The Boston Red Sox were unceremoniously swept by the Kansas City Royals last Sunday and in writing the recap of that giant suck-fest, I happened to mention something about how the Sox were kicking the crap out of the Oakland A’s and holy crap, I almost jinxed their win. Whoa…that was scary. So I’m been keeping my mouth shut this week and trying not to gloat too much about things like the Red Sox currently having the best record in baseball. But I don’t often get to gloat about best records, so I’m officially gloating…if only for a short time.

It’s been quite a week for the Red Sox—since the double crappy loss on Sunday, they’ve gone 6-1 and welcomed the Houston Astros to the American League with a good ol’ four-game sweep. That’s what you call Boston Strong, people!

Monday, April 22: Red Sox 9 : A’s 6
Felix Doubront pitched 6.2 innings, giving up just three earned runs and striking out eight to earn his second win of the season. The Sox offense exploded for five runs in the 5th, capped by a Mike Napoli grand slam. The A’s mounted a comeback with three runs in the 8th, but it was too little, too late…thankfully!

Tuesday, April 23: Red Sox 0 : A’s 13
The only loss of the week and boy was it a doozy. Alfredo Aceves was shelled for eight runs on seven hits and four walks in just 3.1 innings of work. He was demoted to Triple-A Pawtucket shortly after the game. Don’t let the door hit you the ass, you crazy whacko. Despite the loss, his demotion was a highlight for me.

Wednesday, April 24: Red Sox 6 : A’s 5
It’s nice to see the Sox able to bounce back for a win after such a humiliating loss. Jon Lester pitched well enough for his fourth win of the season, helped by two three-run innings, which turned out to be just enough run support. Andrew Bailey came in and struck out the side in the 9th for his fifth save.

Thursday, April 25: Red Sox 7 : Astros 2
Clay Buchholz continued his tear, winning his fifth game with a 7.2 inning, five strike out performance. He did allow two earned runs which raised his ERA to a whopping 1.19. The Sox offense jumped on the Astros pitching early, scoring four runs in the 1st inning. David Ortiz hit his first home run of 2013 in the 3rd inning.

Friday, April 26: Red Sox 7 : Astros 3
Ryan Dempster finally gets his first win in a Red Sox uniform. It’s not like he hasn’t pitched well before, just wasn’t getting the support. He definitely got support in this game—in the form of the long ball. David Ross hit two home runs, Will Middlebrooks whacked his sixth, and David Ortiz launched his second in as many nights.

Saturday, April 27: Red Sox 8 : Astros 4
Not to be out-shined by Lester and Buchholz, Felix Doubront notched his third win. The Astros got close in this game, scoring one in the top of the 7th to bring them to within two, but the Red Sox would have none of it and scored three in the bottom of that inning to secure the win.

Sunday, April 28: Red Sox 6 : Astros 1
John Lackey’s return from his recent stint on the DL was celebrated with his first win of 2013. He pitched six innings on one-run ball and showed no signs of the bicep strain that knocked him out on April 6th. Ortiz, Daniel Nava and Mike Carp all had 2-hit games to spark the offense. Bailey earned his sixth save which was highlighted by a spectacular diving catch by Nava to end the game.

Can’t every week be like this one? After a well-deserved day off tomorrow, the Sox head north to Toronto for a three game series. Jon Lester is scheduled to start and will have the chance to catch Buchholz in the five win club.

The Boston Red Sox have been a lot like the weather this week… they began their 2013 home schedule with an Opening Day win on a beautiful, bright blue day. But as the days have progressively gotten crappier and colder, so has their play. Maybe this year, we here at Fenway Fatales can just pretend that the games the Sox lose don’t really happen. I hate writing about losses.

Wednesday, April 10: Red Sox 5 : Orioles 8
Grrrrrrr… When I fell asleep, it was 5-3 good guys. When I woke up, it was not. After back-to-back homers by Daniel Nava and Jarod Saltalamacchia in the bottom of the 6th to put the Sox up by two, I thought the bullpen had this one in the bag. Especially considering their short history so far this season. Joel Hanrahan had other plans that basically consisted of sucking. Hanrahan blew the save and gave up five runs in the ninth—including two home runs. FYI, his ERA is currently 11.57. Gross.

Thursday, April 11: Red Sox 2 : Orioles 3
Last night’s loss was a result of not much offense. It’s hard to win without offense. Alfredo Aceves held his own in a spot start while John Lackey is on the 15-day DL allowing just two runs. But the Sox just couldn’t pull themselves together at the plate to get him much run support and the Orioles scored one late in the game to put themselves ahead for good. At least we didn’t have to witness a tragedy like the previous night… but it still isn’t easy to accept.

Friday, April 12: Red Sox : Tampa Bay Rays – Rained Out
Dear Mother Nature, I’m not sure if you’ve looked at the calendar lately, but it’s April 12th and, well, it shouldn’t be 31 degrees and snowing on my drive home. Snow in April just sucks. Do you have no sympathy for the poor daffodils that have already peaked their delicate heads up through the ground? Do you not like daffodils? Not cool, Mother Nature, not cool.

Next up on the schedule, the Red Sox and Rays will try again tomorrow at 1:05pm. A battle of the Aces is on the docket. Jon Lester will go for his third win, while David Price looks for his first.

Of course no one will actually confirm that this 2013 Red Sox roster is official, but if you ask me, it looks pretty solid so I’m going with it. There was no ceremonial announcement that Jackie Bradley Jr. was a definite to be in New York on Opening Day but word on the street is he is headed to NY with the club. [Yay!] After finishing up the spring with impressive numbers — .419 average and a 1.120 OPS — it would’ve have been a damn shame if he found himself in Pawtucket.

So without further ado…

Starting pitchers:
Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Ryan Dempster, Felix Doubront, John Lackey
No surprises here, although I thought Felix might grab the #3 spot.

Bullpen:
Joel Hanrahan, Andrew Bailey, Andrew Miller, Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Alfredo Aceves, Clayton Mortensen
Daniel Bard, who the Sox broke last season, will start the season in Portland! Sounds like a rebuilding year for Bard. And I wonder what the over/under is on when Aceves has his first whiny meltdown.

Catchers: 
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, David Ross
And once again, Ryan Lavarnway is sent to Pawtucket. He’s like the high school senior that can’t seem to make the varsity club. *sigh*

Infielders:
Mike Napoli, Dustin Pedroia, Jose Iglesias, Will Middlebrooks, Pedro Ciriaco, Mike Carp
With Stephen Drew on the DL (WHAT? a Drew on the DL?), Jose Iglesias will get a shot to show us his moves and his greatly improved offense. He did hit a respectable .294 this spring.

Outfielders:
Shane Victorino, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jackie Bradley Jr., Jonny Gomes, Daniel Nava
I’m most excited about the outfield this season — Bradley, Ellsbury and Victorino could make up one of the best defensive outfield we’ve seen in a loooong time!

Tomorrow’s the day, Sox fans. The Red Sox visit the New York Yankees for an Opening Day matinee with Jon Lester taking on CC Sabathia. Game time is 1:05pm. Where will you be?

In just over two weeks, the 2013 season will open with a bang for the Boston Red Sox as they head to New York for a three game series with their perennial nemesis, the Yankees. Let’s not ease into the season or anything like that…geez.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised this spring with the performances by most of the pitching staff. What I’m imagining to be the starting rotation has been solid—with the exception of John Lackey, but I’m giving him a pass for now. He better step it up a notch once the games start to count though. I have high hopes for Mr. Lackey in 2013.

My starting five:

#1 – Jon Lester 
I assume the self-proclaimed Ace will be on the mound for Opening Day. He has had a solid spring allowing just two runs over 14 total innings and striking out 10. Lester has a lot to prove after such a disappointing 2012 where he struggled to a 9-14 record. Spring ERA: 1.28

#2 – Clay Buchholz
Clay has been nothing short of masterful in Grapefruit play, allowing no runs in his 8.1 innings of work. If he keeps this up, there might just be some competition for that “Ace” title. At least he had a winning record last year. Spring ERA: 0.00

#3 – Felix Doubront
If Felix continues down the road he’s been on in Florida, he should have no problems securing the #3 spot in the rotation. He has pitched 8.2 innings, allowing two runs while striking out 11. Spring ERA: 2.08

#4 – Ryan Dempster
If Dempster was signed to replace Dice K, I would say it’s a giant improvement based on his performance so far. But then again, if you’re looking at the last couple of season, Coco the monkey would’ve been an upgrade over Matsuzaka. Dempster has pitched 12.2 innings, allowing three runs and striking out nine. Spring ERA: 2.13

#5 – John Lackey
After missing all of 2012 recovering from surgery, Lackey has the most to prove. And while I expected him to get off to a slow start, this is a little ridiculous. He has allowed six runs in 6.2 innings—obviously, he still has some work to do. Spring ERA: 8.10

A few of the rookies, Anthony Carter and Allen Webster, have been impressive. Carter, who came from the White Sox organization, hasn’t allowed an earned run in 7.1 innings. Webster, a product of the Dodgers system, has pitched 11 innings, allowing three runs and striking out 14! Webster has been assigned to Pawtucket, but would be available should anything happen.

All in all, based on what’s happened so far, I would say the starting rotation is in good shape. Nothing spectacular, but I think they can hold their own if everyone can stay healthy and keep their head in the game. Although I highly doubt John Farrell will let the heads be anywhere else…

Middle infielders are weird.  Shortstops and second basement share a no-mans land in the field, positioned between bases in the hopes of fielding a ground ball up the middle.  They both tend to be (at least until recently, see Chase Utley, Robinson Cano, and A-Rod in his younger days) light-hitting speedsters who are more able to get on base and advance runners than they are able to mash home runs.  They both cover second base, and have to make and then communicate split-second decisions on double plays.

Baseball people will talk a lot about the bond between pitchers and catchers: the pitcher needs to trust that the catcher can handle any pitch and hold runners on, and the catcher has to understand the pitcher’ capabilities and limits, and also be an on-field psychologist for the pitcher.  The bond between middle infielders is less-touted but definitely there: the defense would fall apart if there wasn’t some kind of connection.

Which brings us to last night’s Red Sox spring training game against Puerto Rico’s WBC team.  The Sox won, John Lackey had a good night, and Will Middlebrooks and Mike Napoli each launched home runs.  But, this is spring training: Napoli’s home run and a Charlie Card will get him on the T.

I thought Pete Abraham’s twitter feed was much more interesting.  Abraham, a reporter for the Boston Globe, captured an awesome reunion between Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia an Mike Aviles, Boston’s former shortstop who had suited up for Puerto Rico.  Apparently, their reunion was a happy one, punctuated with some predictable Pedroia height jokes:

So the Red Sox continue their losing ways. (Serenity now! *raises fist*) After dropping their last eight games of the 2012 season, they lose their first official Grapefruit League game to those pesky Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3. Close, but no cigar.

Picture perfect day. (Photo by: Krista Nordgren)

I know it shouldn’t matter. It’s spring training. There are names on the line up card that a lot of us have never heard before. But it would’ve been nice…confidence boosting even… for a W in the first meeting with a division rival. I guess that was too much to ask. I’m going to try extra hard not to ask too much this season.

Spring training games are hard for me to watch on television. It snowed most of the day here in Maine yesterday and seeing all those people, hanging out in sunny Fort Meyers, FL really pissed me off. A friend of mine was there too… torturing me with texts about how amazing the park is, how they have dispensers of sunscreen in the bathrooms, how her kid got tossed a ball, and again how amazing the park is. Kill me now.

Trying to recap a spring training game is a lot like herding kittens, so I’ll give you some highlights.

• John Lackey started his first game since 2011. He pitched just one inning of work throwing 20 pitches—10 for strikes. He loaded the bases with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and a hit batsman but got out of the inning giving up just one run. Not bad for the newly slimmed-down right-hander. I’m rooting for him to have a good year.
• Jose Iglesias smashed a two-run, game-tying home run over the Green Monster (south) in the seventh. For a guy who’s been struggling to prove he’s ready for the big leagues with his bat, this home run has to do wonders for his confidence. Maybe that off-season time spent with Dustin Pedroia is paying off!

This afternoon, the Red Sox travel to Jupiter (the town, not the planet) to play the Cardinals. Jon Lester will make the start. For more riveting detail on yesterday’s contest, click here — courtesy of the Sox. All is right in the world… baseball is back.

See the title to this post?  That’s pretty much the takeaway from last night’s game.  The Red Sox sported some obvious holes in their lineup (most notably, Adrian Gonzalez ceded first base to Mauro Gomez last night – word is that he still doesn’t feel well) but pulled through for a strong win out of the All-Star break gate.  The Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1, bringing them (wait for it… wait for it…) one game over .500, and putting them a game ahead of Toronto in the AL East standings.

Welcome back, Jacoby Ellsbury – we missed you. (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

The marquee line on this game was that Jacoby Ellsbury finally made his long-awaited return off the DL, playing in his first game since partially dislocating his shoulder back on April 13.  He flew out to left in his first leadoff at-bat, but finally got on base when he dribbled a seeing-eye ground ball past second base in the seventh inning.  It’s good to have Ellsbury back – even if he doesn’t do much for a while, the simple fact that all Boston’s injured players are starting to make their reappearances will inject some life into this team, and into this fanbase.

Oh, on that note – yesterday team owner Larry Lucchino sent a letter to season ticket holders commiserating with them over the team’s lackluster first half and asking for them to keep the faith for the second haul.  The local news covered the letter this morning, and interviewed some Sox fans.  One of them actually said “it’s always been hard being a Sox fan… they do this to us every year.”  Excuse me?  It’s true that the Red Sox have had more down seasons than up seasons over the course of the last lifetime, but I think that guy missed the point.

The reason this season is excruciating as compared to other seasons, is because this season (and last season, for that matter), the Sox were supposed to be stacked.  Crawford, Gonzalez, Lackey, etc.  The Sox print money these days, and it’s an odd mixture of frustration and, I think, embarassment at continued high-priced free-agent failure that drives this melancholy.  The Red Sox are turning, if they haven’t already, into the early 2000-era Yankees – high paychecks, clubhouse discord, and an inability to back it up on the field.  That embarrasses a lot of Red Sox fans who have constructed a lot of their fan identity on, well, being the martyrs on the white horses, the anti-Yankees.  Must be tough to swallow that they’re quickly becoming them.

Anyway.  David Ortiz and Pedro Ciriaco, whose been playing out of his mind lately (3 for 3, sacrifice, stolen base last night, and 10 for 16 in his last four games) handled all the scoring for the Sox last night.  Papi launched a ball into the right field seats in the first inning to get things started, and then Ciriaco scored Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ryan Sweeney on a bases-loaded single in the second inning.  From there, Franklin Morales held the Rays scoreless through five, allowing only two hits before giving the ball to Scott Atchison.  Atchison let the Rays score off a Sean Rodriguez double, but that was all the scoring the six total Red Sox pitchers would allow.  My new persona non grata Vicente Padilla picked up his 20th hold (maybe baseball’s too easy for him, and he should pick up a tougher sport that women play, like, oh, roller derby, or my “recreational” Sunday flag football league, which, yikes), and Alfredo Aceves picked up his 20th save.

So, that’s not a bad start to the second half.  Here’s a link to the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston takes the field again in Tampa Bay tonight, when Clay Buchholz (8-2, 5.53 ERA) comes off the disabled list from his scary gastrointestinal bleed to face David Price 11-4, 2.82 ERA).

I think WordPress is a Marlins fan. I’ve been trying for 36 hours to write a post about the Red Sox pitching magic over the Marlins the past two games and WordPress hasn’t allowed me to get in. Therefore, I deduce they all must be Miami lovers. It’s quite a coincidence that after the series is over, I magically get in to post… right? But I digress…

I feel like I should be more excited about the progress of this team over the past two games in Miami. The pitching has been stellar and the offense (at least last night) really stepped up to the plate. Literally. So why these feelings of distaste and loathing for a team I’ve loved so much for my whole life?

You can’t blame the current state of the team entirely on injuries. Sure, Jacoby Ellsbury probably would’ve made some big contributions, but you can’t rely on him. He’s proved to us over the past few years that you don’t want to put all your eggs in his basket. He’s fragile. And you honestly can’t tell me (at least with a straight face) that Carl Crawford and/or John Lackey would’ve made a lick of difference either. If anything, I think this team is better without Lackey’s seemingly bad attitude and Crawford’s low self-esteem.

They youngsters that have come up from the minors to fill those injury-plagued positions have been nothing short of amazing. So really, who is chomping at the bit to get these guys back? Not me. A few of the veteran pick-ups — more specifically Ryan Sweeney and Scott Podsednik — have been outstanding. David Ortiz is having one of his best seasons in forever. Jarrod Saltalamacchia has turned his season around and is a force to be reckoned with at the plate.

Then it dawned on me the other day. This 2012 Red Sox team lacks heart and that makes me sad. I have a sneaking suspicion that when Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek retired this past off-season, they took the heart with them. We need to get it back! For the love of baseball, will someone please cowboy up and get this team excited. Where’s Kevin Millar when you need him?

Tuesday night, Clay Buccholz stymied the Miami Marlins bats, beating them 2-1 and improving to 7-2 on the season. In seven innings, he scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run while striking out nine Marlins batters. Remember all that bad stuff I said about him earlier in the season? Yeah, just kidding. Sort of. He’s been nothing short of lights out in June. Buccholz is 3-0 this month and has lasted an average of eight innings per outing, has struck out 22 total and allowed just three runs over those three games. Color me impressed. Click here for said “lights out” box score courtesy of the Red Sox.

Wednesday night, it was Felix Doubront’s turn to try and one-up Buccholz. Felix had a no hitter through nearly six innings, finishing his seven-inning outing surrendering just three hits and two runs and striking out nine. He’s now 7-3 on the season. The offense came through and scored more runs in this game than they had in the previous three games combined. The one through four hitters (Podsednik, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez and Ortiz) combined to go 9 for 17 scoring six runs and knocking in seven. Not to mention, the Sox scored six runs in the eighth to really put the game out of reach. Click here for the hit parade box score courtesy of the Red Sox.

The Sox get a night off tonight before making the trip to the windy city to see old friend Theo Epstein’s Cubs (who, by the way, have the worst record in all of major league baseball.) Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1, 7.20) takes the mound on Friday for a matinee game, trying to get his first win in a very long time.

When I heard the news that Theo Epstein had signed a 5 year deal with the Chicago Cubs, I was surprisingly okay with it. I loved Theo just as much as the next Boston fan in the early days — hometown boy makes it big — but as his failures continued to pile up, I became more and more disgruntled. It wasn’t until recently that I actually took a step back and looked at all the horrific free agent deals Theo had spearheaded during his nine year tenure as the Red Sox GM. Once I did, I actually felt good about the move. Maybe even ecstatic.
» Continue reading “5 Reasons I’m Not Sad to See Theo Leave”

Newly-appointed Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington announced today that John Lackey will have Tommy John surgery this offseason. Lackey will rejoin the team in 2013.

Cherington announced the news during his introductory press conference at Fenway Park today, explaining that Lackey had elbow soreness during the season.

To be fair, this season was by far the worst of Lackey’s career. But it’s hard to say that the Red Sox will miss Lackey’s 6.41 ERA. Despite the flaccid numbers, though, Cherington said that the Sox “look forward to having him as part of our staff, hopefully in 2013.”