If you're enough of a degenerate to wager on regular season MLB games, I've got a hot tip for you: bet the house against the Red Sox every time Tim Wakefield makes a start.
That might sound like crazy talk but it's hard to explain how the best team in the American League continues to find ways not to give the old guy his 200th career win. It also marked the first series since June 28-30 (at Philadelphia) that the Red Sox had lost.
This afternoon marked the fourth straight start that Wakefield (6-5) has pitched ok but has received a loss or no-decision. He pitched a complete game (eight innings) which saved Boston's taxed bullpen. Wake allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
Likewise, I'd love to hear a non-homer explanation for why Boston (73-46) can consistently do well against MLB's best pitchers like CC Sabathia, Jered Weaver, Felix Hernandez, etc. but time and again they get shut down by mediocre bums.
However, if the Red Sox are going to get completely embarrassed by a nobody, I'm happy it's one from South Portland, ME and with as cool a name as Charlie Furbush.
An LSU product (he has to be the only person in the history of Maine to attend LSU), Furbush (3-4) went seven strong innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Kevin Youkilis made it exciting for about as long as it took him to round the bases when his two-run homer (his 17th of the season) in the eighth cut Seattle's lead to 5-3. However, Mariners closer Brandon League got his second straight 1-2-3 inning and save (his 28th of the season) in the span of about 17 hours and change.
The best part about this forgettable game was that it clocked in at two hours and 14 minutes, sure to be one of the fastest of Boston's season. In other words, as long as a Dice-K first inning or two innings of Yankees-Red Sox.
Seattle got three runs in the third as Jack Wilson (infield single), Franklin Gutierrez and Mike Carp (RBI single) all produced runs.
Jed Lowrie's sacrifice fly in the fourth got Boston on the board at 3-1 but the M's got one in the fifth (on Dustin Ackley's RBI single) and Casper Wells took Wakefield deep with a solo shot in the sixth.
Adrian Gonzalez had two hits and a run in the loss while Ichiro had two hits and a run in the win.
The Red Sox have tomorrow off as they return to the East Coast. They host a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays starting with a day-night doubleheader (Lester vs. Shields and Bedard vs. Niemann) on Tuesday at Fenway Park. Then it's back on the road with four in Kansas City and four in Texas, two miserable places to play in well always but especially during the August heat.
Let's all spend the time between now and then wisely, by washing off the stink of from awful series in Seattle.
Follow @RichSlate
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment