Series Recap: Jays @ Sox

GAME	SCORE	WP	LP
GM1	BOS, 7-4	Wake	Halladay
GM2	TOR, 6-5	Marcum	Snyder
GM3	BOS, 9-4	Dice K	McGow'n
GM4	TOR, 2-1	Litsch	Becks

STAT	TOR	BOS
WINS	2	2
HITS	43	44
RUNS	16	22
HRs	4	4
AVG	.303	.310
ERA	5.29	4.00

Batter's Composite Box:

PLAYER	SERIES STATS	COMMENT
Coco	5-15, 2R, 3B, RBI, 2BB, 2K, SB	continues to excel
Pedroia	2-14, 3R, RBI, 2BB, SB	sick & slumping
Papi	8-17, 4R, 3-2Bs, HR, 5BI, 2BB, 2K	FINALLY!
Manny	6-16, 3R, 2B, HR, 7RBI, BB, 3K	DITTO!
Lowell	5-16, R, 3B, 3RBI, 3K	Professional Hitter
Youk	2-13, R, 2B, 2RBI, 3BB, 4K	just getting healthy
Tek	2-8, R, 2B, HR, 2BI, 4K	sat GM4 w/ thumb inj
Lugo	7-16, 2R, 2SB	I repeat, FINALLY!
Hinske	2-9, R, RBI, HR, 3K	Big Hit Hinske
Cora	1-3, R, 2B	played one game (#4)
Belli	1-7, 2B, BB, K	played 2 games this series
Pena	1-2, K	Whiffy Mo strikes out again
Drew	2-6, 3R, 2B, BB	living down to "Nancy"

Pitcher's Composite Box:

PITCHER	SERIES STATS	COMMENT
Wake	6IP, 9H, 4ER, 0BB, 2K, 2HR, W	wins despite poor numbers
Tavarez	4IP, 9H, 4ER, 3BB, 3K	ND despite poor numbers
Dice-K	6IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 2K, 2HR, W	wins despite lousy numbers
Beckett	8IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 8K, L	loses despite great numbers
Manny D	3IP, 1H, 5K	can you say 'money'?
Oki	2IP, 3H, 2K	Oki doing a-okay
Paps	1IP, H, 2K, SV	save # 21 in GM1
Timlin	3.1IP,1H, 1K	...heee's baaack!
Pineiro	2/3IP, 1H, 1BB, 1K	...oh, and so is he.
Lopez	1/3, 1K	1batter, 1K--nice
Snyder	1.2IP, 2H, 2ER, BB	awful in GM2 loss

Recap

It was another eventful series with the Sox northern neighbors/division rivals, a wild & wooly four games that featured two Boston blowout wins and two tough one-run losses.

Plus a lot of wind.

The good news coming from this series was the reemergence of Ramirez & Ortiz as the power hitting offensive forces we know and love. Both batters had huge numbers this series (14-33, 7R, 2HR, 12RBI), and with the 3-4 spot producing numbers like that, it's only a matter of time before the Sox start to club some teams into submission with this offense.

Actually the Sox clubbed plenty of balls in this series; unfortunately a stiff breeze and stiffer starting pitching kept the Sox from getting Josh Beckett what would have been his ML-leading 13th victory yesterday, and Kyle Snyder gave the game away in one fell swoop after Boston had worked so hard to get a lead Friday.

I found it interesting that the first three Boston starters had identical numbers as far as hits and earned runs allowed, numbers which were not good, but all three could have gotten wins, while the one starter who had an excellent outing was saddled with a bitter loss. Hmmm.

That's the game of baseball, as they say.

On the injury front Drew left Saturday's game with a tweaked hammy and sat the last two games, but could be back tonight; Youk played all four games after missing 5 of 6 with a bad quad; and Tek had yesterday off after getting hit in the thumb by a Matsuzaka mistake on Saturday.

It wasn't a terrible series by any means, but for a team that was swept before the break, splitting series against weaker division competition won't cut it. With New York now just nine games back, the Sox need to string together a stretch of 8 wins in 9 games or some shit like that to get the confidence back and start rolling into the dog days of summer with that sizable lead intact.

Oh, and who better to do that against than the next two teams to visit Fenway, the putrid Royals and awful Chisox?

Go Sox!