Red Sox Record for the Week of August 31: 3-4
With the holiday weekend now over, the BoSox are sitting on a 2½ game lead over its only true Wild Card competitor, the Texas Rangers. Tampa Bay had been in the race as well but lost two of three crucial games to Boston last week, falling six games back of their northeast rivals. They are now 7½ games back in that race.
The Sox won the series with strong starts by Jon Lester last Tuesday and Clay Buchholz on Thursday, and blasting out 19 runs in the three contests. Psychologically, the series win was a huge boost for Boston, who had seen its 2008 season end at Tropicana Field in Game 7 of the ALCS, and is 4-14 overall there over the last two seasons. Boston has three more games against the Rays this season, all at Fenway Park later this weekend, where they’ve had much better success.
Speaking of psychological, you can never figure the game of baseball out. One would think that a White Sox team that just lost veterans like Jim Thome (to the Dodgers) and Jose Contreras (to the Rockies) in waiver deadline trades to begin the month is giving up on the season. Not so, as they took three of four games from the Red Sox last weekend (after losing three of four in Boston in late August). Go figure.
More of Les, please
There might be some quarreling as to who is most valuable to the Red Sox right now on the offensive side, but in Jon Lester, there is no question that he has supplanted Josh Beckett as the leader of the pitching staff.
In 2008, Beckett struggled through injuries and just wasn’t himself for much of the season. Lester then stepped up to become the team’s ace and one of the best lefthanders and pitchers in the majors. This year, both of these hurlers are healthy by all accounts, but again, Lester has been the more consistent of the two, especially since the end of May. He doesn’t have the high win totals to show for it, but his 204 Ks (3rd in the AL) have overpowered sluggers all year and is a new record for Sox lefties, which was 190, set by Bruce Hurst in 1987. And even with a new catcher (Victor Martinez) calling the shots, Lester is now peaking at the right time. In his last two starts (against the Rays and White Sox), Lester is 2-0, with 17 K’s, and 2 ER in 13 innings of work and now has a season-best 3.44 ERA (8th in the AL).
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