Red Sox-Rays Breakdown

The Boston Red Sox, proud owners of the best record in the American League, are moving on to the ALCS. As for the Tampa Bay Rays, winners of four straight elimination games before last night's defeat, their season is finally over.

Just one day after losing Game 3 of the ALDS in heartbreaking fashion (to Jose Lobaton, of all people), the Red Sox rebounded to win Game 4 by a score of 3-1 and take the series. They won behind a stellar pitching performance from Jake Peavy (5 and 2/3 innings, one run allowed, no walks), great bullpen work from Craig Breslow and opportunistic offense that scraped together three runs on Joel Peralta's wild pitch, Shane Victorino's infield single and Dustin Pedroia's sacrifice fly.

Even on a night when Boston's bats were quiet (six hits--all singles) they still created lots of traffic on the bases via eight walks and a pair of hit batters.  The Sox struggled to capitalize on their many scoring opportunities, leaving 10 men on base which, had they lost, would have been incredibly frustrating. Thankfully, three runs proved to be enough.

But Boston also owes plenty of credit to the Rays, who shot themselves in the foot with numerous defensive mistakes throughout the series. When you keep gifting extra outs and baserunners to the best offense in baseball, you're going to pay the price. It was strange to see Tampa Bay's typically airtight defense unravel like that, and you have to wonder if the Rays would have another game to play tomorrow had they been able to execute in the field.

Then again, it's not entirely fair to pin their first round exit solely on the miscues of Wil Myers, David DeJesus, and co. Tampa's vaunted starting rotation tanked, with Matt Moore and David Price stinking up the joint in Boston and Jeremy Hellickson lasting just six batters into Game 4. But even if they had pitched better, Tampa Bay still would have been hard-pressed to win given struggles at the dish. The Rays scored 12 times in the four games, primarily because they got next to nothing from their three best hitters. Myers went 1-for-16 with a .243 OPS, Evan Longoria did nothing outside of his three-run homer in Game 3 and Ben Zobrist had just two hits in the series.

The bottom line is that everything that could go wrong for Tampa Bay did go wrong, all at the worst possible time. Their top hitters slumped, their aces got shelled, and their fielders made costly errors. Even Joe Maddon, a tactical genius and probably the smartest manager in baseball, made some questionable moves (such as riding Price too long in Game 2 or letting Fernando Rodney anywhere near these ballgames). But that's the downside of playoff baseball and small sample sizes in general. Every mistake is magnified. There's no margin for error.

While it's true the Rays didn't do themselves any favors, it's also important to remember that the better team won. The Red Sox were clearly the superior team over the course of the regular season, and they proved that again here in the ALDS. Boston didn't commit any errors. Every starter made it into the sixth inning. The bullpen allowed just two earned runs in 11 innings of work. Their lineup scored 26 runs in four games against one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and did so with only two home runs (both off the bat of David Ortiz in Game 2). The Sox, successful in six of their seven stolen base attempts (with the lone CS coming on a botched hit-and-run), were smart and aggressive on the basepaths.

Boston is a ballclub that can hurt you in a lot of ways. Whoever wins Game 5 in Oakland tomorrow night will find that out soon enough.

Red Sox Rock Rays Again

The Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays again yesterday to take a commanding 2-0 Division Series lead.

The slugging Sox, fresh off scoring 12 runs the day before, got to David Price early and often. Boston scored two in the first, two more in the third, then pushed across one run each in the fourth and fifth.

It was a generous showing of run support for John Lackey, making his first postseason start as a member of the Red Sox. Lackey wasn't especially sharp but pitched well enough to earn the win, allowing four earned runs in five and a third innings of work. Lackey departed from the game with a 6-4 lead, leaving Boston's bullpen to finish the job. Craig Breslow recorded the final two outs of the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh, getting Ben Zobrist to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Price made it through the sixth and seventh unscathed as well but Joe Maddon, hoping to compensate for Matt Moore's early exit yesterday, brought him back out to start the eighth. Price promptly served up another gopher ball to David Ortiz, who belted Price's 102nd pitch over the Pesky Pole for his second home run of the game. With the Red Sox up 7-4 Maddon finally removed Price from the game, but the damage was done.

Koji Uehara closed the door with a 1-2-3 inning to nail down his first career postseason save. The Sox will go for the sweep at Tropicana Field tomorrow.

Red Sox Roll Over Rays

Lester gets fired up as he silences Tampa Bay's bats (Boston Herald)

The Red Sox earned their first postseason win since 2008 by pummeling the Tampa Bay Rays in yesterday's Division Series opener.

The Red Sox won 12-2 behind a strong performance from Jon Lester and a ferocious hitting attack from the best offense in baseball. Even though Lester got off to a great start, striking out the first four batters he faced (much to the delight of the Fenway Faithful), it was the Rays who took the early lead.  Sean Rodriguez and Ben Zobrist smacked solo home runs over the Monster, staking Matt Moore to an early lead.

But the Red Sox, as they have so often this year, came back. Trailing 2-0, Boston's bats picked up their ace in the bottom of fourth. The Sox scored five runs and batted around, capitalizing on several defensive miscues by the Rays. Jonny Gomes knotted the score with a two-run double off the Monster--his first career postseason hit--and that was the last of Tampa Bay's lead. The Sox tacked on three more while making Moore throw 33 pitches in the frame.

With Moore clearly laboring, Boston drove him from the game in the fifth following a two-run double from Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The Red Sox sent nine men to the plate in the fifth and padded their lead to 8-2, essentially putting the game out of reach. Lester held the Rays in check, coming within four outs of a complete game before turning it over to the bullpen. Junichi Tazawa finished off the eighth for him, getting Wil Myers to fly out and strand James Loney and Desmond Jennings on the basepaths.

Joe Maddon brought in journeyman Jamey Wright for mop-up duty, but Boston was far from done. The Red Sox ripped off four more runs to put the exclamation mark on their big day--12 runs on 14 hits, none of which cleared the fences. Ryan Dempster came on to close out the win, getting Yunel Escobar to ground out and end the game.

The Red Sox will try to take a 2-0 series advantage today as John Lackey squares up against the American League's defending Cy Young winner David Price. It's a matchup featuring the man who clinched Boston's first division title since 2007 versus the hero who pitched Tampa Bay to victory in Game 163. Let's get it on.

A-Rod Due for Big Game

Rodriguez needs to come up big tonight, or else (FoxSports)

After much speculation and hoopla over where Yankees manager Joe Girardi would slot Alex Rodriguez in the batting order tonight, it turns out #13 will once again take his hacks as the team's number three hitter.

No surprise there. Girardi is a veteran's manager who likes to maintain the status quo and he doesn't want to ruffle the feathers of his highest paid player.  Unlike Joe Maddon and Bobby Valentine, he doesn't shake things up just for the sake of shaking things up.  He prefers the Terry Francona approach; just pencil the names in and let the players do their thing. However, many fans were calling for him to take action and drop his struggling third baseman in the batting order.  Rodriguez frustrated the Yankee faithful by going 1-for-9 with five strikeouts in Baltimore during the first two games. Even a longtime Rodriguez defender/apologist like myself can see that he looks overmatched right now, that he can't catch up to the fastball or make consistent contact on breaking pitches.  Girardi said he was open to the idea of rearranging his the lineup for Game 3, but decided to hold his ground.

I think he made the right call. A good manager has confidence in his players and sticks with them through thick and thin.  He does what he thinks is best for the team without caving in to the pressure from fans and media. I think Girardi also understands the implications of making a move like that at this stage in the season. Dropping Rodriguez in the order, or even benching him in favor of Eric Chavez, would feel like a panic move when the series is merely tied at one game apiece.  It would incite a media firestorm and signal desperation.  When Joe Torre dropped Rodriguez to sixth, then eighth during the '06 Division Series versus Detroit, it backfired.  A-Rod went 1-for-15, New York lost in four games and Rodriguez never forgave his skipper for humiliating him.  Girardi knows the Yankees won 95 games during the regular season with A-Rod hitting third in many of them. The strategy worked for 162 games, so why wouldn't it work now? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It certainly looks like Rodriguez's swing is broke though, doesn't it? He's mired in one of his patented postseason funks, much like the one that dogged him in 2005, '06, and '07.  He hasn't gone yard in the playoffs since Halloween night, 2009, a span of 87 plate appearances.  Since helping the Bombers win the title that fall, he's 10-for-59 with 17 strikeouts in 16 games while batting .169/.282/.203. Granted, Rodriguez is not the superstar he once was, but that level of production from a middle-of-the-order bat is simply unacceptable, even for a 37 year-old with diminishing power. Needless to say, A-Rod has been long overdue, and he needs to find a way to contribute something from the batter's box tonight.  A sac fly, a timely base hit, a walk to start a rally. Something. Anything. Because if he comes up empty again, and the Yankees lose, then Girardi will have no choice but to make a change for Game 4.

Rodriguez is still an above average player.  Now is the time to prove it.