Capitalizing on Mediocrity, Other Winning Ways

Let's face it, Saturday night's win wasn't exactly a classic vintage of Red Sox dominance. In fact, for a 12-4 drubbing, the Boston victory wasn't nearly as thorough as it was long.

Of course, none of that makes it any less important than a grueling one-run victory over, say, the White Sox. Or maybe the Tigers. After all, Sox fans will be seeing Detroit plenty soon enough. In the meantime, Boston can ruminate over another solid victory against a Tampa Bay team that entered a weekend set at Fenway carrying the mentality of a legitimate contender and now, as easily detectable in the photo below, slogging along the emotional baggage from two relatively lackluster losses. That's a hard setback to overcome overnight, even if Eric Hinske WAS actually the messiah, as Tampa play-by-play men seemed to insinuate last weekend.

Whenever the Sox enter a game with Josh Beckett on the hill, a victory does seem to be more of an eventuality than a question. Still, that wasn't the case a week ago, when the ace's career-high strikeout total still skeened into a loss when the offense couldn't do anything - ANYTHING - against James Shields. That was not at all the case Saturday, with Shields looking vulnerable from the beginning, and allowing runs in every inning he pitched. Beckett did provide glimpses of mortality, from a two-run homer by Gabe Gross (of all people) to occasional struggles with control. Yet that hardly deterred a Boston offense that saw Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz AND Dustin Pedroia compiling full-game type statistics by the fourth inning. Yes folks, it got about as ugly as the box score indicates, even if it was Manny Ramirez's defense, yes, really his defense, that helped keep the Rays offense from putting another pair or so on the board.

That might have made it a bit more interesting, slightly more dramatic perhaps, but in a 12-4 game the runs still would have been elementary. Even if that's not the most exciting way to win a game, it has to be a comforting one to see again for Sox fans who may be a bit fatigued from all the 2-1s and 1-0s of the past two weeks.

STARTING PITCHING: √
It wasn't a top-notch Beckett performance, but it was plenty strong enough to earn a win. Sure, his command seems to escape him at a variety of moments as the game wore along, but Beckett was dealing with both miserably damp weather AND profoundly long stops in the dugout between innings. Could he have been better? Sure. Was he better in a losing effort last Sunday? No doubt. Still, seven innings later Beckett was still cruising on an economical pitch count, and anytime you get that it's a huge step toward a win.

MIDDLE RELIEF: N/A
Beckett went to long, to the Hallelujah of Javier Lopez and the seeming ambiguity of the rest of the 'pen.

SET-UP RELIEF: N/A
Ditto, from above.

CLOSER: √-
He got the job done, but David Aardsma was far from efficient. While that might be almost expected, it can't be comforting to Terry Francona, who clearly is trying to gauge just how reliable Aardsma can become. Here's a hint: So far, not very. Unfortunately, with the ongoing struggles of Manny Delcarmen, Francona doesn't have a ton of other options, so it may become more and more important for Aardsma to be a reliable cog in the Pirate Ship that is the Sox 'pen. Saturday wasn't a disastrous setback from that eventuality, but it wasn't a step in the right direction, either.

LINEUP: √+
There they go! This game had it all: Dominance over a tough opposing pitcher, depth of hitting, breadth through the order, hitting with runners in position, flashes of two-out rally building. It's all there folks, just check the box. Now for the tough part: Boston gets Scott Kazmir for his first start of the season on Sunday. If you're wondering how he's done against the Sox in the past, just don't. It's better to avoid boogeymen this late at night, even in Rays uniforms.

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