Thursday, April 22, 2010

Boston Bounces Back

The Rangers and Sox both entered this series riding losing streaks, so something had to give. Fortunately for Boston it was Texas who buckled under the pressure of two close games that ended in walk off wins for the Sox. Last night saw Kevin Youkilis bust out of his slump. He is 4-10 in the series including a double for the game winning RBI last night.

I think there is a trend happening with the Red Sox that has revealed itself in this series. With little offense coming from the some positions, Francona is going to have pinch hitters late in games based on match ups. Hall, Hermida, McDonald, Reddick, and Cameron will all see action. This is something Sox fans are unaccustomed to. There were more substitutions in game one of this series than in all of 2009 it seems.

I like the fact that Mike Lowell is getting some at bats now. At this point he is making a much more effective DH than David Ortiz. He may not be able to move, but he can still hit a little. Hey, Ortiz can't move either so what's the difference. Lowell has been making the most of his opportunities and making it very difficult to take him out of the line up (or put Ortiz in). It's a small sample size, but Lowell's line looks pretty good: .375/.474/.563. Ortiz has a larger sample of at bats and the disparity is staggering: .146/.222/.268 plus 17 strikeouts in 41 AB's. Boston is lucky that trade to Texas didn't go through.

2 comments:

Dennis said...

Ortiz and Lowell would actually make a pretty effective DH platoon. Lowell can still hit lefties, and Ortiz can still hit righties.

Although for the purists among us, a DH platoon probably falls somewhere below it raining fire and brimstone on the apocalypse continuum.

Dan said...

I agree that no DH does make for more interesting strategy. But be that as it may, most teams platoon at DH. The Sox have been lucky that for the past 7 years they haven't had to deal with past-their-prime sluggers and journeymen playing DH like most teams do.