in seven innings. Unfortunately, he was charged with a loss because his teammates couldn't get anything done against Angels starter (and Lackey's former teammate) Jered Weaver. Last night was a toss up from the get-go, as Jon Lester has been less than impressive lately, and the Mariners had King Felix Hernandez on the mound.

So who do we look to in order to stop this skid? None other than Allen Webster, the rookie righthander who earned his very first win just last week. It's a tall order, especially since the Mariners will trot out Hisashi Iwakuma, who has seven wins this season to go with a sparkling 2.60 ERA. But the Red Sox bats are due for some firepower after being silenced pretty effectively the past few days. I have faith in Webster, even if I might not have the energy to stay up and watch his entire start. 

Geeking out over Ichiro Suzuki

I once theorized that Ichiro Suzuki was secretly related to Spiderman, given his success in climbing fences and robbing homeruns.

I don't regret that comparison at all - Ichiro is crazy flexible, unreasonably quick, and ridiculously agile, and he very well might be fighting crime in his off time.

But I would like to make a different superhero comparison for Ichiro, this time to one of the X-Men. The Yankees outfielder is thirty-nine going on twenty-five, seemingly immune to the scrounges of aging, and he's impressively injury-resistant (the fewest games he's ever played in a season? 146). Yesterday, Ichiro was in a car accident that left his SUV completely totalled, and him without a scratch.

I think you can see where I'm going with this: Ichiro is self-healing and clearly ageless. I know nobody has seen adamantium claws slide from between his knuckles, but can anyone prove they don't? It's become clear to me that Ichiro Suzuki is a mutant in the mold of Wolverine, with a dash of Spiderman (this kind of splicing is totally allowed, because both characters exist in the Marvel universe).

I was devastated when the Yankees dealt for Ichiro last season, because he's one of my all time favorite players, and it's always a bummer to have to like a Yankee - not to mention my naive wish that he play for the Mariners his entire career. I think it's especially unfair for the Yankees to be allowed to have a superhero like Ichiro when they already have an android on their pitching staff (Mariano Rivera), but apparently badassery isn't considered a performance enhancing drug, and as such is not regulated by MLB.

Wakefield and Crawford: Sox heroes of the day

Despite missing most of today's game because I was slightly lost in Buenos Aires, I couldn't be happier right now.  While I was lost and confused, I had the best ice cream of my life, and I returned to my homestay to find the Red Sox tied in the 8th inning, that Tim Wakefield had tossed 5.2 innings of shutout ball, and that my internet was actually fast enough to stream the rest of the game.

I couldn't be happier for Wake, who really deserved to get the win.  Alas, Bobby Jenks came in and gave up two runs, so a "W" just wasn't in the cards today.  Nevertheless, Wakefield certainly deserved the ovation he reportedly got when leaving the mound this afternoon.  After last year, when he was often sarcastic and passive-aggressive about his reduced role, Wakefield has taken things in stride this year.  He's mopped up more than a few games at this point, and was ready and very able to take the ball for the spot start this afternoon.

The Red Sox certainly needed a performance like Wake's today.  When I realized that he was going against King Felix, I was extremely worried, and had even conceded the game in my head; what business does a 44-year-old knuckleballer have beating the reigning AL Cy Young winner? (Yes, I know Papelbon is TECHNICALLY credited with the win, but it's a moral victory for Wake.)

This win brings the Red Sox to 12-15, last in the AL East, and 5 games behind the streaking Yankees.  The victory was much needed, and brought some much needed spotlight to Carl Crawford, who knocked in Jed Lowrie to win in the bottom of the ninth.  In a quick interview with Heidi Watney after the game, Crawford acknowledged how nice it was to do something to win the game, and how much the Red Sox - and he - needed some success.

Thankfully the Angels come to town starting tomorrow - hopefully the Red Sox can start a long winning streak against them, juts like they did out in Anaheim last week.  Clay Buchholz gets the ball tomorrow... hopefully he's recovered from his "internal issues" enough to notch a quality start.

Something's gotta give. Right?

Okay.  Enough is enough. The Red Sox may be a better team than they've been showing, but until they start putting their proverbial money where their mouths are, I'm done predicting their success.  The raw talent is obviously there, but something is clearly not clicking.  Can they do better than this? Certainly.  WILL they do better than this? I'm no longer so sure.

After tonight's travesty of a game the Sox fall to 1-7 against he Orioles, Mariners, and Indians.  This is unacceptable, especially in a division like the AL East.  to get to the playoffs the Red Sox must win about 95 games, and the easiest way to do that is to win series against mediocre teams like, I don't know, the Orioles, Mariners, and Indians.  If you can't even beat the Indians, how do you expect to beat the Rangers? The Rays? The YANKEES?

Again, this is clearly not a question of talent. The talent is there.  It's at every position, and in most cases that talent is backed up by awards like Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, All Star selections, and MVP votes.  But something isn't clicking. The Red Sox hitters left runners in scoring position tonight like it was going out of style (let's hope that's the case), and it's old news at this point.

During the first skid of the season, Dustin Pedroia called out the Sox pitchers for not living up to their potential.  He had a point, and now the tables are turned, so which Sox hurler has the gall to make a statement? My vote is on Josh Beckett - he's never been one to keep quiet about his feelings, and if the lineup wastes a good start of his like they did Lackey's tonight, heads might roll.

Either the Red Sox step up, starting immediately, or this season starts to slip out of reach. It's hard to dig yourself out of a hole like this one when you can't even beat the perennial cellar-dwellers of the American League.  Something's gotta give. Let's hope it gives soon.

Viva King Felix!!!

Seattle's Felix Hernandez took the American League Cy Young Award this week, and despite all the whining from the peanut gallery (ahem, New York and Tampa), King Felix was the right choice.

Obviously, with a record of 13-12, Hernandez wasn't even in the running in terms of wins, but we did learn from last year's winner (Zack Greinke) that the voters are beginning to understand that wins are by no means the most important statistic. If fact, wins are completely subjective; a pitcher could literally have a 0.00 ERA with no hits, walks, or hit batsmen, and end his season with zero wins.

On the other hand, it's conceivable that a player could have an ERA over 5 and win twenty games. Neither of these scenarios are likely, of course, but that fact that they are technically possible should set the alarm bells off in your brain: wins are practically useless as a statistic.

Felix Hernandez had the lowest ERA in the league (just .06 runs better than our own Clay Buchholz) at 2.27, and the highest WAR (6.0), all while pitching more innings than anyone in the American League.

Of course, the whining coming out of New York and Tampa Bay is predictable, since they can claim the third and second-place players, but the reasoning behind their arguments is bordering on absurd:

Keith, I expected better from you, but I guess I'll have to ask you to leave the sports talk to those who have done the research and actually UNDERSTAND the statistics. You could just as easily argue that Price and Sabathia (I presume he was referring to them) actually had the benefit of knowing a good lineup - a PENNANT CALIBER lineup, if you will - would bail them out if they turned in an occasional stinker. Hernandez? Not so much. HE was pressured to give up ZERO runs every time he pitched, and STILL not always get the win.

I also had someone make the argument that Price should have won because "he was young and carried the team on his back." Umm, okay... except King Felix is YOUNGER THAN PRICE, and Price was responsible for 19.7% of the Rays' total wins, while Hernandez was responsible for 21.3% of the Mariners' total wins.

So I guess the point here is this: despite the fact that the BBWAA has learned that there's more to life than a sparkly win-loss record, fans have not. I guess it's up to their peers to educate them, one stubborn traditionalist at a time.

Halladay makes history

Last fall, in the immediate aftermath of the World Series, my Phillies fan friends were less than ecstatic. Trust me, I told them, I KNOW how badly it sucks to lose to New York. And then came the news of that blockbuster December trade... You know, the one that sent Cliff Lee to Seattle, Roy Halladay to Philadelphia, and prospects to Toronto so they could start "rebuilding."

MKy roommate, a casual Phillies fan from South Jersey (VERY different from North Jersey, as I was constantly told), was very upset. She didn't know anything about Halladay, and Lee had been the only bright spot in that lost World Series. "Trust me," I told her, "You will absolutely LOVE Roy Halladay."

[Not to mention how much I was going to love watching his brilliance when it didn't often come against MY team, for a change.]

She was skeptical, but let it go - I'm guessing by now she's forgotten that the conversation even took place. At the time, I at first couldn't believe that she didn't know about the excellence that was Doc Halladay, and then I checked myself: Halladay had never played in the playoffs, and had spent his whole spectacular career buried in the American League East. There was no reason that a casual fan of a National League team WOULD know about him.

Well, they've all heard of him now. After the perfect game in May, Halladay went on to have a shut-down season for the Phils, and last night he tossed a one-walk, no-hit gem in Philadelphia to put the Phillies up 1-0 on the Reds in the NLDS. Oh, did I mention that it was only the second no-hitter in Major League history, after Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956?

And in his first postseason start ever. Yeah, I feel pretty good about that offhanded comment last December: Philadelphia is LOVING Roy Halladay.

Getting the ball rolling

THIS was the John Lackey I expected when we signed him...

Despite a meltdown of monster proportions in the ninth inning, the Red Sox put their fifty-fourth win in the book late last night against the Mariners. Somehow, the Sox gave up five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, resulting in closer Jonathan Papelbon's fourth blown save of the 2010 season.

The game took thirteen full innings, and the unlikely heroes included Hideki Okajima, Eric Patterson, and Ramon Ramirez.... What!?? Are the injured players back YET?

In all seriousness, the Sox need to keep winning, in any way they can. Their 54- 42 record would be good for first place in the AL Central, and second in the AL West, but they're SEVEN games behind the first place Yankees in the East and four behind the second-place Rays for the Wild Card.

I'm hoping last night's dramatic win galvanizes the Red Sox: the players should take inspiration from the great start from John Lackey and the clutch hitting of Patterson (I still can't wrap my head around that one), and I know that Theo Epstein is hard at work on a trade to bolster the moribund bullpen that managed to squander a five-run lead in the ninth.

I'm not ready to give up. There are sixty-six left to play, and players are starting to trickle off of the disabled list and back into the clubhouse, which can only mean good things for the Sox. I don't know that I'm holding out for the division title, but I think the Wild Card is within reach... However, it's unfortunately very possible that the Sox could win 95 games and miss the playoffs - but those are the breaks of the AL East.

I love you, Nolan Ryan

I know that Jon Daniels is technically the GM of the Texas Rangers, but you just know President Nolan Ryan has a hand in everything, especially a pitching acquisition like Cliff Lee. As you all doubtless know, the New York Yankees were thisclose to a deal with the Mariners that would have Lee in pinstripes if the Rangers hadn't made an irresistible offer.

Apparently, the inclusion of first baseman Justin Smoak made the deal too good to trun down, and thwarted New York's aspiration to acquire Lee in the bargain. I mean, it makes perfect sense when you think about it: the Yankees have a teamwide policy of "if you can't beat'em, sign'em." It includes players such as CC Sabathia, Johnny Damon, and AJ Burnett, and it almost included Cliff Lee.

And thank god it didn't...

As a Red Sox fan, you've got to love the Texas Rangers for preventing a pitching rotation of Lee, Sabathia, Burnett, and Andy Pettitte in the Bronx - they won last year with just three capable starters, and the thought of them adding Lee makes me a little ill. Of course, it's very possible that Lee will head to the Bronx via free agency next winter, but for now I'll rejoice that the Rangers have staved off the inevitable, at least temporarily.

However, this gives Texas an even more formidable team, since they were good enough for first place in the American League West, albeit with an identical record to the thrid place Red Sox. Those same Sox have an upcoming series against the Rangers, and depending on the All-Star Game, we may or may not be seeing Lee, but since it's a four game set, I'm going with "may."

Hopefully the Red Sox can get back on track by then, and start regaining some ground in their divisional battle - every win counts, after all.