April ended about as badly as the month felt for the Sox, who have high expectations for this season to yet again be in the run for the pennant and the World Series.
The 3-game road set with the Orioles began Friday with a disappointing, close 5-4 loss in 10 innings. The Sox had just taken a 4-3 lead in the 8th with J.D. Drew's second solo-homer of the night, when slugger Migel Tejada blasted a solo-shot off of Red Sox setup man Daniel Bard to tie the game up and send it to extras. Lackey would've collected the win, but the O's got to the Sox bullpen in the late innings to stretch out a victory.
In Game 2 Dice-K started out strong but cracked up in the fifth inning giving up four runs, followed by another 4-run inning in the sixth with Wakefield making his first bullpen appearance. So things got worse on the mound for the Sox, real fast! Ultimately the O's bats prevailed 12-9.
The Sox continued to just miss the mark amongst decent play Sunday in a 3-2 loss. Josh Beckett struck out 6, gave up 6 hits and 2 runs, but no walks in a 7-inning effort. Boston had a chance with runners on in the top of the 10th but yet again squandered the opportunity.
Then in the bottom of the 10th a Jon Papelbon walk led into an by the closer attempting a pickoff move at first base. Mike Lowell was filling in for Youkilis at first Sunday, so that may have been part of the error – but regardless the throw was way off. This terrible timing moved the runner to second for the eventual walk-off scoring run when Ty Wiggington knocked an RBI-double into deep center off of Paps.
Yay's:
- The Sox drew 10 walks in the game Friday, and that kind of patience at the plate will eventually payoff. However that game the Sox stranded a ton of base-runners as 3 of their 4 runs came off of solo home runs (Pedie hit the other).
- In game 2 David Ortiz blasted 2 homers off of Kevin Millwood to keep the Sox in the slugfest that turned into a 12-9 loss. Positive signs of life from Papi that may signal his snapping out of a truly epic slump.
- In game 3 Beckett had a quality start for a no decision, that could've easily been a win if the ball had rolled the other way.
- The Sox have played all three of theses games in the sweep tight. However frustrating that is, a team their amount of talent will eventually click and find a way to finish
Nay's:
- The Sox are currently in fourth place in the AL East with an 11-14 record. To say the least the Sox may not be able to have another off month like April if they expect to even grab the wildcard spot
- Errors at crucial points in the game have been a key reason why these close games have not gone in favor or the Sox last month. This does not exactly go well with the team's aim of improving defensively over the off season, but it's still early and all the pieces are there to have a fine defensive lineup
- The Red Sox were just SWEPT by the Baltimore Orioles. Whether it was on the road or at home does not matter as the O's currently have the worst record in the majors at 7-18. Another nice fun fact is that this was the first time the Sox have been swept in Baltimore since September of 1974. Ouch!
- The Sox are now 1-5 in extra-inning games for the 2010 season. Not a good stat from a team that spent a lot of the last few years mastering the almighty comeback – which does require pulling out a lot of close games.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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