4/18: Offense is cooking
Beckett looks to continue his Cy Young campaign against the hapless Adam Eaton and pitching-starved Baltimore Orioles. I demand a sweep of this four-game set.
Category: Josh Beckett
The Red Sox know how to manage “injuries.”
If Lowell goes down, Youk can shift to third and David Ortiz and Chris Carter can share the 1B/DH spots. Or even Rocco could DH at times.
If Daisuke suffers from "arm fatigue." Which could also be labeled as "we are being careful with him because of the the WBC." Then Justin Masterson can shift from the pen to the rotation.
But Theo has built a team that can handle suspensions, injuries, performance issues, more than just about any team in the game of baseball.
And the organization as a whole has built a farm system that has the players to either be quality Major Leaguers, fill temporary holes, or be traded to address any of these "holes."
BOS 10, BAL 8: Offensive slump broken
Down seven runs to begin the bottom of the second inning Boston never changed their approach at the plate. The Red Sox knew they were given too many innings to catch up. J.D. Drew lead off the inning with a walk and Jason Bay followed crushing his third home run of the season into Baltimore's bullpen cutting the lead to 7-2. Boston's comeback was just getting started.
Don’t Panic: The Red Sox will improve.
Sample size, sample size, sample size! Remember the thing that increases the accuracy of whatever the available data happens to…
Beckett suspended 6 games
How is it possible for a pitcher to be suspended when he wasn't thrown out? When the umpires feel the pitch wasn't intentional?
Josh Beckett, as reported on SportsCenter, has been suspended for six games for "throwing" at Bobby Abreu. As I mentioned here, how could it possibly be intentional?
This will definitely be appealed, so Beckett won't miss his next start. I wouldn't be surprised if the appeal was downgraded to less than five games, which means he misses no games.
Did Josh Beckett throw at Bobby Abreu on purpose?
In the first inning of the Angels/Red Sox game, Josh Beckett looked back at Chone Figgins three times at second base.
He then began to serve a fastball to Bobby Abreu, but home plate umpire Paul Schreiber jumped out, signaling for a time out. A startled Beckett buzzed Abreu near the head, causing benches to clear and four Angels to get ejected (centerfielder Torii Hunter, reliever Justin Speier, hitting coach Mickey Hatcher and later manager Mike Scioscia).
Who was in the wrong? What caused this event to occur? Let's take a look and try to pin down what happened and who is at fault.
LAA 5, BOS 4: Tempers flare, Angels take series
Bobby Abreu got all the revenge he needed.
4/12: Beckett back on the hill
Our pitching is clearly not the problem as our 1-5 has been stupendous. And that's without Buchholz or Smoltz! The O is clearly a bit concerning, but Lowrie and others haven't hit their stride yet... will they today? And will Beckett continue his Cy run?
BOS 5, LAA 4: Bombs away
That wasn't a playoff game was it? Yesterday's match-up between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels had everything a fan could ask for in a regular season game.
The good, the bad, and the Tek
Early season series against top flight division rivals are always difficult to measure. It's been said time and time again that the Red Sox, Rays and Yankees are likely to play themselves all around .500 against each other by the time this season shakes out and the team that outperforms against the rest of their schedule has the upper hand in the race for the division. That said, it's never easy to swallow being beaten in your own house by a team you'll be battling with all season long.
Given that it was the first three games of the season, a whopping 1.9% of the full slate of regular season games, it's difficult to draw any firm conclusions without being beaten over the head with comments about sample size. But as it is the regular season and no longer the fruitless analysis of in game Spring Training analysis, it is fair to point out a few things that were both good and bad omens, directionally speaking.