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An Inauspicious, Call it Smelly, Tuneupby Cameron on March 31 at 12:00AM | comments (1)
[ comments (1) ] [ BallHype ] No matter how you slice it up, losing 8-0 in a final preseason game is not the kind of result a team plans on. In fact, one of the only things worse than an 8-0 loss is being no-hit. Or one-hit, hypothetically speaking of course. What's that? The Dodgers one-hit the Red Sox in Chavez Ravine yesterday? Crap.There's few silver linings to the shellacking Boston absorbed in a final outing before heading north to Oakland for Tuesday night's season opener. Starter Clay Buchholz got through two innings without a problem, then proceeded to allow five runs, pushing his spring ERA to a whopping 10.03. Not becoming for a self designed fifth starter. In fact, if decisions were made purely on spring performance, Buchholz would likely be the No. 3 candidate for the final starter's pole. Kyle Snyder continued a recent surge with two shutout innings yesterday afternoon, and while he's still likely to start in the bullpen, Bartolo Colon's start in Pawtucket's AAA opener on Thursday is likely to be his only minor league tuneup, assuming he doesn't allow, say, five runs or so. Of course, that change in direction would be purely predicated on Colon's strong outing in L.A., where his velocity and control were notably improved, he said he felt healthier than he has in any other outing and generally beamed when asked about the performance (his anticipated press conference en Espanol was called off by the Big Diuretic himself). Of course, a poor outing (finally, spring's golden boy loses a little luster) by reliever David Aardsma only further compounds what is sure to be an incredibly tough decisino on which relievers the Sox will hold on to when injured list players return. Josh Beckett and Mike Timlin remain sidelined, which means that two of Aardsma, Javier Lopez and Bryan Corey can stay to start the season. Despite giving up a run on Sunday, Lopez is probably safe as the staff loogy (lefty specialist). After that, you'd have to favor Aardsma at this point, but with Corey's additional experience and Aardsma last ditch struggle on Sunday, you just never know.  Saturday night, above, was a circus ... Sunday afternoon was a stinker. (AP) The bats are equally confounded, with Coco Crisp's presence making - or rather forcing - Bobby Kielty's absence. While Kielty had originally agreed to report to Pawtucket, he got word from his agent that another MLB team might be interested, delaying any decision on his future for at least another day. Needless to say, if the Sox move Crisp within a month and lose Kielty beforehand, a number of people will NOT be happy, Terry Francona prominent among them. Regardless of slumps - and a compelling argument could be made that the entire Red Sox lineup was in horrendous form on Sunday - credit was due new Japanese import Hideki Kuroda, who stonewalled the Sox for four innings, and Clayton Kershaw, who shut them out for four more. Kershaw yielded the lone hit, a Kielty single in what may be a fitting send off for a player whose brief tenure with Sox had some notable high points. A particular home run in Game 4 of the World Series comes to mind. Speaking of Japanese pitchers, the Red Sox have one scheduled to toss in Oakland late Tuesday night. Oh, and they signed another one to a minor league contract yesterday. 1 Comments |
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I am not sure how I got here--Altavista perhaps? But for sure a provocative post.