What a Road Trip!

Even after last night’s loss - Boston is playing at a six hundred clip, with the best record in the American League. They are fourteen games ahead of five hundred, a remarkable turnaround from April, when they were eight games under five hundred only a couple weeks into the season. By my count, that’s plus twenty two since then, or 40-18 overall.

At the start of June, there was no way I could have pictured this, as the current month had them scheduled for a potentially disastrous nine game AL East road trip, with successive series in New York, Toronto and Tampa Bay. Going into the Bronx about ten days ago, I would have been pleased with a five hundred record on that trip. But as we all know now, the Sox swept the Yankees, then hammered the Jays, banging out 35 runs in three games, and even managed to take two of three in Tampa, thus coming home to Fenway after having gone 8-1 on the road.

Boston’s recent success has mainly come via the offense. Gonzalez is still tearing up the AL, leading the majors in RBIs, and now batting almost three-fifty. (It will be interesting to see how he performs when San Diego comes to town tomorrow night.) Papi was a terror on the road trip, with four home runs and thirteen RBIs, while raising his average to three-twenty. Pedroia came back from his MRI with a smoking hot bat; Youk and Ellsbury had timely hits. In fact, the whole lineup was contributing, which was the main reason the Sox scored eight or more runs in seven games this month.

One downside has been that the pitching has been less than spectacular of late. Lester tossed eight strong innings in Toronto, and Beckett came very close to a perfect game down in Tampa. The Rays’ only base runner came on a slow grounder down the third base line that Youk could not get to in time. An infield single left Beckett with a one-hit shutout, on fewer than one hundred pitches no less. He’s been on fire this year, and I only hope he stays healthy. It’s funny, but Beckett’s great seasons have always come in odd-numbered years, and yes, 2011 is an odd number. And I guess Wake had a good outing in Tampa, but it came on the night that Shields shut the Sox out. Often though, the starters have allowed a bunch of runs, but were then bailed out by the bats. Only Beckett is carrying an impressive ERA right now. Even Lester is giving up about four runs a game; just like last night.

But speaking of staying healthy, the first game in the home stand was a reminder that teams need good luck in order to succeed in a regular season than runs for six months. In one game Crawford came up lame legging out an infield hit, and Youk got sick and had to leave the lineup. The same day, the Sox had placed Lowrie on the disabled list; he got banged up colliding with Carl Crawford (didn’t that same thing ruin Ellsbury’s season last year?) a couple weeks ago, and hasn’t healed. So any team, including the Sox, is always a couple freak accidents away from having their season go into the tank. Think about how everyone kept away from injuries in the championship years, and contrast that with last season.

Anyway, things are looking brighter right now. The gloom of April seems to have passed, and the team is playing up to this year’s high expectations. Let’s hope they stay hot as we move into summer. Go Sox.

Hospitality, New York Style; the Yankees Make the Sox Feel Right at Home.

Let’s be clear about one thing: no one ever won a pennant in June. And this year’s pennant will be no exception; it’s going to be decided in September, or maybe even October. Still, it helps to be playing well in June, especially against division rivals. So that’s to say that the Sox helped their chances for 2011 by going into the Bronx, and for the second time this season taking three from the Yankees.

They won the first two games at the plate, by outslugging NY, and it looked like old times, with Ortiz hammering the ball into the right field stands. Even a less than spectacular outing from Jon Lester did not keep Boston from winning the opening game, a game that was highlighted by Papi’s two-run bomb, as he now calls them. This was one of those nights when the pitching wasn’t great, but was good enough to allow the bats to bring home a win. Been a lot of that lately. Game two featured Wakefield’s 196th win; another two-run bomb from Ortiz; and a strong performance from Aceves, who went three and two-thirds innings, saving the rest of the bullpen.

Last night was the third time that Sabathia and Beckett had squared off this season, and for the third time, Beckett got the win. CC looked like he was in control until the seventh, despite his slight lapse in the fourth, when he drilled Ortiz on the hip. There was no protest from the Boston dugout, because Beckett had already hit Jeter, not to mention that Lester drilled Texeira on the knee in the opening game, and a couple other guys had got hit along the way as well. But Sabathia may have picked the wrong guy to hit, as Ortiz started the seventh inning with a single; then came home on Lowrie’s triple into the right field corner; and then later in the inning, knocked in two more runs with a double to the base of the wall in left. A seven-run outburst in the top of the seventh was more than enough to get Beckett his win, and to insure a sweep for the Sox. And to allow Boston to escape NY atop the AL East.

So Boston leaves NY for Toronto ten games ahead of five hundred for the first time in 2011. They haven’t played well in the Rogers Center of late, so who knows whether they will return home with a lead in the AL East? But for now, it’s good to know the team can go into NY and play with confidence, because come October, they may find themselves playing in NY once again.

What’s Up With the Pitching?

No sooner had I posted about May’s turnaround than the Sox went into a swoon and lost four straight. And the pitching, which had been the main reason for the Sox recovery from April’s woes, suddenly became completely unreliable. Even though they ended up going 3-3 for the week, getting swept by the White Sox, but then sweeping the Athletics, the Sox surrendered forty-one runs in six games. According to my calculations, that works out to be around seven runs per game. And when you think about it, it’s remarkable that they played .500 ball while giving up that many runs. I won’t dwell on it though; let’s just hope everyone had a bad week.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Gonzalez continues on his torrid pace, with Carl Crawford right behind. After today’s three run homer, Crawford has 23 RBIs since the start of May, not to mention around a .320 average in that same time. That’s pretty good production for a guy that was supposed to be a table setter -- get on base for the other guys to knock in. Plus, he’s had as many timely hits as anyone on the team this year.

Papi too has been real productive at the plate, batting around .300, and hitting the long ball once again. Remember that pinch-hit game winner against the Tigers last weekend? And all this run production has come with Pedroia in a slump, and Youkilis underachieving. Now I know that everyone isn’t going to have a hot bat at the same time, but all I’m saying is that there is still lots of room for improvement in the lineup. They look pretty good right now from top to bottom.

Which brings us back to the pitching. Beckett had a decent outing yesterday, not overpowering, but solid. And Lackey looked OK today. He surrendered three runs over five and two-thirds innings, and while that might not sound so great in the abstract, it’s a hell of a lot better than he had been pitching earlier in the season. He needs to pitch decent. Like today. Give up a few runs, maybe go another inning or so, and give the bullpen a bit more rest, but keep the score down so that a couple hot bats can bring home a win for the Sox. It looks like Dice-K will be out for the season -- that’s really a shame because he had those two fabulous outings back to back -- but if Lackey is half-decent, he and Wake can fill out the rotation, assuming no further injuries.

Big series this week, with Boston down in New York again. Not to mention the fact that they then travel to Toronto and Tampa Bay. That adds up to a nine game road trip against AL East teams. I’m amazed with the terrible start, and the recent losing streak, they are only two games out right now. I’d like to see them play .500 ball on this road trip; is that too much to ask for? Go Sox.