The Kids Are Alright

It was good to see the Old Towne 9 back on track tonight in Camden Yards in a 7-6 come from behind win against the Orioles, highlighted by Jason Varitek's pinch-hit game winning RBI single in the top of the ninth. This win was especially sweet as it followed an unnecessary loss on Wednesday night in Beantown against the Blue Jays with the bullpen squandering a 4-3 lead going into the 8th inning.

Over the past 7 games, the Red Sox the Kids had been getting it done for the team. First there was Clay Buchholtz's no-hitter followed by Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester all stepping up to help the Red Sox run-off four wins in a row after the team had dropped four straight. Thursday night in Baltimore was no exception. With Wakefield gone in the fourth inning, and Kyle Synder called on to stop the bleeding through the fifth inning, Buchholtz, came in from the bullpen for the first time this year in the 6th inning with the game tied at six and promptly loaded the bases. This was Buchholtz's first appearance since he electrified Red Sox Nation with a no-hitter against the very same Orioles in Boston five days earlier. Pitching out of a jam that he created with a walk, a single and then another walk, Buchholtz got Miguel Tejada to ground into a double play and struck out Kevin Millar to end the threat. He then pitched perfect seventh and eighth innings, striking out two more in the process. Strong performances by Red Sox youngsters over the past week have been complimented by Mike Lowell, who continues his August tear into September, David Ortiz and Josh Beckett, who leads the major leagues with 17 wins after his win against Toronto on Tuesday night.

After Thursday night, the Sox lead in the AL East is back to 6 ½ games ahead of the Yankees, with the Yankees off on Thursday. The Yankees had beaten up on the seemingly hapless Seattle Mariners taking two out of three and in the process stretching their wild card lead to 3 games. It is increasingly clear that the Yankees will make the playoffs.

Your Red Sox Diarist finds this unsettling. As stated in a previous post, the Yankees are built for the playoffs. I know my buddy O'Brien takes great exception to this statement and I know he desperately hates to face the taunts of his buddies, many of whom are unfortunately Yankee fans. At risk of facing the wrath of O'Brien I suggest that: With a rotation of Chien Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens—assuming he can still pitch in October—and an offense that resembles the 1927 Murderer's Row and the 2003 Red Sox, the MFY are scary. Put all of that together with a reloaded bullpen containing Mariano Rivera and Joba Chamberlain—who is not only nasty, filthy and disgusting, but is also the real thing—you have a team that could go a long way in the post-season.

Saving the Day

As the Red Sox were rained out on Thursday on Chicago's South Side and will make up the game in a double header against the White Sox on Friday (Beckett going for the Red Sox in the first game and Schilling going in the night cap), Your Red Sox Diarist thought it nice on this unscheduled off day to relay this tidbit out of Arlington, Texas yesterday.

Texas Rangers pitcher Wes Littleton was credited with a save in Texas' record breaking 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night. Littleton, who pitched the last three innings for the Rangers without giving up a run, earned the save even though he had a 27 run lead. He is the first pitcher ever in Major League Baseball to earn a save with a 27 run league. Littleton came into the game with the Rangers leading at that time 14-3 and gave up two hits and one walk over three innings. He was credited with the save because of a rule (Rule 10.2 in the Official Rule Book) specifying that a pitcher who pitches effectively for three innings---"effectively" being determined at the discretion of the official scorer--can be credited with a save. Evidently, the official scorer almost always credits a pitcher with a save if the pitcher pitches the last 3 innings of a game after coming into the game with a lead and the lead is maintained until the end of the game.

This is yet another good example of certain baseball statistics (i.e. saves, wins, batting average) being, at the least, over emphasized and generally overrated. More on this during the weekend.

Feel Good Inc.

Owning their smallest lead in the AL East since April 24th, the Red Sox continued their must-win week Tuesday night at Fenway Park. Facing the D-Ray's Scott Kazmir, who has owned the Red Sox for longer than they care to remember, the Sox won 2-1—and did it in dramatic fashion. Mike Lowell went yard over the Coke bottles on top of the Green Monster to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th and Coco Crisp drove home the winning run in the form of Jason Varitek, who had bashed a two out ground rule double to right. Jon Lester pitched a two hitter over 7 innings in his first appearance at the Fens since overcoming non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The victory became even better when the Yankees dropped to 5 games back after suffering a 12-0 shellacking at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.

The night was permeated with many "feel good" themes including not only Lester's gem, but also, Eric Gagne regaining some of the form expected of him when he struck out the side in the top of the 9th with the Sox down 1-0 and Mike Timlin coming in with two outs in the top of the 8th and striking out B.J. Upton with the bases loaded.

With the win, the Sox improved to 2 of 42 in games that they are trailing going into the 9th inning. The Mother's Day Miracle against Baltimore was their only other 9th inning comeback of the year. Although the Sox have the best record in the majors, are 4th in the AL in runs scored, 2nd in on-base percentage, 3rd in RBI's and slugging and surprisingly, 2nd only to the Yankees in run-scored from the 7th inning onwards (205-193), there have been precious few late inning comeback wins like this in 2007 and therefore, the team's continued lack of offense should legitimately be cause for concern going into the stretch run.

A Dearth of 20 Game Winners

In the afterglow of Josh Beckett winning his major league leading 15th game against the Orioles on Saturday afternoon August 11th in Camden Yards, it was only reasonable for Red Sox Nation to collectively ponder: Would Beckett or any other members of the Red Sox starting rotation (Dice-K or Wakefield perhaps) be 20 game winners this year? With all of the milestones being reached over the past two weeks in Major League Baseball—Tom Glavine getting his 300th win (one of only 6 left-handers to reach that mark), A-Rod getting to 500 home runs quicker than any other player and Barry Bonds belting number 756 to become the all-time home run king*-- it got me thinking not only of 20 game win possibilities but also about other baseball records and performance benchmarks that may or may not someday be equaled or bettered.

Sticking with the Orioles theme of the weekend, one achievement (which is often overlooked) is worth considering. The Baltimore Orioles of 1971 had four 20 game winners on their pitching staff. They are one of two teams to reach this mark (the 1920 Chicago Cubs being the other) and the last team ever to accomplish this. Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Jim Palmer and Dave McNally, all won 20 games for the Orioles in 1971 with McNally winning 21. (Cueller was 20-9, Dobson 20-8, Palmer 20-9 and McNally 21-5). Perhaps even more impressive, the four Orioles pitchers amassed an amazing 70 complete games that season.

Call me a naysayer if you will, but it's doubtful we will see a team with four 20 game winners on its pitching staff anytime soon, if ever again. In the age of specialists, pitch-counts, high salaries (which naturally leads to players being placed on the disabled list at the first sign of any discomfort), more in-season transactions and not to mention creeping parity through the leagues, 20 game winners are becoming an increasing rarity.

In 1971, Major League Baseball had 14 twenty game winners across its 24 teams. In 2006, there were no 20 game winners across baseball's 30 teams. For the Red Sox, this year Josh Beckett projects to 21 wins (based on a 15-5 record as of this posting while Dice-K Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield both project to 18 wins. The Anaheim Angel's John Lackey, projects to 21 wins while the Cub's Carlos Zambrano and the Indian's C. C. Sabathia—really the only other pitchers with a realistic shot at 20 wins this season—project to 19 wins. If performance equals projections, baseball will have only 2 twenty game winners in 2007, and stating the obvious, no one team in baseball will have more than one 20 game winner. That said, for the 2007 Red Sox to have a realistic chance to outlast the surging Yankees and win the AL East, their starting rotation will need to mirror very closely the accomplishments of that acclaimed Baltimore Orioles pitching staff of 1971.