It may be too early to try to pretend that we can learn anything valuable about this ball club from the first series. The whole thing seemed to have everyone slightly off balance, the first two games were more like Spring Training games, and the whole endeavor lacked the monotony, and general drudgery, of the baseball season. But is that going to stop me from attempting to extract some meaning? Hardly.
One thing you could come away from that series inclined to believe is that on the strength of their lineup (and with a little luck) they could muscle out a win against a pitcher of Blanton’s caliber. Are they going to slug out a win against every back end of the rotation starter? Of course not. A couple of bad outings by their own pitching staff, however, might not be disastrous.
The same cannot be said for a pitcher of Harden’s caliber. During the eleven innings they saw him, the only one capable of doing any damage against him was Manny. Quite obviously, the pitching and defense will have to be on their toes to win those games. I believe that in their second game against him they showed they were capable of doing that.
Offensively, Youkilis, Manny, Ortiz, and Varitek have all found their swings. No doubt at some point during the season it might look like each of them have picked up a bat made of spaghetti but they’re off to a good start. Lowell, Pedroia, and Ellsbury, are still struggling at the plate. Coco and Lugo are doing reasonably well for the kind of hitters they are. And Drew? Well, Drew’s only played in one game and, therefore, hasn’t had enough at bats to display his pretty swing and what he intends to do with it this season.
Defensively, there were a couple of dropped plays, grabs that probably could have (and probably would have) been made if the players were more deeply entrenched in their grooves. But, as I said, it’s been kind of wacky and they haven’t had a chance to establish those grooves as of yet. Right at this moment, it’s hard to remember which games counted and which plays really didn’t matter but there were a couple of balls that just got by Lowell, the ball got away from Pedroia in his face-planting leap in the last game, and I think there might have been a ball that Coco couldn’t quite get to in center. Not really anything to worry about at this point, though.
One thing you could come away from that series inclined to believe is that on the strength of their lineup (and with a little luck) they could muscle out a win against a pitcher of Blanton’s caliber. Are they going to slug out a win against every back end of the rotation starter? Of course not. A couple of bad outings by their own pitching staff, however, might not be disastrous.
The same cannot be said for a pitcher of Harden’s caliber. During the eleven innings they saw him, the only one capable of doing any damage against him was Manny. Quite obviously, the pitching and defense will have to be on their toes to win those games. I believe that in their second game against him they showed they were capable of doing that.
Offensively, Youkilis, Manny, Ortiz, and Varitek have all found their swings. No doubt at some point during the season it might look like each of them have picked up a bat made of spaghetti but they’re off to a good start. Lowell, Pedroia, and Ellsbury, are still struggling at the plate. Coco and Lugo are doing reasonably well for the kind of hitters they are. And Drew? Well, Drew’s only played in one game and, therefore, hasn’t had enough at bats to display his pretty swing and what he intends to do with it this season.
Defensively, there were a couple of dropped plays, grabs that probably could have (and probably would have) been made if the players were more deeply entrenched in their grooves. But, as I said, it’s been kind of wacky and they haven’t had a chance to establish those grooves as of yet. Right at this moment, it’s hard to remember which games counted and which plays really didn’t matter but there were a couple of balls that just got by Lowell, the ball got away from Pedroia in his face-planting leap in the last game, and I think there might have been a ball that Coco couldn’t quite get to in center. Not really anything to worry about at this point, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment