Road Trip

First, congratulations to this guy. That’s relief pitcher Hideki Okajima who won April’s American League Rookie of the Month Award.

Currently, I’m sitting at my desk about ready to listen to the first few innings of the Red Sox Mariners game before I go home. Hopefully they can get a quick pick me up against the M’s before heading out on the road to face the Twins this weekend. I, personally, would like to see the Sox retain the Mayor's Cup this weekend. Anyway...Dice-K is on the mound and his last outings against the New York Yankees were solid. He looks like he’s really starting to settle in the three spot behind last night’s winner and Major League Baseball’s only current six game winner Josh Beckett. Here’s what they’ll need to do tonight and this weekend.

- RF JD Drew, who is getting over the flu this week, needs to heat up again and drive in runs. Early April was all systems go for the formal National Leaguer, until he started to slump between the two series against the Yankees. He’s left more than 10 on in the last two and a half weeks.

- Manager Terry Francona needs to get Closer Jonathan Papelbon out into a save situation ASAP so he can redeem himself from Tuesday nights first blown save. I thought he should have put him in last night instead of Mike Timlin, but that’s why I don’t manage in the bigs I guess.

- LF Manny Ramirez needs to continue his hitting trend. He started off April very slow and looks to be back to his old self. When you’ve got SS Julio Lugo, 1B Kevin Youkilis, and DH David Ortiz ahead of you and getting on base consistently, you need to hit more often. It’s that simple.

- The bottom two of the starting rotation needs to pitch well against the Twins Friday and Saturday night. If the Minnesota lineup figures out Tim Wakefield early and Julian Tavarez can’t do a serviceable job then it’s going to be a long weekend.

- Bit players need to continue their success from April. OF Wily Mo Pena needs to play well despite being his usual human strike out machine-self. IF Alex Cora also should continue to do well filling in for rookie 2B Dustin Pedroia. Of course Francona may stick with his normal lineup over the weekend road series, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.

- When called upon, reliever Hideki Okajima will have to prove himself now that he earned the AL Rookie of the Month award for April yesterday. Rookies sometimes have a tendency to regress after some noted success.

- Lastly, but maybe most importantly, the defense needs to step up and stop committing so many fucking errors. It’s getting old.

Right at the moment the Sox are down 4-0 to the Mariners in the TOP OF THE 1^st. Damnit. I’ll be out of town until Monday as I’ll be in Sarasota, Florida. Hopefully I’ll have something good to write about.

P.S. Lugo has fucked up twice, now it’s 5-0 with only one out. So much for the defense cutting back on those errors. This sucks ass.

The Dirty Dozen

Not that the BoSox pitching staff is comprised of ex convicts or court marshaled military men, but they are made up of a mostly patched together group. After the month of April that patchwork of starters, relievers, and one homegrown closer came together and looked pretty goddamn good in the process.

Overall, the Sox 3.28 ERA is second-best in the AL, they posted a 3.14 ERA in the past 19 games, and are tied for first in opposing batting average with .228 against them. The Sox have allowed three or fewer runs in 12 of those 19 games. The Sox accomplished it by establishing their pitching staff as the premier dozen in the majors in the month of April and hopefully in the months to come.

Boston’s starters are averaging more than six innings a start, which is almost unheard of when in this day in age when a starting pitcher will rarely go six innings consistently. Just as a note, the New York Yankees are averaging less that five innings per start in the month of April. This kind of output from the starting rotation put less stress on some weaknesses that are in the Boston pen, namely JC Romero, Joel Pinero, and even Brenden Donnelly to a lesser degree.

After Curt Schilling’s meltdown opening day in Kansas City he’s gone 3-0 with giving up only one or no earned runs in each start. Josh Beckett has been nothing but short of dominant in four out of his five wins. Daisuke Matsuzaka is even beginning to show his talent, tenacity, and mental toughness that made him a phenom in Japan. Tim Wakefield is off to a slowish start reprising his role this year as old reliable and coming out of April with a 2-3 record. His ERA is low though, in the top ten of the AL, showing that the losses are not out of control. Julian Tavarez (while ripped on by me quite a bit) has even shown signs that his eventual move to the bullpen should be fruitful, as he’s good for about two or three solid innings at a time. He knows it, and everyone knows that he’s just keeping Jon Lester’s spot warm until he’s done with assignment in Triple A.

On to the bullpen now, that sweet sweet bullpen that is a big change from last year. Sox relievers have a 2.18 ERA, which is the lowest in the majors, with a dazzling 1.07 mark during the past 17 games. Are you seeing a theme with that last stretch between the relievers and starters? The bullpen has allowed only one run in the past 21 1/3 innings on the road, pointing to the Sox AL best road record in April. That stretch of games also came against mostly AL East opponents, and division games are the ones they need to win.

The bullpen, led by Papelbon’s 0.00 ERA along with lefthander and former Nippon Ham Fighters ace Hideki Okajima who has a surprising 0.71 ERA (surprising because he sucked in spring training), hadn't allowed a run in 14 innings before Derek Jeter's homer off Mike Timlin Sunday, and has stranded 24 of 28 inherited runners. Which basically means that not only do they take care of their own, they take care of those that the starters cannot handle at the end of their day. To me that seems to be the best statistic there is when it comes to relief pitching. Getting out of jams, and I’m cautiously confident that it will stay that way.

I’d like to close on the fact that Okajima’s dominance has been eye-opening. I touched on it a bit, but I want to go back to it because I am that fucking stunned at his performance. Even though he spent parts of 11 seasons playing for the Yomiuri Giants and the Ham Fighters in Japan, the Sox didn’t exactly know what to expect from the lanky left-hander even though the guy’s not exactly a rookie. Despite the considerable experience, he surrendered three home runs in 13 innings during spring training and was taken deep by Kansas City’s John Buck on his very first major league pitch April 2. I’ll credit that to the Royals playing like overachieving world beaters that afternoon though. They’ve been known to do that. How about the 2003 Opening Day Royals fans? Anyone?

Since then, however, Okajima has been nearly perfect. He has tossed 12 scoreless innings in his past 12 outings, allowing only three hits, and 15 of his past 26 outs have been strikeouts. Okajima quickly and obviously has earned the confidence of Francona, who opted to use him to close against the Yanks on April 20 after mounting a serious 8^th inning comeback when Papelbon was given a prescribed night off after working the previous two games. Papelbon, meanwhile, continues to dominate as the closer and has saved all eight opportunities while striking out 15 in 9 1/3 scoreless innings. Hey, I’m big on Papelbon, sue me.

Tonight on the mound will be one half of the book end of the ageless wonders, Curt Schilling. Schil’ is 3-1 with a declining ERA of 3.27 and batters only hitting .232 against him. His 23 strike outs show that he can still hit the payoff pitch this late in his career. Opposing will be fellow fat guy Joe Blanton for the A’s. Blanton (2-1) has been solid but not great the past few seasons for the East Bay A’s, even though he docks into Fenway with similar season numbers as Schilling. Blanton also has two no decisions from this year as well.

**Oops**
In my entry from Thursday, April 26^th I had said that Curt Schillings bloody sock from Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS was in the Hall of Fame. Actually, it is his other bloody sock from Game 2 of the 2004 World Series that is in Cooperstown. Sorry, I gave my fact checker the week off.

Road Warriors

That's Manny Ramirez hitting a home run. A much needed two-run home run in the bottom of the 8th to provide a couple of insurance runs to put the game and the weekend series against the New York Yankees away. The Sox finished with 16 wins and 8 losses in the month of April despite the fact that Manny has the 3rd lowest batting average on the team. This places him slightly above the likes of rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia and outfield utility Wily Mo Pena. Boston right now is enjoying a 4 game lead over second place Toronto and a 6.5 game lead over the Yankees and hold a five game to one advantage over them for the season. Also noteworthy is the fact that Boston made it out of April on the road with a 9 and 5 record which is first in the American League. Talk to me after their killer month in August on the road though.

There is much adieu about Yanks skipper Joe Torre's job being in danger. I'm not sure if I buy into that even as they finish up their worst April in recent memory. Even though Yanks GM Brian Cashman (can you think of a more ironic name?) is no doubt sweating bullets. However they always seem to come around before the All-Star Break, so I'm not cheering just yet. Also, once their starting rotation gets into a rhythm don't expect them to be setting up camp in the American League East cellar. The worst case scenario however, would be if Boston stayed consistent to how they played this month and stay healthy to win their first division crown in 12 seasons. That may not be the end of it either. Consider the fact that the Blue Jays could very well improve on last season's mild success and continue their upward trend. It may be slightly less possible but the Baltimore Oriole's may even not completely derail this season now that they've beefed up the bullpen a bit. However, I'm not betting my life savings on the fact that the Yankees will finish in anything less than second once the dust settles in the East.

Back to some things that I think Boston will need to continue doing or would need to change...

-The big three of the starting ro' need to 1) stay healthy and 2) stay consistent over the course of the months that have plagued the Sox. July, August, and even September have not been kind in past several seasons. Schilling needs to pitch like he wants to return in a Boston uniform next year, Beckett needs to keep on keepin on and hopefully not be bitten by the injury bug from all that heat he has been throwing, and Dice-K needs to learn to relax with runners on the bags. When Jon Lester comes back from his rehab assignment in AAA Pawtucket he should bump Julian Tavarez from the five spot. Tavarez was already quoted after today's win that he'd be happy with any position on the roster. Good attitude to have provided how well your performances have gone this month. Fucker. Anyway, Lester threw a gem down in Rhode Island last Friday throwing five scoreless giving up only three hits, no walks and 6 K's. If he makes an impact in the Sox lineup this summer, look for the storyline that he survived lymphoma cancer and successfully completed chemotherapy treatments last December to be played on ESPN every time he starts. Not that I'm downplaying the man beating the odds and making a comeback, I just know how much the World Wide Leader likes to capitalize on stories like this.

-The bullpen needs to keep rolling on the success they've sparked up this month. Simple as that. They've been playing shutdown ball when called upon so far and it's a very welcome change considering the questions surrounding the right field residence at Fenway for the relievers last year at this time. Kyle Snyder was able to rescue Schilling the first night against the Yanks this season, the ageless Mike Timlin is still a solid set up man, and Jonathan Papelbon is making the art of closing look easy.

-The bats. It's no secret that everyone gets on the Yankees to win considering how much they spend on their roster, however it's not like Boston is a distant second place behind them. So with all the dough GM Theo Epstein has spent to acquire and retain talent the past few years and undo some of the wrongs of the Danny Duquette era, there is tremendous pressure on the lineup to get cracking and stay cracking. I'm basically writing to Manny with this one here. On a positive note, Alex Cora keeps making a strong case to make his visits to second base permanent while remaining a spark plug in the lineup while auditioning for said spot. Also for your consideration regarding Cora, he is making $1.6 million more than current starter Dustin Pedroia. I'm pretty sure they aren't paying Cora two mil a year to collect splinters in his ass. He's a safety valve in case Pedroia isn't 100% ready for the bigs and they have to assign him to Pawtucket for some work, which may be coming.

Up next for the boys from Bean Town is a three game home stand against two AL West opponents. Oakland comes to town to open a two game series Tuesday. Thursday the Sox play a make up game from April 12th against the Seattle Mariners. The Seattle game will be a second opportunity for Matsuzaka to nab a win from them after losing out to an extremely impressive Felix Hernandez earlier in the month. Lucky for us he's on the 15 day DL and will be no where near Fenway. On the mound will be two game winner Horacio Ramirez. We'll see how adjusted he is to the American League coming over from the Atlanta Braves and pitching in one of the most batter friendly parks east of Coors Field.