John Lackey pitched another fine game for the Red Sox last night: 6+ innings, allowed just 2 runs and struck out 10. And got no support and another loss, 2-0.
Lackey even turned his ankle in the 2nd inning coming off the mound to make a play, yet stayed in and toughed it out. I give him a lot of credit, as he has turned his Red Sox career around after the first two lousy years of 2010 and 2011. How about this:
Lackey won his 10th game of 2011 on August 6th, with an ERA of 6.14. But in 2013, he has but 7 wins, with an ERA of 3.21. He should have at least 12 by now with some decent support.
The Red Sox could muster NOTHING against the worst team in all of baseball, the Houston Astros.
To be fair, rookie Brett Oberholtzer pitched a terrific game: 7 shutout innings in his 2nd MLB start. He became the first pitcher to do that in his first two starts in 33 years, as he stymied the Orioles over 7 innings last week.
But still, this is the Houston Astros. And I'm getting really tired of seeing Dave Kingman, er, Mike Napoli, strike out in clutch situations, as he did in the 8th, as the Sox had first and third and two outs and naturally, came away with nothing. He has been a big disappointment since his hot start in April, and he provides little protection for David Ortiz (who now leads MLB in intentional walks, with 17). I'm really glad the Sox smartly changed his deal back in the winter to just one year.
This was a bad start to an important 10-game road trip. We damn well better see some runs scoring tonight.
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