On the plus side, the pitching was an improvement from the home run derby the Sox just went through in Texas. However, Cleveland is a legitimately terrible team and the Sox lineup couldn't must any offense. The bottom of the lineup has been terrible and the amount of pressure the team must feel has to be mounting. With the free agent signings, trades, and players coming back from injuries last year, the expectations were off the charts. During spring training some of the players were talking about winning 100 games like it weren't no thang.
For me, starting pitching is still a major concern. I think Lester and Buchholz will be fine, who knows what you get from Matsuzaka, but Beckett and Lackey scare the hell out of me. Lackey was BRUTAL in his start, seemingly even worse than the first half of his season last year and while Beckett's line doesn't look terrible for an early season start, he was reminiscent of Pedro when you knew he was headed to the DL; a ton of breaking balls, low velocity, and he wasn't making anyone miss. Daisuke is now our early season stopper.
They can't win 100 games tonight, so they just need to get one and I think things could improve measurably. It would be nice to get off the schneid before the Yanks come to town over the weekend.
With all that said, I think they'll be fine and at least when they get back to Fenway there will be more fans than the Indians had last night.
-Big Ran
No comments:
Post a Comment