Andrew Miller picked up two losses to the Twins this past week. (Photo by Kelly O’connor via SittinStill.smugmug.com)
The Boston Red Sox stand at 20-22 after a tough three-game losing streak, including two straight at home against the Detroit Tigers. They have lost four of their last five contests and are 2.5 games behind both the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees.
Sure, the offense has been struggling, but it has been the pitching the last week or so that has let the Red Sox down.
Tough-Luck Losses
The Red Sox have had trouble the last five games getting the win.
In Minnesota, the Red Sox lost two of three via walk-off wins for the Twins at Target Field. Both came off the hand of Andrew Miller with his only two losses of the season. On Tuesday, he gave up a two-run homer to Chris Parmelee in the ninth inning, who happens to be a left-handed batter. He left a pitch on the inside part of the plate and that is where lefties like it. This happened after the Red Sox rallied from a 6-1 hole to tie the game 6-6 in the eighth.
On Thursday night, Miller came in relief in the tenth and with two outs gave up a single to left with a runner on second to Aaron Hicks. The single scored Kurt Suzuki after he hit a one-out double. This came after the Red Sox were nearly dominated by Phil Hughes after being down 3-0 early. The squad scored three unanswered runs, including a two-run single for Will Middlebrooks with two outs in the ninth off of Twins’ closer Glen Perkins.
Another tough one came on Friday night as Jon Lester allowed just one run in a five-inning effort in which he walked three, allowed four hits and struck out seven. The Red Sox lost 1-0 and had two chances in the final four frames with runners on first and second with nobody out against the Tigers and couldn’t score.
The Red Sox are now 5-10 in one run contests and just one thing needs to go right in these games for the Red Sox to once again be at the top of the AL East.
The Injury Bug
The Red Sox caught a break with Shane Victorino only missing a couple game’s with some knee swelling and Xander Bogaerts able to not miss any time after being hit by a pitch Friday night by a fastball from Evan Reed right above his left wrist. Victorino returned Saturday wearing a knee brace as he went 0-for-4 with a strikeout, but ran down a couple balls in right field.
Middlebrooks wasn’t so lucky as he landed on the disabled list with a fracture in his right index finger on Saturday. The injury happened when a line drive hit off his hand in the first inning of Friday’s contest. The Red Sox brought up Brock Holt to play third, but it is yet another tough blow for the Red Sox.
The 25-year-old missed three weeks in April with a calf strain and has had trouble since August of 2012 staying on the field. Sure, two of those injuries were accidents, including the latest one, but the slugger will likely do anything in his power to go back to what he was back in 2012.
Middlebrooks is hitting .197 with two homers and nine RBI through just 71 at-bats.
Going Forward
After the finale against the Tigers on Sunday night, the Red Sox will have day off before welcoming the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game set. The team then heads off to Tropicana Field to face the Tampa Bay Rays and this time David Price will make a start against them.
Prediction: 4-1; Sure, the Red Sox have struggled to score runs consistently, but the pitching has kept them in most games. The Blue Jays will being the offense around and the Rays will be tough, but the Red Sox will finally squeak out a couple tough wins.