Coming Up Short
The Indians beat the Red Sox 4-2 last night to take a 2 to 1 lead in the best of 7 series. Thoughts:
- Dice-K has major league stuff. When on, he’s impressive. But he will never be the pitcher Boston thought they signed unless he learns to get ahead of hitters. No matter how talented no pitcher can consistently fall behind Major League hitters and expect success. Look to Beckett of 06 for proof. Hopefully Boston coaches can drill that into his head over the winter.
edit: Tom Verducci points to fatigue as Dice-K’s main problem.
- There’s no excuse for David Ortiz to be hit by a ground ball between second and third. Not at the major league level, not at the high school level.
- The umpiring has been terrible. It’s gone both ways, so there’s been no advantage for either team, but it’s hard to believe these are the best MLB has to offer.
- The bottom of the order for Boston is currently a wasteland. No better example than the top of the 2nd with the bases loaded an none out with Varitek at the plate. A grounder, fly out, walk brings in a run. A hit brings in 2. He pops out weakly. Coco, with still only 1 out, grounds into a double play. Bye-bye runs, bye-bye momentum.
- That said, the rest of the line-up also took the night off. Pedroia, killing the team at the lead-off position doesn’t look like the same player he was during the regular season. He’s striking out, swinging at bad pitches, and when he makes contact hitting weak ground balls.
- Just as I worried coming into the playoffs, the Red Sox offense is not getting the job done. 4 runs should not be a challenge against a pitcher the quality of Jake Westbrook. If the Sox can’t score more than 2 runs off medicore pitching (Westbrook, Byrd) and fail to challenge a closer as awful as Joe Borowski they don’t deserve to reach the World Series.
