Dragnet Black Hole: Sox at A's

Finally! More baseball that matters!

It took long enough - nearly a full seven days - to come back around, but at 10:05 tonight, the Red Sox and A's resume what is easily the longest four-game road series, in terms of both time to complete and dual distance travelled, in baseball history. Baseball is full of Luddites? Take that Abner Doubleday!

Because of the bizarre scheduling quirks that made Boston's trip to Japan to LA to Oakland to Toronto possible, Daisuke Matsuzaka takes the mound tonight to face Oakland leftander Joe Blanton. It's the second start for both pitchers, possibly the first time that two pitchers have started against each other twice before their teammates had a crack in the modern era. Of course, one of each hurler's teammates did get a start, but Matsuzaka and Blaton are the first to pull off the double, with the second level coming back at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum (hence the Black Hole reference. Gotta love cross-sports referencing, huh?)

So, while you sit back and enjoy a dual purpose stadium before football players return and ruin the grass, consider the import of this start for Dice-K: If the Sox lose - and remember, they easily could have, and perhaps should have, lost Game 1 last week in Tokyo - they would be in precarious position of dropping to 1-3, at least if the opening acts of both Jon Lester and Rich Harden are any indication. The A's hitters certainly aren't going to suddenly go gun shy back in their home park, and WMYM hasn't read of Harden throwing out his shoulder since Game 2. Then again, there's another day before he takes the hill, so with Harden the moment could still be coming.

Outing number one for Dice-K v 2.0 last five innings and gave up two runs. He flexed some of his classic escapability, working his way out of a handful of jams, but also flashed plenty of his worrisome trademark inefficiency. If the Japanese ace keeps scuffling through innings stateside the way he did in Japan - not for Seibu, for Boston last Tuesday morning - he could easily start his way toward the troubling tendencies that landed him in hot water down the stretch. Too many pitches = too much strain = bad performances in September, which, naturally, is  when Boston needs Dice-K clicking into form.

The Sox offense will try to hit stride as well, with one strong performance in a trio of weekend exhibition games/total circuses in Los Angeles. Catcher captain Jason Varitek has yet to do anything at the plate, literally, and the longer his slump continues the more speculation will focus on whether this is his final tour in a Sox jersey; his contract is up in the offseason and, in case fans forget, Scott Boras is still his agent.

So there you go. It's only Game 3, but it could have a bigger impact than one would imagine.

Before checking out to go get the chips ready for 10 o'clock, two significant news items from the past day:

- In a move that could augur a relatively near-future Coco Crisp trade, outfielder Bobby Kielty accepted an assignment to AAA Pawtucket. If he hadn't, he would have hit the market where someone almost surely would have bitten. Kielty > Tampa Bay starter and former Sox re-tread Eric Hinske, to say nothing of a handful of NL outfielders who are either A) VERY young or B) preposterously underwhelming.
- Josh Beckett is all but officially slotted to start Sunday in Toronto, where he'll return from back questions following warm up tosses in a spring game. The ace to end all aces had a strong final minor league start, yielding one run on a homer to A Lowell's Yamed Yema, but only one other hit to go alongside six strikeouts and walking - and here's the good part - none in five innings. He set down the last 11 in a row, needed only 65 pitches to cruise through those five frames, and was generally described as being "dominant".

Of course, Beckett's activation will bring with it the team's first huge roster decision, when Terry Francona, or perhaps Theo Epstein, will have to pull the pin on what you almost know will be a bullpen grenade. Either Bryan Corey (R), David Aardsma (R) or Javier Lopez (L) will be jettisoned - it says here that Corey's probably the vet to go - and doubtlessly will get snapped up by Oaktown or San Diego and become a significant contributor. Just look at J.C. Romero living the good life in Philly. Nuff' said.

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