Last week I wrote about the Red Sox winning many games in which they jumped to big leads early on the opposition. During their recent 9-game winning streak, they outscored the opposition 82-36, scoring more than 9 runs per game.
I also mentioned that the early-60’s Yankees as an example of a team who would demoralize the opposition by putting the game away in the early innings. The 2011 Sox, however, are not the 1961 Yankees. When I last looked, neither Mickey Mantle nor Roger Maris was on the Red Sox roster. And though David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzales are having excellent seasons, neither will approach 60 homers.
The four-game slide last week underlined the fact that the Boston pitching staff has only one real stopper-Josh Beckett. He has been one of the league’s top hurlers with a 6-2 mark, an excellent ERA, and 11 quality starts. After that, however, the staff has been erratic. John Lester has 9 wins and also 11 quality starts. However, those stats are a bit deceiving. He has been prone to occasional wildness and has surrendered 14 homers, an unusually high number for him. Also, his ratio of hits to innings pitched is close to 1, another negative stat.
After Beckett and Lester, and with Clay Bucholz currently on the DL, the task of “second stopper” has fallen to people like Alfredo Aceves, Tim Wakefield, and-yes-John Lackey. None of these has been consistent enough to be a real stopper. It is encouraging that Andrew Miller has had two good performances, but he will have to continute to do it. After showing signs of improvement, Lackey slipped again against the lowly Padres. His ERA is still over 7.
The Sox are currently battling injuries. Losing Bucholz, Carl Crawford, and Jed Lowrie has hurt a lot. But going against the Phillies, a second stopper will have to come forward. Otherwise, the team still may be prone to slumps.
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