Sunday, July 07, 2013

Late Night Horror Show

I just hate it when the Red Sox give games away.

7-3 lead, two outs and two on in the ninth. And they lose in 11 innings, 9-7 to the Angels.

Observations from this crapfest:

The bullpen worries me big time. Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa have been great overall, but I fear they will be burned out by September, especially Uehara, who is 38. Andrew Miller has also been very good, but he left last night's game with an ankle injury, and it didn't look good as he had to helped from the field. Andrew Bailey was terrific last night, but can you really count on him? The Sox have to upgrade the pen, even more than the rotation.

Even if Brandon Snyder made a perfect throw to Dustin Pedroia in the 9th inning, it appeared Josh Hamilton had the play beat. If he throws to first, he had a far better chance to get Howie Kendrick, a slower runner.

Snyder had only played third base once in MLB before the Sox called him up. And the just-recalled Brock Holt and the just sent down Jonathan Diaz are middle infielders, not third basemen. The third base shuffle finally caught up to the Red Sox last night. It's time to bring back Will Middlebrooks from Pawtucket.

Lost in all this is the fact the Red Sox left runners everywhere. 14 left on base, and they didn't get a man on base in extra innings. This game should have been a laugher.

It's important the Sox come out with a win on Sunday night. Losing a game like this can wreck a team and a season, especially with eight more games left on the West Coast. This loss has to be put as far in the rear view mirror as possible, and not be remembered should things start going south.

Now we truly see what the 2013 Red Sox are made of, after the worst loss of the season.

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