Dice-K Is Showing ITM UP

Did tonight really happen? I blame grad school for keeping me in and out of the game, but I had to do a double take at the final line for Dice-K:

-8 shutout innings, 4 hits, only 2 walks, and 5 K's?

But wait, doesn't that make it 4 quality starts in his last 5 outings? Doesn't he know that he was overdue for a Dice-K blow up" (I know, I'm jinxing his next start). He extended a scoreless inning streak to 15 straight tonight by continuing his strategy of attacking hitters and not falling victim to the big inning.

I must say, I'm starting to eat my words on the Diceman. Maybe Tom Verducci was indeed right....and between the two of them, they're giving ITM a big "hey, see how much I poured?"

Either way, I'll stop asking questions and take it. His ERA is 4.59, but if you exclude a two of his complete shellings from early in his return, and it's closer to 3. Regardless, his current ERA is still lower than both Lackey's (4.72 ), Wakefield's (6.02) and Beckett's (7.29).

Given Beckett's continued injuries and Lackey's crap show, Dice-K may just end up being the X factor that I completely dismissed from Verducci. See how much he poured?

ITM: Going Around the Horn

The Sox fumbled away a very winnable series ending game in Baltimore this afternoon, but overall, we should be pretty upbeat with their recent play. As the weekend comes to a close and reality gets ready to slap us in the face tomorrow, let's go around the horn:

-I feel like every start Lackey has had this year has been a complete struggle. While I was impressed with his grit today to keep his team in the game and go deep into the game, I'm very much concerned with average stuff (anyone else notice he was only touching 89 or 90 on the gun?)

-Every time I think Manny Delcarmen has finally reached that next level we're all waiting for...he struggles for an extended period of time. Perhaps I should reduce my expectations.

-Despite today's loss, the Sox have still won or split 12 out of their last 15 series

-Boof "you completely forgot about me, didn't you?" Bonzer touched 95mph on the radar gun during a bullpen outing. There, I just wasted 10 seconds of your life.

-I realize he's just a kid, and it's early, but I was surprised to hear that Casey Kelly got his first win of the season in Double A Portland the other day. He's now, 1-3 with a 4.57 ERA. Joe Murph and I were ready to facebook poke the guy after watching him in Ft Myers.

-Apparently Ortiz is fine after taking a fastball off the hand this afternoon.....although he was 0-12 in the series....anyone concerned?

-I remain somewhat surprised with the Sox offense, consider the following: 4th in batting average (.274), 2nd in taters (79), 1st in RBI (304), and 1st in hits (556). Studly?

-Asked what he could add to the lineup upon his return from another lower abdominal issue, center fielder Mike Cameron joked, “Sexiness and color.” I can respect that, now produce for Christ's sake.

Now I gotta get back to screaming at the Celtics, not sure how they can look so good and so bad the same time.

Remember When People Wanted Wakefield in the Rotation Over This Guy?

Tied for the AL lead in wins (8-3),

Nearly leading the league with an ERA of 2.39,

5-0 in his last 5 starts, with a .99 ERA,

The Globe had the great stat this morning that since August of last year, he's 14-4 with a 3.38 ERA. Two months ago, people were arguing that Clay Buchholz should be held out of the rotation in favor of Tim Wakefield. How dumb do they look now? (same could be said for those of us (including myself) who wrote off Ortiz)

Right now (knock on wood), it's Clay Buchholz and David Price in a battle for who is starting the AL All-Star game. He's been that good.

Going into 2010 we all hoped Clay Buchholz would continue to progress and mature. Turns out, he's blown our expectations out of the water. Now, he's set the bar at a near irrational level, and us Bostonians are amazing at having irrational expectations.

Buchholz continued to add to his 2010 resume last night with his economical 101 pitch complete game shutout of the O's. If it wasn't for Lester's studliness, Buchholz would have to be Boston's go-to arm at this point (and he still may be).

In my mind, it's all about his confidence, and at this point, it's at an all-time high....leading to his outright dominance.

And for anyone who says we should trade him now should be hit over the head with a hammer and left for dead. He and Lester are the only arms keeping this rotation together.

Batter Crushes A Walk-off Tater, Then Starts a Brawl

File this under the "too good not to post" category. This is the Rangers' Class-A affiliate Bakersfield Blaze ball club where the batter (Engel Beltre) admired his 10th inning, walk-off tater for a good 15 seconds before moving out of the batters box. After that, he doesn't touch the plate before all hell breaks loose. I don't think I've ever seen a tater turn into an all out brawl before.

Also, it sounds like there are 20 or 30 drunk spectators in the stands who don't even know what's happening in front of them.....as if they're not paying attention at all. That's what you get when you charge three dollars for a ticket and 2 dollars for beers.

Some serious punches were landed, and I'm a big fan of the emphatic home plate stomp at the end. Gotta love the minor leagues.

Buchholz tonight....pumped. Go Sox.

Bring Back Wendell Kim

The bullpen had been so good lately, just not today. I guess you could say they were due for down day. Even the king of Hyde Park, Manny D got lit up in this afternoon's get-away game (ITM note, he began the day as the AL leader with a .128 batting average by opponents).

The Sox were playing catch up the entire game as both teams beat the crap out of each other's pitching.

However, in my opinion, the bullpen wasn't the story of the game, nor was the 18 hits for the Sox. It's the third base coach who had two runners thrown out at the plate in back to back innings.

I should never be blogging about the Red Sox third base coach, staying out of the media's attention is his job. Instead, he gives the banged up V-Mart a green light to try to score on a Youk double with 0 outs in a 2-1 game. He then pulled a "send him in Wendell Kim" move in the next inning, again, with no outs. Unreal.

I'm not going to call his job easy, it's not, but today's decisions seemed obvious. I thought the Eck was going to shave his mullet in anger during the post game.

On a separate topic, and I kind of hate myself for saying this, but I can't stand games when Wakefield is on the hump. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, and think he's had an amazing career with the Red Sox, but I just hate watching him pitch. Maybe it's because every other time I have tickets to a game, it's Wakefield who I see pitch, and he usually gets roughed up.

With Beckett on the shelf for at least another month, are we just stuck with a struggling Wakefield for a while?

Fire Jim Joyce!

I can't believe this just happened. I know this isn't the best quality video, but regardless, it shows the outright need to fire Jim Joyce and fire him now.

I'm not sure if I've seen a bigger blown call in my life. How did the Tigers not go completely ballistic after this? Safe by a full step and you get a perfect game taken away from you? It would have defined Galarraga's career, even if he did nothing else.

I would have found the nearest steal chair and gone Macho Man Randy Savage on him.

If Bud Selig doesn't fire Jim Joyce he should at least allow Armando Galarraga one free punch to the man's face.

You know it's been when the runner himself was upset about the call. I have to assume that even Joe West would have called the runner out, and that guy is full of fat and evil.

Joe Murph and I had a quick chat on this, he's going nuts about this....to the point where he just stopped IMing me, but here's what I got out of him:

"that's so terrible. It wasn't even close, how can you not just give the benefit of the doubt? what kind of a person are you if you're rooting so hard against the perfect game that you're ready to make that call? That's the *&*%ing umps again, wanting the game to be about them"

continued...."I'm really angry about that. They should just get rid of umps. Have it all be like the lasers in tennis that can tell where the ball was.....yep, all k zone and lasers"

That's the last I heard from him, I have to assume he's gone out on a search mission for a good laser to preserve the integrity of the game.

Side note: How the hell have there been so many perfect games of late (by the way, this one counts in my book). There have been what? 20 all time? With essentially 3 happening this year and 1 last year? I guess that's what happens when the hitters are tested for PED's.

Hermy and Cameron to Platoon in Left?

Joe Murph continues to pick through SI.com and emailed me an interesting topic from John Heyman, who wrote today that:

The unstated reason why Jacoby Ellsbury is reclaiming his center field job once his ribs heal is that he will be an everyday player while free-agent pickup Mike Cameron might be sharing time with Jeremy Hermida in left field.

With our boy Hermy in the middle of a 2 for 21 slump at the plate (now batting .208), this might be a tough sell, but I certainly don't dismiss Heyman here. It's a well-known fact that Theo loves the potential upside of the 26 year old Hermida. Hermy has seen more playing time than expected throughout the early part of the season, but that was expected to change if and when Jacoby returns from his prolonged rib injury.

Hermy's production numbers help the cause, especially as it seems to the viewing eye that the vast majority of his 25 RBI have come in close and late situations. With Cameron coming off an injury and fighting father time, this move may make sense....so long as Hermy can figure out how to play the wall in left (ITM note: if Manny can figure it out, anyone can).

To my knowledge, this is the first I've heard of possibly platooning Cameron and Hermy. The idea may have legs, it may not, either way, I think it's worth some consideration.

"Ahhhhh, Hermida?"

PS: If this were to happen, would it be the first time a team had a major press conference to announce the signing of a part time player? I always thought the media event of Mike Cameron signing with Boston was a bit much.