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Daisuke Matszuaka had another five-walk game, but it was good enough to lead his team to a 7-2 win over Baltimore Tuesday.

Kevin Youkilis led the Sox with three hits and three RBI. Jason Varitek hit his second home run in as many games to finish with two RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury was effective in the leadoff spot going 2 for 6 with two runs and two stolen bases (40 on the season).

Matsuzaka went five innings and allowed two runs with five walks on top -- a typical Dice-K night. The O's left 22 on base. It's really remarkable what he's doing, but something is due to break. Either he's going to start giving up runs or he's going to stop issuing walks. One or the other. He can't go the rest of the season like this; it's just not possible.

Youk continues to look great. At this moment, it doesn't look like he's going to get tired and break down like last season.

I really like Justin Masterson in a relief role. I really do believe that he's going to prove to be one of the best options out of the 'pen down the stretch. If the Sox make the playoffs, there's no doubt in my mind he's going to get some time in some tough situations and show what he can do. If Manny Delcarmen can pitch like he's capable of, Masterson, Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon could be what this bullpen needs. I understand Manny and Oki are the culprites this season, but it could all change come crunch time.

Despite the walks, a good one. Let's sweep.

What the hell happened? (via d.yimg.com)

19-17.

That's just stupid. Crazy stupid.

I mean, how the...? How can they...? What kind of...?

Here's all you need to know:

• The Red Sox won.
• Charlie Zink was pretty good until he allowed 8 runs.
• David Ortiz finished with six runs batted in.
• Kevin Youkilis, as well as Ortiz, hit two home runs. Youkilis finished with five runs batted in.
• Dustin Pedroia had five hits and scored five runs.
• Hideki Okajima brought the game down to earth with 1.2 innings of hitless (one walk) work. I think he's back.
• Holy crap.

Seriously, what can be said about this game? I know one thing: this recap writeup would be 1,000 words longer had the Sox lost this game.

FIP is a metric by which pitchers are judged based on how they pitch. Luck, defense, etc. are intended to be eliminated by the use of this metric. It takes into account how well a pitcher strikes out hitters, controls walks, etc. It is roughly analogous to ERA, though a better measure of how a pitcher is throwing.

Sox Starters, Descending order by FIP:

Justin Masterson: 5.16 FIP v. 3.61 ERA

Tim Wakefield: 4.85 FIP v. 3.77 ERA

Bartolo Colon: 4.45 FIP v. 4.09 ERA

Clay Buchholz: 4.18 FIP v. 5.94 ERA

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 4.18 FIP v. 3.04 ERA

Jon Lester: 3.57 FIP v. 3.14 ERA

Josh Beckett: 3.39 FIP v. 4.15 ERA

Comments:

Beckett and Buch have been unlucky. Beckett's 4.7 K/BB should give him a leg up on the competition, but he's been allowing more HRs than he should be (1.09/9 IP) and his BABIP has been a bit higher (.324) than average (approx. .290-.300). I feel like even Buch's FIP is a bit low. He's been unlucky, but he also hasn't been great. He has, however, been better in terms of K/BB (1.91) than lucky Daisuke (1.47). This reinforced my feeling that Daisuke has actually been the harder one to watch on the mound. His % of runners LOB is about 10 higher than the league-average, and that walk rate (5.4 per 9) is downright scary. That particular house of cards could come crashing down any day now.

Masterson has also been very lucky. He's got similar problems to Daisuke, in that his LOB% is probably unsustainable. His HR rate is high, his BABIP is low (.232), and his K/BB makes me want to vomit (1.62). However, he's definitely still young, figuring it out, and his ability to get GBs has helped him out of jams. (I put him in the starter column, as the great majority of his innings are in that role)

Few pitchers match their FIP exactly, and Colon and Lester are good examples of pitchers who have been close enough to their FIP to not be deemed flukes in some way. Lester's FIP indicates that he's been a high-quality starter this season. And what have our eyes and traditional statistics told us? The same thing. Colon has looked like a league-average starter who's was reliable for us when pitching. His FIP indicates the same thing. By just the starters, Colon's K/BB is second-best among his teammates. Lester is actually 9th among 43 qualified AL starters in FIP.

Wakefield is the breaker of all rules, and to try to pin him down based on his FIP is probably pretty foolish. There are no comparisons for him, really. I'd say he might be a bit lucky, but to assume that in reality he's a 4.85 run pitcher seems wrong as well.

Sox Relievers, Descending order by FIP:

Mike Timlin: 4.41 FIP v. 5.34 ERA

Javy Lopez: 4.25 FIP v. 2.51 ERA

Hideki Okajima: 4.01 FIP v. 2.66 ERA

David Aardsma: 3.44 FIP v. 2.75 ERA

Manny Delcarmen: 3.34 FIP v. 4.05 ERA

Jonathan Papelbon: 1.94 FIP v. 2.05 ERA

Comments:

Paps is awesome. His FIP is actually better than last season, despite seeming more human than ever in the last two years. His K/BB is a strong 8.14, and he's done a better job keeping the ball in the park. MDC, similarly, has improved on his FIP from last season (3.85) by also doing a better job keeping the ball in the park and improving his walk rate. 

Oki? Well, the feeling that he would be something between last season and his horrendous start to this one is probably correct. I don't know that he's ever going to get back to how good he was last season; he was phenomenal. His BABIP (.294) is about right/average, and it has produced a somewhat predictable 1.34 WHIP. Surprisingly enough, his LOB% is higher than last season, which should shock most who've seen him let inherited runner after inherited runner score in tough situations this year.

Javy kind of sucks. I don't know how else to put it. 1.33 K/BB and a probably unsustainable LOB% of his own. Timlin, somewhat surprisingly, hasn't sucked as much as we might believe. To my own eyes, he's certainly pitched a lot better as of late, and could be more trustworthy than some (Lopez) in situations. Aardsma is kind of the enigma. His stunning ability to walk a lot of people made me believe his FIP would be higher than it is, but I suppose his second-best on the Sox K-rate (9.38/9 IP) has helped with that. He's also been very stingy with the longball, best on the Sox staff in that department. We'll see how it goes, but he's certainly worth keeping around for next season.

Jason Bay slides home on one of Coco Crisp's sacrifice flies. (via d.yimg.com)

Hey, what do you know? This actually looks like a ballcub.

The Sox completed a three-game sweep of the A's with an easy 5-2 victory Sunday afternoon. Daisuke Matsuzaka earned his 12th win of the season after working six innings and allowed just two runs, walked two and struck out eight. His pitch count was high, but a 37 minute rain delay also didn't help Matsuzaka heading back out for the eighth inning.

The Sox took the lead for good in the first inning. Dustin Pedroia doubled and Kevin Youkilis singled right after to put the Sox up, 1-0. Jed Lowrie tripled in the fourth to score Mike Lowell and Jason Bay. Coco Crisp hit two sacrifice flies in the ballgame to score the Sox's final two runs. Bay went 2 for 4 with two runs and David Ortiz walked twice and stole second. I repeat: stole second base.

Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen and Jonathan Papelbon combined for three innings, one hit, two walks, two strikeouts and no runs. Papelbon earned his 31st save of the season and dropped his ERA to 2.05.

Like I said yesterday, Lowrie is looking better and better each day. If he continues to play like this (7 RBI in the last three games), I'm not sure how he could sit on the bench when Julio Lugo gets back. Would the Sox be afraid to designate Lugo for assignment? I think it's a possibility. They might be able to trade him at some point in August.

I think he likes Boston. (via d.yimg.com)

I love this team.

Just watching Jason Bay and Jed Lowrie jumping around after winning the game made me so happy. This is a team that wants to play baseball and wants to win. That was obvious in the later innings. But after Bay crossed the plate for the winning run, did you see what he did? He got excited. He is finally playing meaningful baseball for a contender. This guy deserves it and he's going to lead us down the stretch into the playoffs.

Bay hit the huge triple in the bottom of the 12th with two outs to give the Sox a shot. He finished 1 for 3 with both runs, two walks and a hit by pitch. He was on base four times -- yes, four. And did you see him run when he hit the triple off the wall? Yup, that was our starting left fielder running around the basepaths and running hard. What a sight for sore eyes.

I can only imagine how Bay felt in his first at bat when he received a standing ovation. He had to step out of the box twice because it was so much. It was another class-act performance by the Fenway Faithful and I'm sure it's not going to stop there.

JD Drew finished 2 for 3 with three walks. Stud? Mhmm. The guy knows where the zone is and he's hitting the balls that find that zone, laying off when they aren't. With Drew and Bay batting back-to-back, we're in a good spot.

Where are the JedHeads out there? Of course Lowrie was huge, knocking in Bay twice. Once early on for the sac fly and then in the 12th. Nothing special, just a little bouncer that went over Alan Embree's head and made Bobby Crosby double-clutch.

The more I watch Lowrie play, the more I'm convinced he is the Red Sox's shortstop of the future. He's becoming more comfortable at the plate and his defense looks solid. What a great double play combination of him and Dustin Pedroia. If our defense is Lowrie, Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell for years to come, we're all set.

But most importantly, we won a game. Yes, it's the A's and they aren't a great club but a win is a win. We need to string them together to have a chance. The Sox should build off this; there's a lot of momentum here. The Sox need to hold on to it and put some more wins on the board if we want to compete down the stretch.

The downsides? Yeah, there are some. Lowell doesn't look good at the plate and, perhaps, David Ortiz looked even worse tonight. That's not good for our No. 3 and 4 hitters. But hey, we had our No. 5 and 6 guys pick them right up. They can't do that every night, but once in awhile it's OK.

Two great defensive plays of the night: Alex Cora's diving stop up the middle, turn and fired to get the out at first base. Then early in the game, with a runner on third base, Bay made a sliding catch to prevent the run. As Lou Merloni just said on NESN, "Manny wouldn't have made that play."

Tim Wakefield was very solid tonight. He threw too many pitches, but he was effective. Hideki Okajima pitched well, but left one a little too much over the plate for Jack Cust to knock over the wall. All other relievers (yes, even Mike Timlin!) had perfect innings (Jonathan Papelbon had two).

Did I mention how much I love this team?

via d.yimg.com
Dice-K was strong on the hill for the Sox

Two done, one more to go. A Sox sweep of the Mariners is crucial.

The Sox picked up win No. 2 over the M's, 4-2, on Tuesday. Daisuke Matsuzaka was solid on the mound, going 7.1 innings, allowing five hits, two runs, three walks and struck out six. He threw 99 pitches -- not too bad for over seven innings of work.

JD Drew led the offense with his 18th home run of the season and a sac fly that plated another. He finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs, a run and a walk. Mike Lowell hit a double to deep left that scored Dustin Pedroia in the fifth. Jed Lowrie picked up the Sox's final run in the fifth with a sac fly of his own.

Hideki Okajima did his job. Enough said there. Jonathan Papelbon earned his 30th save of the season by retiring the M's 1-2-3 in the 9th inning.

COMMENT OF THE GAME:
"We can always rely on Dice-K to make every game a pain in the ass when we least expect to." - MerryGoByeBye (this, of course, came towards the end of Dice-K's start)

OMG. WTF can I say here people?

Atrocious, plus a side of excruciatingly painful to watch.

Signs it's going to get better? None. And the only acquisition I'm really interested in, Damaso Marte, hasn't pitched in the AL in awhile, and could easily be cost-prohibitive. Out of 8 full-type seasons, his WHIP has only been above 1.266 twice, and he has struck out 483 hitters in 453 1/3 career innings. It's all but assured that we need to get better on an internal basis.

Masterson. I'm cautiously optimistic, if only because his sinker should make him reasonably effective in those IH situations that we've to this point only been able to use Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, Craig Hansen, Mike Timlin, Javy Lopez, David Aardsma absolutely no one in. I'm concerned about his control and HR issues, however, which basically means he'll fit right in in our bullpen.

Delcarmen. All right buddy, I'm losing faith here. I've been one of your biggest defenders, I think, as others have clearly lost all thought of using him in close situations. He's simply been easier to hit this season. Last year he threw 44 innings and walked 17 while striking out 41. This season he's at 40 2/3 with 16 BB and 40 Ks. Hits? 28 last year, 37 this year.

Oki. Same issue, really, and this could've been predicted for both. Control in terms of walk rate and strikeout rate have not changed too much. 

Timlin. Am I serious? His last 5 1/3 of ridiculouslysmallsamplesize: 4 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks. I've given up on trying to figure Timlin out, but his ability to not be afraid to f'n throw strikes means I'm ready for him to try higher-leverage work again, if only because I'm ready for hits rather than walks/gift-wrapped hitters' counts to beat us in close games.

Paps. Pass. Good job buddy, even if you haven't been as crazy-dominant as the past two seasons.

Javy. Just not sure here. He had a good stretch to begin the season, but has come WAY back to Earth. Predictable, yes, and he probably doesn't need to see the kind of work he got earlier anymore. Surprisingly enough, he's looking more like a lefty specialist, with a .741 OPS against LHHs and an .814 OPS against RHHs. That .741 isn't that great, I suppose, but it means maybe we should only throw him against weak LHHs from now on. Doesn't seem that useful.

Chris Smith. 0.97 WHIP in Pawtucket this season. 45 Ks in 48 1/3. He might be a quad-A guy, certainly, but we'll never know until he gets an extended look. Seems like a guy (8 BB this season) who would make the other team beat him rather than beating himself. Refreshing?

Daniel Bard. Well. 82 Ks in 62 innings and a 0.94 WHIP. Next season, certainly, even if he doesn't make it up to help us this season.

Aardsma. Injured, and we'll see how that velocity is when he comes back. Walks too many. Walks too many. Walks too many. 

EDIT:

Conclusions. Manny D and Oki just have to become more deceptive and get into less hitters' counts. Timlin might need to see more late-inning work, if only because he'll throw strikes. Lopez would be good if he got on another run, but as of now should be mop-up and vs. LHH's only. Aardsma shows promise, less IP than MDC with great strikeout rates over his career. Some control (we could say this about a lot of people) and he'll be a rock. Hopefully Masterson can defy his BB and HR issues as a starter during his conversion to the pen. 

via d.yimg.com

Can I admit I'm not exactly Paps up there when thinking about how the bullpen has been used lately? Our players love playing for Tito and some of that has to do with the confidence he shows in them in certain situations. 

Paps, for example, belongs to save situations and that's not going to change anytime soon, and it shouldn't. MDC is the RHP called upon most often in the 7th/8th in close games. Again. No problem. 

The issue, here, is some heralded RPs who need to switch roles with their, perhaps, less-heralded counterparts. 

Craig Hansen has been up-and-down since called up, looking better than MDC at times, and looking worse than Timlin at others. Yet Tito has shown confidence in Hansen, putting him in situations where the score is close and the Sox are deep into the game. The fact of the matter is, despite how good he was today (and he was, awesome). He needs some of what Joe Morgan might refer to as consistency before he's trusted as the third option out of the pen.

Hideki Okajima. I wish I had some confidence in him. But I just don't. I have to wonder why he was in the game late yesterday, rather than David Aardsma, but of course remembered that we used/wasted Aardsma in back-to-back losses. I don't know what Oki needs, but he needs to put in some impressive work in garbage time to earn our confidence to pitch him late in games. Until then.

Javy Lopez. I wouldn't be saying this last year. But, for now, Javy needs to be getting those high-leverage situations when Tito/Farrell want a lefty. Javy's been effective this year, for whatever reason, and we should keep riding that while it lasts. The fact that his total numbers indicate that he's making hitters, in general, look like Jason Varitek (.703 OPS against, v. .717 OPS) is as encouraging about Lopez as it is discouraging about our captain.

David Aardsma. Aardsma has earned a shot at some more important situations, especially given his performance this weekend, striking out the side in two straight games. A 1.30 WHIP and 36 Ks in 34+? Not lights-out, but certainly better than many of our other options.

In, short, get J-Lo and Aardsma out of these blowout games and near-losses, and let's start using a couple of our best relievers as they should be used.

Oh. And Mike Timlin needs to be moved from the 15-day DL to the foreverplease RL. Yes. I'm in the camp that believes he's pretty much entirely cooked. I know he proved us all wrong last season, but it just seems different.

I suppose some trades could be made to help our cause. Names that intrigue me:

Jon Rauch: 33 Ks and 35 baserunners in 36 2/3. Toiling away for the last-place Nationals.

Alan Embree: Looks like he's gotten his mojo back in Oakland. 31 Ks and a 1.24 WHIP in 30 2/3.

Damaso Marte: He's been excellent, in Pittsburgh,with 39 Ks in 36 1/3 and a 1.07 WHIP. Last I've seen is that Pittsburgh might hold on to him the rest of the year, but I don't know how much sense that makes for them.

Who'd be a fair return for these cats? I dunno. Throw down some ideas in the comments.

via www.fangraphs.com

Summary:

Well, it wasn't vintage Becks, no matter how much the numbers might tell us otherwise. There was some iffiness, and an injury-scare. He certainly did get the job done though, and I'm not going to say he didn't earn the win. He absolutely did. And the iffiness could be chalked up to the raininess, I suppose.

Following Becks was three strong innings of relief from MDC, Oki, and Hansen in that order. MDC, in particular, looked pretty strong, striking out the side in the 7th. We need one (ideally two) of those three to start looking like a lockdown setup man. 

Our new (hopefully he remains so) #3 hitter was the top performer on the night, 2-3, 2 R, BB, SB. This is what they envisioned from Drew, and to say that this'll be the norm from now on probably isn't fair. But the fact remains, he's a very talented hitter who works the count and gets on base at an excellent rate. He should be higher in the lineup with Papi out, so that "Being" and Lowell can knock him in, rather than standing on 1B while Lugo and Coco fail to do so. As far as Coco goes? I haven't seen a good angle replay of either of his SB attempts, so I couldn't hazard a guess as to whether anyone is right at all in that mess. 

Eric Hinske stealing 3B? 'Tek and Becks should be embarrassed. 

Player of the Game:

via d.yimg.com

Could be that Becks is that statistically better choice for this game, but Drew hit well in this one and deserves some recognition for his play of late. Is this like the NBA giving the MVP to Kobe rather than KG or Chris Paul? *Shrugs* Also, no. 

Rant-o-licious:

So Papi is out? So what? Or, I just want to weigh in. Like FJM does, twice. But honestly. If he's out for longer than a month, or for the rest of the season, we might have to explore outside options. I've seen many bandied about, but one has been conspicuously absent, probably because his GM is bluffing that he's not on the block. But why wouldn't he be? This player is: 1) Hitting well, 2) Might be too old to be part of the "next great X team", 3) Talented OF who can play all 3 spots while also being potent enough offensively to DH, 4) Patient at the plate, 5) Seems to have matured since his early years in the Majors. This is the kind of player, when you should be in somewhat of a rebuilding mode, that can bring you back a good return to help your team in the future. And who is our mystery guest?

Milton Bradley. Let the virtual-flogging begin. (I am, of course, aware of his ridiculous BABIP and some other issues that come along with him. I still think he'd be a better option (tradewise, that is) than many of the other names brought up thusfar.)

The Catch:

For baseball fans all over, this should make one recall Willie Mays and his over-the-shoulder catch. For non-Patriot/Giant football fans, you might think of Joe Montana - Dwight Clark. For Patriot/Giant football fans, probably David Tyree('s helmet). For Sox fans, and maybe O's fans, there's a new contender for the term. 

I wouldn't do it justice with a description. It's currently the frontpage video on redsox.com, and should probably remain there all season. Just fantastic. One of many moments that make you realize how lucky we are to have Manny in Boston. He'll rightfully have his Gold Glove any day now. 

Summary:

Unfortunately, that's about the total of awesome to come out of this short trip to Baltimore. I can take two losses in their park. But to have the last one come on the bat of Jay Payton would make even Coco Crisp vomit (more). 

Nice to see Jonathan Van Every make his ML-debut, though him having a decent arm, at least, would seem to beg a move of Ells back to CF and Van Every in RF. Not the case, though the Sox might've been trying to make Van Every feel more comfortable; all 38 of his games @ Pawtucket were in CF. Also good for him to get his first ML-hit out of the way.

Jon Lester was good. 7 baserunners and 4 Ks in 6 innings. I'll take that from him every time out. 

J-Lo was also good. Why he wasn't allowed to face Quiroz after getting what should have been an inning-ending GB from Freddie Bynum I'll never know. Should've been all kinds of confidence in him at that point, and I don't think Quiroz should ever be the kind of hitter you adjust your pitching to (though he did well today, no doubt). It'd be like a team bringing in a lefty specialist to face Alex Cora. ...WHY? Just...no. Nonetheless, Craig Hansen has no excuse, and Okajima doesn't need to inherit runners for awhile. 

Numbaz:

4: Blown saves for Oki, at the 1/4 mark (give or take) of the season, HRs for 'Tek and Lowell. DPs hit into by the Sox today.

14: Youks' 2Bs. 

15: Ells' SBs, 'Tek RsBI

via d.yimg.com

Manny Ramirez is about entertainment, baby.