Texas Range-saw Massacre by Jared Carrabis
Sox Put Up Ten, Blank Texas

The Red Sox are now winners of their last four straight games and are 7-3 in their last ten games played. The trade of Manny Ramirez is a thing of this past and this new and improved ball club has found their form as a team and are punishing the opposition with their lethal and relentless offense one through nine. Backed by great starting pitching at the top of the rotation and not so good pitching down the bottom (even though with this offense it didn't really matter) the Red Sox swept the Texas Rangers up and out of Boston. The Boston bats pounded Texas pitching averaging over twelve runs a game in the three game set.


In the final game of the three-game sweep, Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched his way to his fourteenth win of the season to now be sitting pretty at 14-2 on the season. Matsuzaka hurled seven shutout innings striking out five but also walked five. The Dice man pitched his way out of multiple jams and bases loaded situations to hold all offenses to an 0-for-12 clip against him with the bases loaded on the year. In his last 21 innings pitched, Matsuzaka has held opponents to just three earned runs.


Some more "feel good" news would be that David Ortiz seems to have returned to the Big Papi we all love and opposing pitchers all fear. In nine official at bats on the series against Texas, Ortiz was 5-for-9 with three home runs and nine runs batted in. He also walked five times. Enough cannot be said about the new power house protector of David Ortiz. He's no longer the Greek God of Walks, recently he's been more like the Greek God of Tearing the Cover Off of the Ball. In his last ten games Kevin Youkilis is hitting at a .405 clip with two home runs and nine runs batted in.


Almost identical to Youkilis in the past ten games would be that of the red hot since June, Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia is hitting .413 in his last ten games with one home run and eight runs batted in while striking out just once. Last year's Rookie of the year is hitting .393 in the month of August and .355 in the last thirty days. Needless to say, the kid can hit and he will continue to hit until he can hit no more.


Fellow middle infielder, Jed Lowrie is also swinging one of the hottest sticks on the club as well. Since August 4, Lowrie is hitting at .342 and leads all Major League shortstops with 22 runs batted in. Lowrie has a batting average of .329 from both sides of the plate since the All Star break and is hitting .375 in the month of August. Surely all these offensive numbers are lessening the chances of seeing Julio Lugo return to the Red Sox lineup as their every day shortstop. Manager Terry Francona is known for being a "player's manager" but when the team needs to win, he sticks with his best guys. For example, starting Jacoby Ellsbury over the struggling Coco Crisp in last year's playoffs, that worked out alright didn't it?

Tonight is the Red Sox debut of the old school delivery right-hander, Paul Byrd. His record may be under .500 but it could not be more deceiving. Byrd is 4-0 since the All Star break with an ERA of 1.24. With Tim Wakefield making a trip to the disabled list, Bartolo Colon working his way back to the rotation down in Pawtucket and Clay Buchholz struggling to find his form, Paul Byrd may just be exactly what Dr. Epstein needed to cure this rotation. A durable veteran pitcher with high intentions on winning games. Speaking of docs, his opponent tonight will be "Doc" Roy Halladay. In 34 career starts against the Red Sox, Halladay is 10-11 with a 4.66 ERA. Also, keep in mind that Halladay threw 130 pitches in his last start but has also been given an extra day of rest so that he could purposely start the opener of this series.

Final Score: Rangers 0, Red Sox 10

Published on August 15, 2008

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