Another Heartache and What Should/Could Be Done About It

This is getting repetitive; the Sox lost again last night.  This time, it was a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.  The Red Sox are now in 3rd place, 3 games out of first, and only a game and a half up on the 4th place Rays.
The Red Sox started the game great.  Ortiz hit a 3-run home run in the 1st inning, and Lackey was working efficiently through the first three innings.  But, of course, things didn’t end well for Lackey.

In the fourth inning, Lackey gave up a single to Longoria, followed by a single to Loney, and a double to Luke Scott.  The score was now 3-1.  He struck out Kelly Johnson, but Jose Molina singled to score Loney and Scott.  It was now 3-3 in the fourth.  Two more runs would come in on a Matt Joyce single, making it 5-3, before Lackey would get out of the inning.  He lasted only 4.1 innings before being pulled in favor of the rested bullpen.

Let’s face it- everyone is getting frustrated with this team at the moment.  They’re teasing us.  Lester pitches a masterful game Friday night, and the team wins handedly.  Buchholz follows up that performance with an
8-inning great pitched game, only the Sox lose that game in the 9th inning on a home run given up by Tazawa.  Dempster gets lit up in Sunday's game.  Last night, Papi seems to be getting out of his slump by hitting his home run in the first inning, Lackey was cruising, but things became unravled by mid-game.

Things have to start gelling like they were the first month of this season.  The Red Sox had momentum that first month, and they’ve obviously lost it now.  Even the great attitudes seem to be waning (anyone check out some of the stupid Tweets Hanrahan was getting after it was disclosed he was having season-ending surgery?  Yikes!).

So, what does this team need?  A great pitching performance (Lester’s) doesn’t seem to get the team going, and even when the team is getting hits (Sunday, they had 10), they keep leaving runners in scoring position. Things have to fall in line at some point, right?

I also think that the line-up needs a bit of a shake-up.  For years, we have become accustomed to Pedroia hitting No. 2 in the line-up, and when he does it No. 3, he usually brings a big game.  Keeping Pedroia, who is hitting .338 this season without much power, in the No. 3 spot isn’t helping.  Move him back to No. 2. Another thing Pedroia has going for him is he has more walks (24) than strikeouts (22) this season, and he has 8 stolen bases and has been caught only once.

Ellsbury, batting only .256 with a .321 OBP needs to be moved from the top of the line-up.  I understand the feeling that Ellsbury has to stay at the top of the order because of his speed (12 stolen bases this season and caught twice), but if he’s not getting on base, there’s no one for the hitters behind him to score.  I think Victorino could lead-off.  He’s hitting .297 with a .358 OBP.  While he only has 3 steals, and has been caught twice, he’s getting on base.  That’s what the lead-off hitter needs to do.

Middlebrooks is the other issue in the line-up, though he’s starting to find his swing again.  He’s batting .200, with 44 strikeouts to 5 walks.  That is NOT GOOD!  Greg Colbrunn, the Red Sox hitting coach, needs to try and get Middlebrooks timing down and his confidence up.  It would be one thing if Middlebrooks was hitting .200 with a bunch of popouts, groundouts, and sac flies, but he has struck out 44 times!  The only Red Sox player who has struck out more is Napoli (53 times), but he’s still hitting .261 with a .523 slugging percentage to Middlebrooks’ .393.

Nava and Saltalamacchia have been the good surprises this season.  So far, Nava is hitting .288 with a .391 OBP and a .500 SLG.  He has 24 RBIs, which is second most RBIs on the team behind Napoli’s 33.  Salty is hitting .263 with a .333 OBP and a .495 SLG.  Last year, Salty hit .222 with a .288 OBP and a .454 SLG, which the Sox seemed fine with his performance.

Really, this team needs to wake up and realize that they have the potential to be a good, maybe even great, team.  They seemed to have that attitude in April, and it worked for them.  They wanted to be the underdogs that proved everyone wrong.  Now, it seems that as soon as they started to change critics’ minds, they’ve fallen back into pre-season expectations.  I know this team can do better, and I hope they realize they can too.

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I’ll be heading to Minneapolis on Friday, and I will be attending the Red Sox-Twins game Saturday night at Target Field.  It looks like it’ll be Dempster starting for the Sox and Diamond for the Twins.  It’ll be my first time seeing Dempster pitch live, and it’ll also be my first time at Target Field.

I’ve already started working on my Twitter-Mania Friday post, so I’m hoping I’ll get it posted before I leave.  Make sure to check back next week for pictures of the game.  Hopefully, the Red Sox remember how to win by then!