Red Sox Sliding

Boy, when Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington conceded his team was getting "hard to watch," he wasn't kidding.

The slumping Sox have dropped a season worst seven games in a row--all on the road--falling to 62-74 on the season. It's been an ugly West Coast swing, to say the least.  First the Angels swept them aside, and then the surging A's followed suit with a lopsided three game sweep in which they bludgeoned the Bosox 33-5.  Last night in Seattle, Jason Vargas shut down Boston's ice cold bats and outdueled Clay Buchholz.  During this latest losing streak opponents have outscored them by 41 runs during that stretch, an average of nearly six runs per game.  Six! Granted, that number is somewhat inflated by the 20-2 beatdown they suffered in Oakland last Friday night, but in only one game was the margin of defeat less than three runs.  The simple explanation is that the pitching and hitting are struggling simultaneously.  It's going to be tough to win baseball games when when your pitchers get lit up for 8.3 runs per game, and by the same token is just as difficult when the slumbering offense produces just 2.3 runs per game.

It's been a hard fall from the top for a team that looked like World Series favorites as recently as last September.  Trades and injuries have reduced them to a glorified AAA ballclub.  It was safe to assume that the team would only get worse after trading away Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, but I don't think anybody expected it to get this bad.  After all, their lineup still features elite top of the order talent in Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia.  The rotation still has an effective lefty-righty punch with Jon Lester and Buchholz anchoring the staff.  And don't forget that Felix Doubront and 2009 AL Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey recently returned from injuries.  Unlike, say, the Houston Astros, this roster hasn't been totally gutted.  It has an intact core with good players capable of winning ballgames.

Still, the fact remains that this club have been brutal for more than a month now.  Since the July 31st trading deadline, Boston's gone 9-23 (.281 winning percentage), a streak of futility reminiscent of their infamous 7-20 September swoon one year ago.  Over that span the Sox have strung together back-to-back wins just twice and have just one series win (against the Royals) in their past nine sets.

Tough to watch, indeed.  Some would say almost torturous.

Tonight Lester (8-11, 5.01 ERA) looks to stop the bleeding against Blake Beavan (9-8, 4.95 ERA).  Boston's struggling southpaw has finally started to pitch like the ace he's supposed to be.  In August he averaged more than seven innings per start, compiled a 3.59 ERA and permitted just two home runs.  The light-hitting Mariners, who rank dead last in the American League in numerous offensive categories such as runs, hits, batting average, OBP, SLG, OPS, and total bases, shouldn't pose much of a threat.  Boston's bats should come alive against Beavan, and I'm confident Lester will go out and get the job done.