BOSTON — There's a reason Jered Weaver is regarded among
the game's elite pitchers.
With base runners aboard, the 29-year-old has been known
to evade the pressure and buckle down. It showed on Wednesday, as the lanky right-hander avoided the big inning while limiting the Red Sox to seven hits and two runs en
route to a 7-3 win.
"I think he's had better stuff," Red Sox skipper Bobby Valentine said of Weaver. "But he had really good command, throwing outside to the right-handers, looked like he was pretty much in control of that part of the plate."
Rather than focus on Weaver's dominance, however, Red Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik — who actually thrived while collecting three hits on the night — shifted the onus to the team's lack of productivity in clutch situations.
"I think our situational hitting as a whole hasn't been very sound," Podsednik said. "We scattered 10 hits tonight. We haven't been very efficient with runners in scoring position and we're killing rallies. We just can't seem to string together a good inning together here or there and gain any momentum offensively."
Take the eighth inning as an example. After Cody Ross ripped an RBI double with one out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia whiffed in the ensuing at-bat while Mike Aviles wound up flying out to right field.
The Red Sox continued their woeful ways in the ninth. With two men on base, Adrian Gonzalez marched up to the plate and cracked a weak pop up to left field that ended the game.
"When you look at the good offensive clubs, they [feed off momentum]," Podsednik said. "They take what's given to them, they grind out at-bats and just keep coming after you. I think we potentially are trying to do too much. Each player is trying to be that guy to get things going and it's counterproductive for us right now."
All in all, the Red Sox stranded 10 base runners.
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