Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger
BOSTON -- Well the past week has been nothing short of hellacious for the Red Sox in the way of injuries. That said, the Sox are playing with mostly their B-squad and have pulled within a half-game of the Yankees for the AL East lead through Friday.
How is this possible? It appears that the boys from Boston are destined to face more than their fair share of adversity this season, but is there really a better team than the Red Sox who are more battle-tested and apt to overcome such hurdles? Me thinks not.
The Sox had seen their share of troubles with injuries this season with Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeremy Hermida and Mike Lowell paying extensive visits on the DL before the BoSox pulled into SanFran last Saturday afternoon. Then all hell broke lose.
A night after Dustin Pedroia – the team's unquestionable fire and leader these days – blasted 3 homers to best the Rockies in Denver, the power-hitting little man fouled a ball off himself in his first at-bat in San Francisco, fracturing his foot and placing him on the DL for up to 6 weeks.
The next night in SanFran young Sox ace Clay Bucholz got his first major league hit and of course went down on the base paths attempting to reach second base. First diagnosed as a hyper-extended knee, the injury was later called a pulled hamstring. Luckily it appears the hammy shouldn't keep Clay out too long.
Lightning evidently strikes not just twice, but 3 times when in SanFran, as the last game of the series Victor Martinez went down with, what else, but a fracture foot after a batter fouled a tipped pitch off his foot while behind the dish. Despite this, the Sox beat-up Timmy Lincecum that night and took their 2nd win of the 3 game series – banged up, but still winning.
Then the Sox headed back home for a 2-game set with their wild-card rival, those pesky Rays. The Boston Bombers split the series, with Big Papi and company rocking pitcher James Shields in the first outing. But the bad news didn't stay in the San Francisco bay, but followed them all the way back to the Boston harbor. On Thursday the Sox got news that Jason Varitek had also, indeed, broken his foot and would be placed on the DL long term.
Luckily former Boston back-up catcher Kevin Cash was not being utilized in the Astros system and available to be dealt to the Sox for next to nothing. This move made Thursday night was ever-so-key, as a veteran catcher behind the plate who knows the Sox pitching staff will increase Boston's rotations' chances of staying on track and continuing to propel the entire program towards the dominant breed of baseball they've been playing over the past 2 months.
In June, the Sox went 18-9 and hurled themselves right back into the race for first, something their critics had all but counted them out of after a horrific April. The way they've done it is perhaps the scariest, playing great defense with impressive top-shelf pitching and more hitting than they ever counted on – all this of course while the team has been missing pieces due to injuries from the get-go. If they ever get a healthy lineup together by October – that prospect is perhaps the scariest idea of all.
For the meantime though, the Sox are going to have to really hunker down and battle through July with several players missing a majority of, if not the entire, month. There are currently 9 players on the DL, 5 put their in the past week (3 of which were starters).
Here are some of the recently activated players that you may not have heard of that will have their names on the roster undoubtedly through much of July:
- Robert Manuel, 26, righty in pen to replace injured Manny Delcarmen
- Dustin Richardson, 26, lefty in pen taking Wake's spot as he's now a starter again
- Gustavo Molina, 28, Venezuelan backstop to back-up Kevin Cash
- Eric Patterson, 27, 2B/outfielder
- Niuman Romero, 25, Venezuelan 2B vying for Pedie's back-up job
Now players like Darnell McDonald, Bill Hall and Daniel Nava have been activated for some time now as back-ups who have seen plenty of playing time with the pre-existing injuries prior to last week's black plague. Their roles will be ever more important now.
The 30-year-old Hall is a true utility player having spent time in the infield and outfield at both Seattle and Milwaukie before landing in Boston this season. He has filled in nicely for Pedroia at second but now may be spending time in the outfield if Cameron also can't stay healthy (was scratched from lineup before Friday night's game with the same nagging abdominal strain that has bothered him all season).
Daniel Nava came up big Friday night against the O's, coming in to pinch-hit for Eric Patterson in the 8th inning in a 2-2 ballgame. The youngster drove in the winning run on a bloop single that brought in Scoots from 2nd – Nava's first ever major league pinch-hit at-bat…not bad, not bad.
Nava's game-winning clutch RBI helped the Sox get a necessary home win against the terrible Orioles to pull within a 1/2 –game of the Yankees, but it was only the winner because of J.D. Drew's 2 big solo homers hit in the 2nd and 5th innings.
Tim Wakefield got a much-needed 1st home win of the year Friday, moving to 3-6 with a 4.96 ERA. Wake threw for 7 hits and 2 runs over 8 innings, a solid outing from the aging knuckler.
J.D. has been a godsend to this lineup as of late. Commonly criticized for his paycheck in comparison to the portion of time he has spent on the DL almost every season – Drew has been consistently healthy in 2010. He has hit 3 homers in his last 4 starts, and is batting .353 with 5 dingers over the last 13 games.
Saturday night Jon Lester (9-3) will be handed the ball, attempting to go 12-0 lifetime against the Orioles in a showdown with Jeremy Guthrie (3-9). If he accomplishes this feat, it will also make the Sox 12-4 over the past 16 games – a hot streak if I've ever heard of one.
AL Wild Card Race:
Yankees 48-31 -- Red Sox 48-32 ½
Rays 46-33 2
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment