The Red Sox hit the road for a pair of series’ with Central also-rans in both Minnesota and Chicago, and Boston returns home riding the wave of momentum that was a 6-1 road trip.
In this very space last week, we touched on the fact that the Red Sox would need to take advantage of this 22-game stretch against some weaker teams, and to their credit, they’ve done just that so far.
Now, they return home to continue said 22-game stretch, and they must get back to making Fenway Park a tough place to visit once again. And it all starts with Clay Buchholz.
That’s where we will start this week’s 6-4-3.
Six Red Sox Thoughts
1. Clay is the key to solidifying the Red Sox rotation
The Red Sox need Buchholz to be better. There’s no other way around it. The right-hander is still shaking off the rust of last year’s back issues, but sooner or later, they’re going to need him to find his old form and perform like the solid No. 3 starter he can be. With the recent improvements from Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, getting Buchholz back to his successful ways will finally solidify the top of the rotation for the first time in roughly a year.
2. Protect this house
Home hasn’t been too sweet for the Sox this year. After taking the first three against the Rays in the opening home series, the Sox lost five straight before a merciful rainout last Sunday, washing away a series finale with the Yankees. Of course, series with Tampa Bay, Texas and New York are never easy, but struggles at home are uncharacteristic for the Sox, who entered the season 50 games over .500 at home over the past three seasons. They need to get back to making Fenway a house of horrors for visiting teams, and with Oakland, Baltimore, Cleveland and Seattle coming to town in the next few weeks and the hubbub of the 100th anniversary celebration behind them, this is a better time than ever to build some home momentum.
3. Bullpen continues its roller-coaster ride
Baseball, by its nature, is a sport of ups and downs. There is no better example of that than the Red Sox bullpen. After sucking pond water for the first week of the season, the pen bounced back to shut down Tampa upon returning home. That was followed by complete and utter disasters against Texas and New York. Now, they look like world beaters again. In the team’s 6-1 road trip, the relief corps worked 16 2/3 innings and gave up just two runs on eight hits. The Twins and White Sox have mediocre offenses at best, but the results were there at least for a week. The returns of Junichi Tazawa and Rich Hill certainly won’t help, nor will continued success from Alfredo Aceves who looks like he’s starting settle in as the closer.
4. Ross is boss
Cody Ross is turning into quite the offseason pick-up, at least through the first sixth of the season. The outfielder continues to rake, hitting five home runs and driving in 18 runs in his first 20 games. That puts him on pace to hit about 30 home runs to go along with 100 RBIs. Both would obviously be career highs. However, both are probably unlikely to happen. Even so, if Ross can stay healthy and produce anything close to that, it will be a success. He’s never going to win a Gold Glove, especially in right at Fenway, but his bat and attitude have certainly been welcomed additions to the club.
5. Be weary of the Birds
This week’s homestand looks like it should yield success for Boston, and if they play up to their potential, it should be. Yet, the Orioles come in for three over the weekend, and they’ve been anything but pushovers for the Sox lately. The O’s are 5-2 against Boston in their last seven, with all of those games coming in last year’s disastrous September for the Sox. The O’s are hanging tough, too, leading the AL East with a 14-8 record entering Monday, helped along by a 7-3 mark in their last 10 games.
6. Pressure Cooker
It’s decision time for the Red Sox when it comes to Aaron Cook. The right-handed starter has had a ton of success in Pawtucket this season, and his May 1 opt-out is upon us. The club has interest in using him as a reliever, which Cook has said he’s not entirely against, but at the same time, he does view himself as a starter. He could help in the pen, but you have to wonder how much continued shuffling they’d want to do. A lot of bullpen success is predicated on familiarity in a role and bringing in Cook may shake that up.
Four Observations Around Baseball
1. The Yankees’ pitching staff is in shambles
Don’t take my word for it, ask Brian Cashman. The Yankees general manager called his rotation “a friggin mess” right now, and that might be putting it lately. The New York rotation limps into this week with a 6.08 ERA, a number that is surely helped along by Freddy Garcia‘s 12.51 mark. But then again, CC Sabathia has been decent, but he hasn’t been great, with an ERA of 3.58 after improving to 3-0 on Sunday. Garcia, unsurprisingly has been banished to the bullpen, where he’ll still make more of an impact than Michael Pineda who has been lost for the year with a torn labrun. Not good times in Gotham.
2. The Angels aren’t faring much better
The Angels were expected by many to be heavy hitters in the American League this year after plucking Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson in free agency, but so far, the Halo experiment has been a bust. Only the Royals and Twins have fewer wins than the Angels this season, and Pujols’ struggles have dominated the headlines. Pujols is hitting .216 (he’s never finished a season below .299), and he has yet to hit his first home run of the season. He has to be pressing while facing the pressure of trying to succeed in a new city with a huge contract, but you still have to assume he’ll figure it out before too long. Until he does, though, there could be more problems in the O.C.
3. The future is now in D.C.
Bryce Harper made his long-awaited major league debut over the weekend in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Harper, who was born in October of 1992, collected a pair of hits and an RBI in three games. Boston Globe writer and NESN contributor Peter Abraham pointed something pretty cool out when the news of the promotion broke last week. Abraham pointed this out with the Nats in L.A. to play the Dodgers: “I think years from now, it’ll be even cooler that Vin Scully called Bryce Harper’s first game.”
4. The Dodgers keep rolling
Speaking of the Dodgers, they show no signs of slowing down, with help from one expected place and one totally unexpected. The Dodgers enter the week 16-6, winners of seven of their last 10, thanks in large part to Matt Kemp. The MVP front-runner continues to light it up, hitting .424 with 11 home runs and 24 RBIs. That’s really good. More surprising, though, has been the pitching of veteran lefty Ted Lilly. He has been virtually unhittable in three starts, going 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA in three innings of work. Massachusetts native Chris Capuano has also been a welcomed surprise, winning his first three starts.
Three Things to Watch This Week
1. Can Jeter keep it going?
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter may be 37 years old, but he hasn’t showed that this year. The future Hall of Famer actually leads the league in hitting thanks to a league-leading 36 hits. Perhaps even more puzzling is the fact that he already has four home runs, just two below his total last year and matching David Ortiz‘s total this year. We’ve detailed the Yanks’ pitching problems, so they may need Jeter to carry them even more in the coming weeks.
2. Is Strasburg the game’s best already?
Well, no, probably not, but Stephen Strasburg has bordered on unhittable this season. He’s allowed just four runs in 32 innings pitched to go along with 34 strikeouts. Perhaps just as importantly, he’s healthy. He’s already surpassed 100 pitches twice, including a career-high 108 pitches in just his second start of the season.
3. Hair!
Jeff Samardzija and Bronson Arroyo are set to do battle on Tuesday in Cincinnati. This is what their MLB.com photos look like side-to-side. It is phenomenal.
