…the sox did it right.
They received 6 innings of solid pitching from Justin Masterson. Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen took care of the middle relief. Even JD Drew stepped up his production.
All of these elements would appear to be parts of the formula for success for Red Sox team without David Ortiz in the lineup. You figure that overall, run production will go down. There’s just no way you can make up for Papi’s onbase and slugging percentages. Even if some combination of J.D. Drew, Jason Varitek, and Mike Lowell can increase their output, it’s not likely to make up for the offense that Papi provided to the lineup.
So what needs to happen is an improvement from the pitching staff. We all know that middle relief has been a disappointment so far. Someone in middle relief (preferably a couple of guys) needs to get their act together. Last night Delcarmen and Hansen did just that. I was particular impressed with what Hansen did. Given the most pressure packed moment of his season so far, he inherited Javier Lopez’s mess and got three outs without yielding a run in the eighth inning. If either Hansen or Delcarmen can become consistent along with Okie righting himself, it would help immensely.
Starting pitching must help out middle relief, too. Longer outings will keep the bullpen arms fresher and more effective. More starts that go 6-7-8 innings instead of starts that are done after 5. Seems like everytime I’m watching the Sox on TV, Francona is trying to keep the starter in through 5 to qualify for the win.
Pitching and run prevention is critical without Papi. I wouldn’t count on this offense generating 7 runs every night. Most likely scenario involves DH’ing Manny with an outfield of Coco, Drew, and Ellsbury. Thats a lot of speed out there to chase down balls. It also adds more speed to the lineup and I would hope that Francona can use that speed to play more of an NL style of baseball that manufactures runs one at a time.
The formula worked last night. Let’s hope it keeps working through the summer.
