Well, You Can't Win 'Em All

The Red Sox head back to the states at 1-1. One up, one down.


Perhaps more significant is the reality check that comes with the one down: Jon Lester is not, in fact, yet at the Andy Pettitte level that he so often has been compared to.

Sure, those comparisons are focused on the height of his career, and he's far too young and inexperienced to near those levels. What was more concerning early Wednesday morning is that Lester fell into the same trap in which he was so often ensnared last year; he threw way - WAAAYYY - too many pitches, blowing through a whopping 83 pitches (only 43 strikes) across a measly four innings. And because he was behind so many hitters, Lester was forced to put too many pitches over the heart of the plate, one of which was given a nice ride by Emil Brown (who, incidentally, now has two homers in as many games. Japanese teams take note, he'll probably be available on the scrapheap in another year or so).

So, that was it. Four innings, four runs and, eventually, an L in his first outing.

The offense didn't exactly bail Lester out, but Red Sox hitters have often struggled with A's pitching. Just look at last May and Jonathan Papelbon's first blown save of '07. It was a heartbreaking loss, but the setback was magnified by the struggles the team had had earlier in the series.


Cut to this morning in Japan, and the same trend emerged. Rich Harden - suddenly healthy, it's worth noting, kept Sox hitters off balance and the Oakland bullpen patched together enough work to come away from the Far East with a victory, sending the Sox down to a very early .500 in the process.

Without further ado, here's your grades.

STARTING PITCHING: -
Further elaboration above, obviously. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, right?

MIDDLE RELIEF: ✓+
David Aardsma continues to be a revelation, now in official games that count. To his credit, Javier Lopez took care of the one batter he needed to as well. Strong outing from the middle corps without the help of trusty Kyle Snyder, who was presumably still licking his wounds from Game One.

SET UP RELIEF: ✓-
Nice job from Manny Delcarmen, one hit aside. You can't say the same for Bryan Corey, but he may be well on his way to waivers when the rosters contract again. We'll see. Aardsma certainly doesn't seem headed there.

CLOSER: N/A

LINEUP: -
Hmmm, one Manny homer, a couple Mike Lowell hits and another solid Julio Lugo outing does not a win make. Big shock there, huh? Clearly the batters couldn't keep up with Harden, which is one thing. Not catching up with Sox re-treads like Keith Foulke and Alan Embree is another issue entirely.

Back to the mainland, where there are another 160 of those left. Oh, and a couple nonsensical exhibitions in L.A. (editor's note: whuh? When did it become ok to throw huge exhibitions in between regular season games? Even in weird circumstances. Haven't we seen enough pageantry?)

Leave A Comment

---

---

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Please only click "Post" once. It may take a few moments to process.