June 10, 2015

Red Sox Rundown - "It's alive! It's alive!"





I think I have the answer to what was concocted in that now infamous laboratory that Chili Davis and David Ortiz toiled in awhile back - a momentum crushing leviathan. It is permeating the team at all levels, and only a few have the fortitude to fend off its wicked clutches. Eventually, however, these brave souls can only stem the tide for so long as they become overrun with ineptitude.

Boston looked as though they were poised for a winning streak that would catapult them back into contention. A gutty comeback win on Sunday against Oakland  left everyone hopeful that the hideous beast which had robbed the team of any mojo through much of May had found new prey. Unfortunately, a little over 48 hours after the first sweep of the season, the momentum was extinguished yet again in a suffocating 1-0 defeat in Baltimore. Wasn't Sunday's win against the A's suppose to be the biggest win of the year? And why is it that I've heard that uttered 2 or 3 times already this season?



Fair or not, David Ortiz seems to represent the vortex as the team spins out of control on the offensive side of the game. Check that swing above out and tell me he isn't pressing. Ortiz has been fending off calls that he may be washed up. If this approach is the teachings of Chili Davis, then we are in trouble. Ortiz is hitting at a .219 clip with a woeful  .114 against lefties and .111 with RISP. He's not alone. In the past seven days Pablo Sandoval is hitting .133 in 4 games as he was benched due to his fielding follies in Texas. Mike Napoli sits at .213 and had the highest strikeout percentage on the team of qualified batters at 24.5%. A strikeout is just an out though, right? No different than any other. Feel better soon, Mike.

In last night's game, the team failed to rally behind one of the bright spots in a dismal season. Eduardo Rodriguez has been absolutely phenomenal and gave Baltimore a peek at what they are missing out on. Check out these numbers to date.

He wasn't as sharp as his first two starts but pitched himself out of a few jams with a couple of huge strikeouts. Ironically, after his last two wins (which were his first two major league starts) Boston promptly lost the next outing. This time they didn't even wait the obligatory 24 hours and decided to ruin one of his starts instead. Even when Boston tried to do the right thing last night, they got in their own way.

In theory, this is the right play. When struggling to produce offense, Farrell tried to create some by moving the runners over with a single scoring a pair. You bunt down to third hoping the third baseman has to field it, but Wieters makes a great play to throw out Dustin. What is lost in this attempt is the fact that it almost didn't happen. Apparently Castillo wasn't even looking at third base coach Brian Butterfield and Farrell was trying to get his attention to look at him. What do they teach these guys in Cuba? Why does Rusney think Butterfield is out there?

 I mentioned a few players that  have avoided the grasp of Chili's lab fanaglings. In the past week, Pedroia, Bogaerts, and Ramirez are all hitting over .400. Brock Holt has also been adding a spark batting .368. This quartet has scored 17 runs and added 9 extra base hits.The maturation of Bogaerts has also been a pleasure to witness and has vaulted into all-star consideration. He's makes the right choices on the field - and off the field.
With this "Momenetum Masher" feeding on the hopes of salvation and no sign of Boston's ability to harness its demonic ways, we may have to do a better job of channeling our aspirations for 2015.

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)