April 14, 2006
Offense Disconnect
The Red Sox won a close game against the Mariners tonight 2-1. It wasn't a pitching duel, however. Schilling pitched another great game, allowing three hits and striking out seven. But Moyer and the staff of the Mariners allowed 10 hits and 4 walks. Six of those 10 hits were doubles. It seems the Red Sox should have scored many more runs with that kind of hitting.
But Moyer struck out eight in his six innings, and the team struck out 10 for the game. The Red Sox were just 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position. It's just a feeling, but there seems to be a number of games like this so far. Runs per game is up, and could be even more if games like this produced runs in proportion to the hits.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:33 PM
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I missed the game, but aside from the obvious lack of timely hitting, was there anything notable about Boston's offensive performance? Was Moyer really throwing well or did they just swing the bats poorly?
It was more bad luck than anything else, from my perspective. Plus, he got out of a big jam when, with Alex Gonzalez on third base and one out, Mark Loretta, clearly on his own NL impulses, attempted a suicide squeeze which he screwed up which caused Gonzalez to be tagged out on third. He also kept the ball in the ballpark, and Manny is still inexplicably in suck mode.
Thankfully Schilling and Papelbon were on cruise control, so it didn't matter.
There are pretty obvious explanations for the phenomenon of the Sox offense delivering fewer runs than expected right now:
(1) Boston's hot leadoff hitter was knocked out with a short-term injury;
(2) Boston's even hotter-hitting right fielder was also knocked out witha short-term injury;
(3) Manny Ramirez, the key second half of Boston's one-two offensive punch (with Ortiz) is starting the season in a slump.
Once these three are back firing on all cylinders, you're going to see a lot of 8-2 wins from the Sox, in my opinion.
Yeah I'm not worried about the offense, it'll be more than adequate...top 3 or 4 in the AL at least, better if Lowell keeps hitting like this. I was just curious about how Jamie Moyer managed to hold them to two tonight, given his rocky history vs. Boston and overall mediocrity.
Umm... Folks, there's nothing wrong with Boston's offense. Its overall performance will be similar to last year's, and so far it's been doing exactly that. Last year's OPS: .811. This year's OPS (so far): .816.
Have to agree with Hunter. We've got 3 of our top producers not doing so. 2 due to injury and 1 to a slump. My concern is with Wells and Clement...
Looks like Wells may go back on the DL. While the offense has been frustrating to watch the past few games (lots of guys on base, no timely hitting), what is encouraging is that the Sox are winning the close ones. I think last night was their third 2-1 win of the season.
well, 2-1 wins are a LOT more exciting than all these 13 - 9 boring slugfests with ML pitchers looking like batting practice pitchers - there's what 4 or 5 HRs a game now.
how B O R I N G
it's like watching college ball with aluminum bats.