Red Sox 7, Reds 0
It’s hard to convince someone the Sox have good pitching when all you have to do is look up the team ERA and find that, even after last night’s gem by David Wells, the figure still sits at 4.90. Well the bullpen has been gasoline alley you say? You’re right but Boston starters have posted a hardly more impressive number of 4.75. And yet you can go and sort Major League Baseball pitchers by the number of Quality Starts they have posted and you will find 4 Red Sox starters on the first page of the leaderboard. Wade Miller does not appear on it simply because he started the season on the DL. So as bad as the pitching has been, far more often than not Boston gets a strong performance out of its starter. Problem is when they get a sub-par performance, it is truly sub-par.
There was nothing sub-par about the work David Wells did last night. For the 3rd time in his last 4 starts, he featured exceptional command and command is everything for Boomer. He doesn’t throw terribly hard and at times his breaking ball can flatten. When he is on with his control, he can fight through a flat breaking ball and still be effective. When he has his breaking ball going but he is missing his spots a bit, again, he still can manage. But when Wells puts it all together it is truly a thing of beauty. He stays fluid and collected on the mound, duplicating the same impeccable mechanics pitch after frustrating pitch for the opposition. Last night was just one of those nights. He had it all going and nobody in Cincinnati’s lineup could do a damn thing about it. Wells yielded just a hit and an uncharacteristic two walks to a good Reds offense last night. He worked 7 innings before handing the ball over to Mike Timlin and Keith Foulke, who closed the 1-hit deal.
Offensively, the Sox hit .313/.405/.469 on the game, a total team effort capped by a home run in his third consecutive game by Manny Ramirez. I don’t know what to make of his recent resurgence but boy do I hope it’s the real deal. Boston won’t have such an easy go offensively tonight, as Aaron Harang takes the hill for Cincinnati. He has been tough, posting phenomenal strikeout totals this season. The Red Sox will counter with their iffiest starter of late, Bronson Arroyo. Arroyo has the unfortunate task of straightening things out against a lineup featuring some tremendous left-handed batters, whose ilk have brutalized Arroyo to the tune of an .869 OPS.
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Elsewhere around the Majors, check out this game recap. Sounds like the Nats and Angels played an exciting one out in Anaheim, with both Managers getting under one another’s skin.
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Roberto Petagine AAA OPS-Watch: 1.096
The best part about last night’s game was that the Red Sox said their bullpen was the “Team’s Hero”