Falling into Place

No, I'm not ready to declare that the season is over yet. Nor am I ready to say that the Red Sox are a lock for the playoffs. But what I will tell you is that they went a LONG way over the past few days at solidifying their chances for a deep playoff run. Two weeks ago, I wasn't sure this would be the case with Beckett struggling mightily, Buchholz looking good but having little track record behind him and the Sox bats wavering between scoring 10+ runs a game and none.

Fast forward to Saturday night's gritty five plus inning gem by Beckett (with the Sox bats erupting in the third inning for nine runs) followed by game one of yesterday's double header where poor Matt Garza pitched his heart out, only to get kicked in the crotch by Ortiz and Pedroia in the seventh. This combined with Lester's "ice water in the veins" eight innings of shutout ball in game two was a real shot in the arm.

So why am I so jazzed all of a sudden? Well, the Sox have a four game lead on Texas and Tampa Bay is all but eliminated from the Wild Card. And the Sox still have an outside chance at catching the Yanks (I know, I know, I sound like Kyle Flaherty here). Most importantly, Boston is looking like the dangerous offensive AND defensive team that we thought they might be at the beginning of the season.

With Beckett, Lester and now Buchholz as a solid 1-2-3 punch (yes, it would be great to see two more solid starts out of Beckett), we're in good shape to match up with the "always hapless in the playoffs" Anaheim Angels of LA. And who knows, lightning may might rise up and strike Detroit who matches up pretty well with the Yanks and deliver us an ALCS party with Detroit and Boston as the lucky entrants. The bullpen is now back to form with a much needed shot in the arm from Billy Wagner and you have weapons like Martinez, Gathright, Green or Kotchman coming off the bench. Not a bad place to be. Most importantly, all the key guys are healthy (yup, just knocked on wood after saying that).

Am I being a bit cocksure? Yes I am. But hey, I've seen Francona work his magic under more adverse conditions. I like where we are and feel bullish going into October. Who knows, this could be the year where we do actually see Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots world championships in the same year.


image courtesy: http://www.maniacworld.com/

Friday Musings, April 11

Not a great week but not a bad week either for the Sox. The got smoked in Toronto but we'll chalk that up to sleep deprivation and being travel weary. We got a picture perfect performance from the Dice Man on Tuesday, an egg from Lester on Wednesday and a "last man standing" game last night out of the ageless Timmy Wakefield.

I'm eager to see how the Sox stack up against the Yanks this weekend although it's way too early to really worry much about who wins and loses. Unfortunately, the weather forecast does not look promising. I'm going to assume that Sunday's game will probably be a washout - let's hope that doesn't end up being a doubleheader at the end of September when neither team needs an extra game.

Here are my five musings for the day (feel free to add your own):

1. Sox need to start looking for one or two more arms for the bullpen. I feel pretty good about Delcarmen although he's been Jekyl & Hyde so far. Obviously Papelbon is picking up where he left off and Okajima looks like he'll be closer to 1st half of 2008 than 2nd half. Beyond that, yikes. I know their getting Timlin back soon (not sure how excited I really am about that as much as I love Mike). Beyond that, it's pray for rain right now.
2. Has the real J. D. Drew finally come to play for the Red Sox? Last I checked, he was hitting .440, 2 HRs and an OPS of .893 - WOW! I could be the typical asshole Sox fan and make a snide comment about it being just about time for him to go on the DL. I'll refrain.
3. Speaking of DL, having to sit Mike Lowell for two weeks hurts. It hurts less with Sean Casey here and Youkilis at third but I like having Casey as a back up/late in the game substitute option much better.
4. It's hard to remember that Jon Lester is only 24 and should have some of his best years still ahead of him. He has moments of brilliance (game four of the 2007 World Series), especially with his nasty curve. Then there's his penchant for walks. I really hope that someone like Schilling will sit him down and tell him to cut the crap about nibbling with his pitches vs. just throwing it and letting hitters hit. That's why the Sox have great defensive outfielders like Manny Ramirez... umm, wait. Retract that. Maybe walks aren't that bad after all.
5. Is it me or does it feel like Schilling being out of the starting rotation has a compounding effect. Before every game, I keep wondering when are our really good pitchers going to be out there. Yeah, we've got Beckett (in spite of his bad back/hip) and Dice K has stepped up his game (although he's still a number three in my mind) and then we have Lester, Bucholtz and Wakefield. Don't get me wrong, I like all those guys but I'd feel much better if we had a rotation of Beckett, Schilling, Dice K, Lester and Wakefield (imagine how good Santana would look right now penciled in at no. 2)!
   

One major annoyance that I can't help but mention (anyone following me on Twitter knows what I'm talking about). Why the hell do you put your most popular team (Red Sox) vs. one of MLB's other favorites to win it all (Tigers) on a freaking local access channel so that you can air a Bruins' playoff game on NESN? Really? This seemed like a good idea? Probably not after the Sox won 12-6 while the Bruins got smoked 4-1 (big surprise) in their first of what will be four straight losses to the Habs. Grrrrrrr!

That's all I got for now. What am I missing? Anyone else excited for the NBA playoffs to start? Anything short of the Eastern Conference Finals for the Celts this year will be a major dissapointment. No pressure though. Getting a little excited about the NFL draft. Dying to know if the Pats keep their lottery pick or trade down instead...

Strange Daze

Is it me or does it seem like this is too easy? The Sox take two out of three from Minnesota in the Metrodome, and three from the Jays where the home team forgot to show up. Unless Beckett suddenly pulls a Matt Clement on us, we'll take the rubber game of the series against the O's today.

To date, the starting pitching has been outstanding. Amazingly, the bullpen has been even better (2.20 ERA if you throw out Davern Hansack's garbage time against the Jays). The bats have started to heat up to the tune of 42 runs in the last five games. Oh yeah, the Sox are actually stealing bases, bunting and manufacturing runs too. Who are these guys?

What scares me is our lack of injuries when the teams around us are falling apart at the seams. The numerous woes in the Bronx have been well-documented in this blog. The Jays and O's must have been jealous and decided to follow the Yanks lead losing key components like BJ Ryan (Jays) and half the starting rotation (O's). Based on Doc Halladay's last two starts, he'll be on the DL soon.

As much as I love our early season success, I'm starting to get a little nervous. We've seen this pattern before where a team goes out and blows away the field early. The knights of the keyboard talk about how the team is going to run away with it. Next thing you know, the team is struggling down the stretch and either limps into the playoffs or misses the playoffs because they catch the losing bug when the games count.

The Sox, at least on paper, seem to be different. We know that the the starting rotation is a proven commodity. None of us are surprised that Beckett, Dice-K, Schilling and Wake are all off to good starts. We also expected the line up to produce and at least pieces of the bullpen to hold down the fort once Papelbon was re-elected to close. What we didn't expect is to be this healthy (was I the only one that thought JD Drew might already be on the 60 day DL?)

So maybe we will be more like the 1998 Yanks who won 114 games and went on to win the World Series. That team averaged 19 wins a month and maintained momentum all year long. Let's hope we're not the 2001 Mariners who won 116 but then lost in the second round to the Yanks.

Looking forward to today's game and Beckett being the first 8 game winner in MLB. Until then...