A Continuing Lack Of Offense...Jays 3 Red Sox 0

It seems that the entire Boston Red Sox team is in a hitting slump of some sort or another. The starting pitching was great once again Thursday night at the Fens, with Wakefield going seven innings and giving up three runs on six hits while walking four batters. That's too many free passes if you ask me, but such is the nature of the knuckie. A knuckleball pitcher wants the batter to swing at pitches that zoom and waver OUT of the strike zone. The Jays showed patience in that regard, and their starter had "the goods" the entire night. The Boston offense was limited to four hits. That it! Four!! Manager Terry "Tito" Francona had this to say after the game concluded...

“We saw some good pitching, we didn’t have much to show for it. We had some opportunities and we put the barrel on the ball, certainly not consistently, but we had chances. In a game when you need something to go your way, we took more good swings than the linescore will show but just saw three really good arms the last three days.”

Peter here, and yes, they HAVE seen some good arms. Maybe that's part of the reason why the Sox have scored only four runs in their past five contests. But I don't care who those arms belonged to... there have been way too few plated Sox runners. It's amazing that they've won two of those low scoring affairs and a credit to their recent pitching. When the bats DO awaken, and they will, we just have to hope that the starting pitching will stay strong. If so, Boston will be in good shape. But when you look at it, they're in a good place RIGHT NOW. And that place is first place. So things could be a lot worse, and there's a ton of the season left to go. And oh, I almost forgot. Here's a little GOOD news...JD Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury should be back tonight for the start of a three game set with the hot Tampa Bay Rays. If you remember, and I'm sure you do, they swept a three game set from us just a few scant days ago. Revenge time? We'll see, and our pitching rotation will show them three of our best. Here are those matchups...

Edwin Jackson (2-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Clay Buchholz (1-2, 4.08) tonight
James Shields (3-1, 2.54) vs. Josh Beckett (2-2, 4.10) Saturday
Scott Kazmir (season debut) vs. Jon Lester (1-2, 4.31) Sunday

I knew the lefty Scott Kazmir would show up sooner or later. And don't forget about Shields...he baffled us in his last start. Let's hope he doesn't have his electrically great stuff working. Either of them! Enjoy your Friday, my friends, and have a great weekend. You can click on the title of this post to be directed to the Boston Globe homepage. And let's all look on the bright side...gaze at the current NY Yankees' starting rotation and you should be able to chuckle. Remember, a smile a day keeps the doctor away. That's what they say, anyways, or was it an apple a day? I don't fool around. I smile AND eat apples! And the Yankees are the ones who NEED a doctor. But the Sox haven't exactly been injury-free, either. Let's just hope the Boston bats connect with the round stitched baseball and the home team, the one we love unconditionally, can put up many crooked numbers on that beautiful Fenway Park leftfield scoreboard-the BOTTOM half of it, of course. Don't forget to click on this post's title for anything and everything about the Sox, brought to you by me with huge thanks to the Boston Globe. And as always and forever, BE WELL.