If you took a time machine back to 2006 or 2007 and said that a low-level prospect named Justin Masterson would someday be better than Erik Bedard, you would not believe it.
Welcome to real life folks where the former Red Sox middle reliever (Masterson) is better than Bedard (Boston's newest acquisition). To be fair, it is the breakout season of Masterson's career (9-7, 2.63 ERA, 121 strikeouts, 1.17 WHIP) as he's transformed himself into a front-end starter in the average AL Central.
Conversely, Bedard (4-7, 3.55 ERA, 92 strikeouts, 1.18 WHIP) does not look like a guy that the Red Sox (68-42) should trust in a pennant race but here they are.
The Indians (55-54) earned a split at Fenway Park with a 7-3 win tonight that was all about Masterson's dominance of his former teammates coupled with Bedard's uneven debut.
Masterson went six innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits with a walk and nine strikeouts (including four in the third inning). Bedard was limited to 70 pitches in his second start back from the DL. He went five innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
To make matters worse, the Yankees swept the White Sox with a 7-2 win tonight as well meaning Boston and New York are tied atop the AL East heading into this weekend's series at Fenway.
Things started well for Boston as they got two runs in the first on an RBI double by Adrian Gonzalez (14-game hit streak) and an RBI single by David Ortiz.
From there, Cleveland took over offensively as they almost tripled the Red Sox' hit total (14-5). Carlos Santana led the Tribe with three hits and three RBIs while Travis Hafner and Kosuke Fukudome had three hits and Asdrubal Cabrera scored three runs.
Jacoby Ellsbury capped a memorable series for him (two walkoff hits) with two hits, a run and a walk.
The Indians tied it with two runs in the second on Matt LaPorta's (2 hits) infield single and a groundout by Austin Kearns.
Santana's RBI single in the third put Cleveland up 3-2 before Josh Reddick pushed across Boston's last run in the fourth with a solo home run (his fifth of the season) into the Red Sox bullpen.
Santana hit a two-run bomb off Franklin Morales (0-2) in the sixth before Hafner and Fukudome added RBI doubles in the seventh and ninth respectively.
Andrew Miller made his first appearance for the Red Sox out of the bullpen and the change of scenery didn't seem to change anything in his uneven performances. He's becoming a left-handed Dice-K which is about the worst thing I could say about the guy. In 2 2/3 innings, he threw 71 pitches and gave up two earned runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. I'll cut him some slack since it was his first relief outing but he's going to have to step it up if he wants to keep his job.
With the Yankees in town, all the usual trappings are in place: Friday night game on NESN, Saturday afternoon game on Fox and Sunday night game on ESPN. It has been almost two months (June 9) since the teams last played but hopefully Boston can keep its death grip (8-1) on the season series.
The pitching matchups are Jon Lester vs. Bartolo Colon tomorrow night, John Lackey vs. CC Sabathia on Saturday and Josh Beckett vs. Freddy Garcia on Sunday. Slight edge to the Red Sox on Friday and Sunday although Colon and Garcia have been surprisingly very solid. Saturday is a layup for the Yanks since Sabathia is on fire (3 of his 5 losses this season have been to Boston). I'm excited, it's been too long since we last saw baseball's best rivalry.
Follow @RichSlate
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment