This game had the makings of a nauseating pile of frustration throughout the first 6 innings, as the Sox seemed to have the art of letting John Lannan off the hook perfected almost to a science.  Lannan may have a tight ERA, but everything about him just oozes mediocrity.  His stuff, his command, his mound presence, all of it just screams “happy to be here!”.  Somehow, some way, he’s escaped without completely imploding in most of his appearances, and last night was no different.

To prove that my perception of Lannan isn’t off-base, here’s some quantitative data to support it: his ERA minus FIP  (a rough measure of luck on the pitcher’s mound) is the second lowest among NL starters according to fangraphs.com.

Anyway, the Red Sox managed to punish Washington’s bullpen (as many other teams have done this season).

____

____

You probably haven’t heard of Craig Stamnen.  He’s a 25-year-old who was pitching single-A ball last season, and features an 89 MPH fastball.  Jordan Zimmerman is probably Washington’s best pitcher right now (an honor akin to “Uzbekistan’s best sumo wrestler” or something).

I will be extremely furious if the Red Sox fail to win either of these two games by a margin of less than 5 runs.

Comments are closed