4/22 Online Seats Game Thread: Boston’s Home Stand Hopes

The Boston Red Sox were able to clip the Orioles wings last night. Tonight, John Lackey looks to add his second win of the season to the team's total.

IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?

The Red Sox have played poorly in all facets of the game. As of games through April 22nd, they are ninth in run scored and thirteenth in runs against. Our eyes and the numbers tell us that the Olde Towne Team’s play has been ugly.

Even though most thought the Red Sox offense would suffer (I took a slightly different view), the other side of the ledger would make up for the drop off so professed the optimists of the media and the Nation. Run prevention -- pitching and defense -- was supposed to the strength of the Local Nine. Through April 22nd, the defense has been strong even with Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron missing multiple game. The Sox are second in Ultimate Zone Rating and eighth in Defense Efficiency. Hence, the biggest disappointment has been the pitchers and specifically, the top three starters.

4/23 Online Seats Game Thread: Boston Looks to Beat Up on Baltimore

While the Boston Red Sox fell short of a sweep of the Rangers, Jon Lester is hoping to throw for his first win of the season tonight against the visiting Baltimore Orioles.

4/22 Online Seats Game Thread: Sox Send Rangers Reeling

After two straight walk off wins, the Boston Red Sox will try to complete the sweep of the Texas Rangers in the final game of the series.

Bigger problems than stolen bases

Giving up a stolen base can sure seem like a big deal and when you give up nine of them you would think that is a huge number. It isn't something you want to give up every night, but it's not as big of a problem as our pitching staff's inability to not give up the free pass. A stolen base has an average value of about 0.18 runs. That means every time a runner takes a base he increases his teams chances to score by that amount. That isn't much and when you take into account the potential to lose 0.43 value if you are caught it's a pretty dangerous wager. In the case of the Rangers off of Tim Wakefield though on Tuesday night there wasn't much danger of being caught and only value to gain. It was an easy choice for them and gave them approximately 1.62 runs in value. That is no amount to ignore and is worth slightly more than the average home run, which is worth about 1.4.

4/21 Online Seats Game Thread: Sox Try to Turn Two Against Texas

The Boston Red Sox were able to regain some footing last night after trumping Texas, but will the Rangers rebound to take the second game of the series at Fenway?

Looking For Runs In All The Wrong Places

It's been a rough couple of weeks, folks. We've all heard it, we've all said it, we've all felt it. There's been enough negative energy in this town lately to give Vigo from Ghostbusters II a sugar high. However, if you sat there tonight watching grown millionaires crowd around Darnell McDonald like they were ten years old again and your cynicism, pessimism and negativity didn't melt away, you have no soul.

Tonight, it was the song of the backups -- the team was lifted up and carried by players no one has on a fantasy team, and eventually it was those players who gave the Red Sox their most inspiring win of the young season (with, admittedly, stunningly little competition). McDonald, Jeremy Hermida and Josh Reddick drove in six of the team's seven runs, and two of them weren't even on the roster this morning.

4/20 Online Seats Game Thread: Boston Looks to Turn Around Against Texas

After dropping all four games to the Rays, the Boston Red Sox must do some quick catching up against Texas, as the Rangers begin a three game stand at Fenway.

4/19 Online Seats Game Thread: Patriot’s Day Turnaround

On the holiest (and most proprietary) of all state-wide holidays, the Boston Red Sox will try to turn it around against the Rays, who have taken the first three of the series. With the Marathon in the rear view, John Lackey looks to lead the Sox past their slump.

So Goes the Pitching…

So Goes the Pitching Staff In the midst of a four-game losing streak that has dropped the team to 4-8, Sox fans have begun the multi-annual ritual of name calling and finger pointing as to where blame lies on the club’s current skid. While the hitting has been poor by the normal standards, perhaps the most alarming development of the season has been the utter failure of the starting pitching staff. Of particular note is how easy the hurlers have been to hit and how often they have been falling behind early in the count. Jon Lester (5.40 BB/9, 1.5 K:BB ratio), John Lackey (4.26 BB/9, 0.83 K:BB), Jon Papelbon (8.44 BB/9, 0.40 K:BB), and Clay Buchholz (5.40 BB/9, 1.33 K:BB) have been the poster children for this trend -- seeing a precipitous deterioration in their first strike rates, zone percentages, and their contact rates.