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.

Mailbag

Since the Kids were getting it done this weekend in the Hub, first a no-hitter by top-rated propsect Clay Buchholtz against the Orioles on Saturday, followed by a strong performance by Jon Lester in Sunday's matinee, Your Red Sox Diarist decided it was time to open the mailbag and check-in with some of the rants of others who follow ups and downs of Red Sox Nation. The email below, from a Red Sox Rants reader in Hong Kong, sums up the state of the Nation as the team angles for its first AL East crown since 1995.

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Dear Red Sox Diarist,


Regarding your blog comment on former St., Louis Cardinal J.D. Drew, you should read this link http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7151274 if you haven't already. Drew consistently disappointed Cardinals' fans during his tenure in St. Louis. He was lauded as the next Mickey Mantle and every scout, journalist, and educated follower of the Cardinals raved about his five-tool talent and considered him to be head and shoulders above Pujols. Fortunately, Larussa and Jocketty finally gave up on Drew and traded him to Atlanta with Eli Marrero for Jason Marquis, Ray King, and Adam Wainwright. Although they have now departed, Marquis and King performed reasonably well for the Redbirds and Wainwright is now the ace of the Cardinals' (admittedly awful!) pitching staff, at least until Carpenter returns next year. After briefly returning to the Cardinals' organization earlier this season, Marrero is now out of baseball. Atlanta got one decent season from Drew, Los Angeles got one decent season from him, and I'm afraid Boston now has five years of disappointment. This proves that five tools are not enough. Players also need a sixth tool -- heart.


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The contributor of this email to the Red Sox Rants mailbag, who interestingly, is a noted baseball author, also provided a somewhat sobering comparison of performances, which is faithfully reproduced below:

2007 Performance (Year to Date)



J.D. Drew: 393 at-bats, .254 batting average, 7 home runs and 46 RBIs.


Rick Ankiel: 68 at-bats, .353 batting average, 6 home runs and 19 RBIs.

While former pitcher, turned position player, Rick Ankiel's statistics are based on a small sample size, unfortunately, J.D. Drew's are based on a pretty large sample. Also, although it was in Triple-A, Ankiel hit 31 home runs and had 86 RBIs in 381 at-bats in Memphis this year before being called up by the Cardinals.