No Dice!

It is said that everyone has a bad day here or there, and yesterday in Detroit, it was Daisuke Matsuzaka's turn for mediocrity. As he said himself, from the Courant.........

"First and foremost, I think the problem today was with my command," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "Of course, there were a few hits that their hitters made some good contact on, but overall I felt that I left a lot of my pitches in soft locations.
"Had I been able to throw to a few better locations, I might have been able to hold them a little bit better in this game."

Peter here. He gave up 6 runs and 10 hits in only 6 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The Red Sox are a tired club, and the All Star game could not have come at a better time. Nagging injuries and an overused (lately) bullpen have contributed to the .500 baseball of the last 5 1/2 weeks. That's a long time to play "win one lose one," and I hope starting on Thursday the club will get it together once again. Or those "other" AL East clubs, namely one, will continue to creep up on us. I do not want that to happen.

In other news, Mark Buehrle has decided to sign a contract extention with the White Sox, so any dreams of him in red socks are just that....dreams. And I do have to mention, once again, the horrid play of Wily Mo Pena. He was 0-4 with three strikeouts, but to his credit he was robbed of a home run by the Tiger's Curtis Gunderson. His defense, however, is what really bothers me, and I mean REALLY BOTHERS ME, as he badly misplayed a drive to left by Gary Sheffield that should have been an out, but turned into a double. Theo, there must be a team looking for a DH......WMP is your guy. He is a defensive liability that frankly the club cannot have on their roster, be it in center, left or right. Bundle him with someone and get us another starter for the last seventy plus games. Please.

Click on the title of this post for the mid-season Red Sox report card, written by the Boston Herald's Tony Massarotti. A great read, and something I look forward to every season. Thanks Tony! In fact, here's a sample from the multi-pictorial mid-season review. You must read the whole thing, but here goes......

"Wily Mo Pena - For Sale: 6-foot-3, 245-pound outfielder who plays like the Dominican Rob Deer - hits it a mile, strikes out a ton , but defense is not nearly as good ... still just 25 years old ... in very good condition as he was acquired in a regrettable trade and has been used only sparingly ... owner seeks a right-handed reliever in return."

Peter here, and I so agree. I hope your week will be a great one as we here in Southern New England batten down the hatches and turn up the a/c to get ready for temperatures in the upper 90s and dew points in the low 70s. The dew point is a combination of temperature and humidity, and when it's in the lower 60s, it starts to feel humid when you leave the house. When it approaches or exceeds 70, we're talking jungle-type humidity, when the air feels just like you can cut it with a knife. A dew point of 74 or above is just plain old dangerous. But such is mid-July....hot and steamy. Let's hope our Sox get hot and can reel off 6 or 7 straight wins when baseball, in all its glory, returns to us on Thursday, from Friendly Fenway. Our home. Have a great All Star break. I'll be here every one of those three days, writing about something or other. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now please, click on the title, and you'll see, in pictures and words, Tony Massarotti"s mid-season thoughts. Have fun! I did!!!!!!!!!!