Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 24, 2007
Red Sox Win on Timing

C.C. Sabathia lost to Daisuke Matsuzaka 1-0 tonight. Each pitched seven innings, with Sabathia allowing just five hits while walking none. Matsuzaka gave up four hits, but walked three and hit a batter, making Sabathia's outing a bit better. But three of the hits against C.C. came in one inning, plating the single run in the game. Dice-K never gave up more than a hit in an inning, which made the difference in the game.

Correction: Fixed spelling of Daisuke.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:43 PM | Games | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Daisuke. Stick to just calling him Dice-K, it masks your poor spelling.

Posted by: Gordon at July 25, 2007 08:09 AM

Really, the Red Sox have been winning on good timing all year. Or at least they're leading the division on good timing in scoring runs. Based on run diff, they should be in a dead heat with the Yankees for the division, though they would still have a pretty good cushion in the wild card race.

Much as I hate to say it, the Yankees are looking like a better and better bet for the postseason. They're only 4 1/2 out of the wild card as I (sadly) type. And if the Bombers, with their much improved starting pitching, actually get into the postseason, they would be very hard to stop.

Posted by: Casey Abell at July 25, 2007 08:31 AM

"Really, the Red Sox have been winning on good timing all year. Or at least they're leading the division on good timing in scoring runs."

...what? You seem to imply that Boston's getting by with mediocre offensive production, and hitting only with runners on base...or am I misunderstanding something? Boston is 4th in baseball in OPS, sixth in batting average, second in OBP, and sixth in SLG. It's not like they're winning nothing but 1-run ballgames...it's been a good offense...

Nevermind the fact that the pitching staff has allowed the second-lowest number of runs this year, 393. Good for a RD of +114. New York's scored 572 and allowed 453, for a RD of +119. That said, 11% of their runs-scored have come in the last five games. 11% of their runs coming in 5% of the season. That's got to say something, I'm just not sure what...

Posted by: the other josh at July 25, 2007 04:30 PM

Maybe you should try reading what I wrote. I didn't say that Boston doesn't have a good team. I did say that they "shouldn't" be leading the division by (now) 6 1/2 games, based on run diff.

The Yankees have been extraordinarily unlucky this season (not that I'll cry over it). Based on their +125 run differential, they "should" have a record of 61-39, almost identical to the 62-39 record the Red Sox "should" have, based on their +113 run diff.

These numbers show both teams are very good. Both may well get to the postseason. But Boston's (now not so) big lead in the division is mostly a function of New York's bad luck.

Posted by: Casey Abell at July 26, 2007 08:16 AM

By the way, the Yankees' record in one-run games this year is 8-15. Turn those numbers around, and they're leading the division. A few measly runs here and there...

Let's just hope the Bombers' bad luck in the close games continues. The Red Sox have just about split their one-run games. They've been neither particularly lucky nor unlucky.

Posted by: Casey Abell at July 26, 2007 08:39 AM

Well, the Sox have been lucky that the Yankees have been so unlucky. Or something like that...

Posted by: Casey Abell at July 26, 2007 08:47 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?