Boston Sports Then and Now

With the Astros moving to the American League this season Interleague Play is now throughout the season.  The season began with the Angels visiting the Reds.  I for one like the idea of Interleague Play throughout the season but understand it isn’t beneficial to all teams.  The Red Sox are one of few teams to have just experienced interleague games for the first time during the “rivalry week.” The Phillies have been predetermined as their rival with many of the other interleague rivals interstate like New York and California.  This week teams play two, two game series against their rival home and away.  Which means David Ortiz will pull out his mitt to play first base again for most likely one of those games.

With Monday’s 9-3 win against the Phillies Alfredo Aceves kind of stuck it to the Red Sox for keeping him in Pawtucket.  Maybe the Phillies offense is not what it once was but he had a good outing.  I thought Aceves had pitched his last game for the Sox in that terrible start against Oakland.  With the start against the Phillies maybe other teams will take notice of Aceves.  He was sent down after the game to make room for Franklin Morales, who is off the disabled list for the first time this season.

Jonathan Papelbon collected a save against his former team last night.

Last night Cliff Lee dominated the Sox with eight masterful innings with no walks and eight strikeouts in a 3-1 Phillies win.  Lee has always been a pitcher with great control and he showed it once again. He had 0-2 counts on eight Red Sox hitters. Former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon came on for the save in the ninth and got a mix of boos and cheers.  Ortiz for one said he had a hard time looking a Papelbon on the mound.  The rumors linked to the Red Sox wanting Papelbon back to reclaim his closer role could be true.  Papelbon did say he could picture playing for the Red Sox again.  With interleague play you do get to see players you don’t usually see and former players who leave your favorite team.  In year’s past it was 18 games of interleague but this year it only adds on two extra games.

The Red Sox will also be matched up with San Diego, Arizona and Colorado at home, while playing on the road against Colorado, San Fransisco and Los Angeles. This means the Red Sox will get to face the old friends on the Dodgers from the money dump trade last season.  Maybe Josh Beckett will be pitching and Ortiz can take him deep.

Interleague play I believe is good for baseball. Twenty games is not too overwhelming where they play only two additional games to years past. The only problem I see is American League teams in a pennant race playing in National League Parks where they won’t have a designated hitter.  The Red Sox do play two games in Colorado in late September as the second to last series of the season.  With David Ortiz or Mike Napoli having to sit that may pull away from a chance to win those two games.  Maybe the Red Sox won have to be in that position if they can get out to a lead in the division but the American League East looks to be one of the toughest divisions in baseball.

After a sizzling month of April when the Boston Red Sox came within a game of the franchise’s best first month of the season, the Sox picked up a couple of games in Toronto.

Then it was onto Texas.

The ballpark at Arlington was not as friendly to the BoSox as had been the parks they played in during the month of April. This weekend, Boston lost all three contests to the AL West leading Rangers. Red Sox pitching was hammered to the tune of 16 runs and Sox bats could only muster 4 runs in return.

The series as a whole was a statistical abberation as compared to the rest of the Sox 2013 season to date: Leading RBI man Mike Napoli was held to one hit over ten at bats in the series (no RBI’s). Dustin Pedroia produced the same batting average as Napoli over the set (.100) while scoring a run and stealing a base. Jarrod Saltalamacchia was 1/8 over the weekend, Shane Victorino was 1/7; as was Will Middlebrooks.

Pitching did not fare well either in the series: Felix Doubront kicked things off on the wrong foot Friday, going 3.2 innings, allowing 12 hits and 6 runs with 1 walk and 2K’s. John Lackey pitched well enough to put his team in a position to win on Saturday (5.0IP 6H 3R 3BB 4K) but ultimately took the loss. On Sunday, Jon Lester gave a quality start (6.0IP 5H 3R 3BB 7K) but did not factor in the decision as Clayton Mortenson gave up a walk-off hit to Adrian Beltre to seal the deal for Texas.

But all was not lost this weekend. David Ortiz went 3/11 with a home run, 2RBI’s and 2 runs scored. Jacoby Ellsbury was a decent 4/14 with a steal in the series. David Ross hit a home run in one of his two at bats this weekend.

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During a month from hell for the city of Boston, the Red Sox have finished one of the best months of April in franchise history by winning 18 games. Almost every night the Red Sox have given the city and the fan base 3 hours to think of something beside pain. In the first game back at Fenway after the tragedy, the Red Sox honored the 1^st responders and David Ortiz gave one of the best speeches ever in Boston by proclaiming “This is our f**king city, and nobody is going to dictate our freedom.”

David Ortiz reminding fans “Boston is our f**king city!”

Leading the way for the Red Sox was starting pitcher Clay Buchholz who went 5-0 in 5 starts with an ERA of 1.19. Jon Lester also didn’t lose a game, going 4-0 in six starts with an ERA of 2.27. In his latest start, Lester struggled against the Blue Jays giving up 5 earned runs in a no decision. As a team, the Red Sox had a combined ERA of 3.39, the sixth best in all of baseball.

When it came to hitting the Red Sox had the 3^rd best team batting average with an average of .272. Leading the way in RBI’s for the team was Mike Napoli with 27, the 2^nd most ever by a Red Sox player, second to only Manny Ramirez in 2002.

One of the biggest surprises for the Red Sox in April was Daniel Nava who hit .310 with 4 homeruns, and 16 RBI’s including the game winning homerun in the bottom of the 8^th inning against the Kansas City Royals, in the 1^st game back at Fenway after the Marathon bombings.

David Ortiz who started the season on the disabled list came back for that first game back at Fenway and appeared in a total of 9 games for the Red Sox. In those 9 games, Big Papi had 14 RBI’s which was more RBI’s than any Marlins, Mariners, or Astros player.

Although it’s just one month, the Red Sox are already in 1^st place with a 2 game lead over the Bronx Bombers. Nobody expected the Red Sox to get off to such a hot start, and they have quickly made fans forget about the 2012 season and Bobby Valentine.

John Farrell so far has been the complete opposite of Valentine. He’s made all the right moves so far when it’s come to players and the pitchers they’ve matched up against. After Mike Carp hit a homerun against Toronto’s Brandon Morrow, Farrell pinched hit Johnny Gomes for Carp 2 inning later when Aaron Loup was pitching for the Blue Jays. The move seemed questionable considering Carp had already homered in the game, but Farrell looked like a genius when Johnny Gomes hit a solo shot off Loup.

The Red Sox start May by finishing the 3 game series in Toronto, then go to Texas to play the Rangers for 3 games, and then it’s back to Fenway for a 7 game home stand against the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays.

Will Middlebrooks after hitting another home run on Sunday.

The openers are over Red Sox fans.  Now that the team is 5-2 and ready to focus on just the games this offense has looked pretty good.  They have beaten up on pitchers C.C. Sabathia, Josh Johnson, and R.A. Dickey.  Those pitchers are Cy Young caliber.  Dickey, adjusting to being back to the American League, has not fared too well in his two starts but still he is a good pitcher.  Jumping on him for five runs in the first inning is what Red Sox fans love to see.  In recent memory Red Sox pitchers are the ones getting jumped on in the early innings where the offense can’t seem to catch up.  With Jon Lester on the mound Sunday the Blue Jays offense had no answers for the lefty.

Sunday Will Middlebrooks had a career day going 4-5 with 3 home runs and a double.  He also flew out to deep left in his last at bat sending Red Sox fans to the edge of their seats to see if he could hit a fourth home run.  Middlebrooks is the youngest Red Sox player to hit 3 home runs in a game and is in the company of Jim Rice who also hit 3 in a game at the age of 24. So far this season we have seen Middlebrooks bat fifth and sixth in this Red Sox lineup.  With David Ortiz out for the next few weeks Middlebrooks could be making a statement that he shouldn’t be moved down in the order when Ortiz returns.  Power in the middle of the lineup seemed to be a question mark for the Red Sox this spring training with Ortiz out and Napoli seeming to be the only real threat.  Napoli has done a nice job with 2 home runs of his own with a low average as expected.  Napoli and Middlebrooks batting 4 and 5 in the lineup can be good because they have great swings but they do strikeout a lot so they may be broken up with Ortiz hitting 5th and Middlebrooks moving down in the order or possibly up to third with Pedroia taking the second spot if Victorino is moved down against a righty.

Middlebrooks is still only 24 which is great for the future of the Red Sox.  Having him in the middle of the lineup will truly help out the whole offense especially if he develops more power which I think he will.  Last season combined between Pawtucket and Boston he hit 24 home runs.  He did that  missing the least two months of the year with a broken wrist.  He certainly has thirty home run potential which is perfect for this day of baseball.  Long are the days where 50 home runs leads the league. Last year Miguel Cabrera on his way to a triple crown lead the majors with 44 home runs.  Cabrera has arguably been an MVP candidate since he stepped on the field in 2003.  His second season in the majors he hit 33 home runs.  I’ll hold the comparisons between Middlebrooks and Cabrera for now, after all Middlebrooks has not even played 100 games yet.  Expecting 30 home runs should not be a stretch for Middlebrooks if he can stay healthy.

Power can sometimes be a tough skill to achieve in baseball and a rare one now past the steroid era.  Two seasons ago we saw Jacoby Ellsbury hit 32 home runs and be the runner up for MVP. Ellsbury hadn’t hit over 9 in a season before 2011.  That was one of the only seasons Ellsbury has been fully healthy for in a Red Sox uniform and he produced.  He was 26 during the season and coming off an injury in 2010.  Much can happen in an offseason at Athletes Performance in Arizona.  Many Red Sox players go to Arizona to work out including Dustin Pedroia.  This offseason Will Middlebrooks joined Pedroia which could be a good sign.  I know it has only been seven games and he has 4 home runs but so far I like what I see and other Red Sox fans do too.  Middlebrooks has 30 home run potential which could be scary for the AL East opponents.

Lester needs to pitch like an ace for the Sox this year

The Boston Red Sox will not start the season 0-6. They have won their first Opening Day in three years as they defeated the New York Yankees 8-2. Jose Iglesias picked up three hits while Jackie Bradley Jr walked three times and drove in a run.

In the second inning Yankees starter CC Sabathia fell apart as Shane Victorino drove in two runs, Iglesias drove in Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Jon Lester had his usual rough inning but unlike last season, he got out of it with minimal damage allowing two runs in the fourth inning.

He threw 96 pitches through five innings, something you would like to improve, but when you have a better day than Sabathia it’s hard to complain. Bradley was another bright spot showing a terrific eye at the plate with three walks, including a big one in the second inning to extend a rally.

Bradley also made an incredible catch in left field in the third inning. He drove in a run grounding out to second base and he also struck out. Meanwhile, Iglesias had some positives with three infield singles including a bunt single and he drove in a run. He played pretty soundly at shortstop as well.

The bullpen is all it was cracked up to be it appears. Koji Uehara got three outs on five pitches in the sixth inning before Andrew Miller came in. He walked two batters but struck out the next two and then Andrew Bailey entered with a strike out of his own. Junichi Tazawa picked up a scoreless inning and then Joel Hanrahan closed it out with a clean inning of his own.

There were two negatives of this game; Mike Napoli went 0-5 and Dustin Pedroia appeared to jam his thumb sliding into first base. He stayed in the game but it’s something to watch for. Clay Buchholz is on the mound Wednesday night as the Sox face right handed Hiroki Kuroda.

Opening Day is finally upon us.  It’s been a long off-season for Red Sox fans as they try and wash off the stink that was the Boston Red Sox 2012 Season.  The predictions thus far from the main outlets have been a mixed bag.  Some see a work in progress for the Red Sox but others think that their pitching can bounce back and put them back into contention quickly.  Here is a look at what our Boston Sports Then & Now Red Sox team predicts for the upcoming season:

New manager John Farrell hopes to turn the page with the Red Sox

Ryan Kuketz:  Where They’ll Finish- 91 Wins, 2^nd Place in the A.L. East;  Why they’ll finish there - This is not the A.L. East we’ve come to know and expect in the past 10 years.  In fact the A.L. East appears to be a fairly weak division, and although the Red Sox only won 69 games last year, this is a brand new team in a weakened division.  The Yankees are injured and old and surprisingly seem to be in worse shape than Boston with A-Rod possibly out for the year and Teixeira expected to miss a lengthy amount of time.  With all due respect to Dan Duquette, and the Orioles I just don’t see them having anywhere near the success they had last year.  For the Blue Jays, I’ve heard about teams before, and never have a seen a “Super-Team” win in their first year together.  Plus Toronto is basically the 2012 Marlins with Jose Bautista and RA Dickey.  The only standout team in the division that I truly expect to be at the top of the standings are the Tampa Bay Rays.  With John Farrell at the helm this year expect the pitching staff to back on track and be able to win games, something that hasn’t happened consistently since Farrell left for the Blue Jays three years ago.

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