Red Sox Recap 6-29-08

The Red Sox lost two out of three to the Astros as Hideki Okajima showed once again that he cannot pitch with runners on base. Some thoughts on the game:

Josh Beckett continued his recent string of good starts. Beckett has now given up just four earned runs in his last 22 innings pitched and 18 strikeouts. He has dropped his ERA to 3.65 (he had a 3.27 ERA last year), and that number puts him in the top 15 in the A.L. and it is the lowest it has been this year. He has one of his best curveballs of the year today, and it has been better of late, which has been the reason for his recent success (2.38 ERA in June). Being a “feel” pitch, his curveball will be getting better as the season goes on, and especially in the nicer weather. He is also averaging almost seven innings per start, which is near the tops in the league along with the famously tireless arms like Roy Hallady and C.C. Sabathia (Although as Peter Gammons pointed out in a recent article on espn.com about the wear and tear on pitchers, the reason why Beckett was so effective and looked as though it were May 10th when it was October 10th last year during the playoffs was because he had pitched 40 fewer innings than Sabathia.) The Astros can be a very explosive offensive team, and they showed it in this series, but for the most part, Beckett kept them under control.

Hideki Okajima has allowed ten of the last eleven and 12 of the last 15 inherited runners to score. He has been completely ineffective over the last month, yielding extra base hits and allowed inherited runners to score at will. His numbers are all up from last year, but the biggest difference has been the walks and hits per inning pitched. It was at a sparkling .97 last year and has soared to 1.37. It was an interesting decision by Terry Francona to bring him in with the game tied and David Aardsma pitching. Aardsma had allowed a single to Miguel Tejada, he was lifted after recording one out in the eighth. Aardsma has probably been the most consistent arm in the bullpen after Jonathan Papelbon, and has the stuff to pitch with runners on base. Okajima is a junk pitcher, although a very good one, but he cannot rear back and put a little extra on a high fastball when he needs to. We have seen Aardsma sling the ball up there at 97 MPH when he needs to. Other batters are not concerned about his fastball because he cannot locate it. They are sitting on his changeup and laying off of his curveball. A lot of his changeups, including the one that resulted in a hit that gave the Astros the lead, have been left up in the zone. Given the success of Manny Delcarmen and the better outings of Craig Hansen and the consistency of Aardsma, Okajima has to move to fill in Mike Timlin used to hold, which is long relief and mop-up duty to try to get some clean innings and get his confidence back.

Look for this recap following tomorrow’s series opener against the Rays.
Keep the Faith.

Not too impressed with the best the AL has to offer.  Not in our house!