Bos-Wash Corridor

First Place Flips

First place flipped this week in the AL East, as the Yanks moved past the Sox into the division lead by a half-game. It wasn’t altogether unexpected. With Boston going to Minnesota and Toronto for seven games in Week 8, it was going to be tough to keep a hold on first. No matter good the Red Sox might be, trips into the domes of Minneapolis and Toronto have rarely been pleasant experiences. This week was no different, as it took a badly needed gem from Jon Lester on Sunday to get us to 3-4 for the week.

To be fair to our rivals in New York, they didn’t have a cakewalk schedule. The week started in Texas where the Rangers continue to hold the best record in the American League. I’ve not changed my mind from last week that this is a status that’s going to disappear sooner rather than later, but best in the league is still best in the league, and the Yanks pounded the Rangers twice.

The city of New York is back aglow for its team now, not more than three weeks removed from being ready to abandon the season. The word on the street is that the Pinstripes are ready to fulfill preseason expectations, which included being picked to win the World Series by this Red Sox-partisan writer. Is that what we are to assume from this recent surge? In the words of a commentator on another sport, “Not so fast my friend.”

The Yankee pitching remains abysmal, sitting at 12th in the league in ERA. And if you go deeper inside the numbers, the picture doesn’t get a whole lot brighter. C.C. Sabbathia has had it turned around for some time now. He’s not only 5-3, but he’s averaging over seven innings a start and has a 3.46 ERA. A pitcher of his status might do even better, but you really can’t assume it. Andy Pettite has a 4.10 ERA, certainly no slouch in the tough AL East. Is it realistic to think the aging lefty is going to keep that up? Even the most pro-Pettite observer would have to allow that regression is far more likely than improvement. Joba Chamberlain has gone to the post nine times and is 2-1 with a 3.97 ERA. Not bad, but the dominating Joba of setup relief is nowhere to be found.

Any hopes the Yankee rotation has for improvement can be most realistically pinned on A.J. Burnett and Chien-Ming Wang. The former has a 4.78 ERA. It’s a little on the high side, but there were many of us who believed Hank Steinbrenner bought fool’s gold when he signed the injury-prone Burnett, a pitcher who never managed to stay healthy and consistent for a full year until he had to pitch for a contract in 2008. That’s a resume oddly similar to Carl Pavano, a name that will live in infamy in the Bronx.

Wang is another story. He’s only two years removed from being one of the top pitchers in the American League and he might well have been again last year except for the fluke baserunning injury in Houston that ended his season in June. After three disastrous starts to open the year, he went on the disabled list and his since returned with two relief outings. The first one went rough against the Phillies, but on Wednesday he tossed two perfect innings in Texas. There’s no word on when Wang will return to the rotation, but you can follow the same logic with him that you can with David Ortiz—he has to get better, because getting worse is really not possible. The question for Wang is whether he can be better than Phil Hughes, who’s a spotty 3-2, 5.16 ERA in five starts. The answer is that he probably can, but it’s not a sure thing.

So the Yanks, already near the bottom of the league in ERA, are in a situation where any prospects for improvement in the starting pitching (Wang, maybe Burnett, possibly Sabbathia) are mostly offset by prospects for decline (Pettite, possibly Chamberlain if he doesn’t get his velocity back). And the bullpen is a disaster area in front of Mariano Rivera. The team is hoping for help when Brian Bruney and Damaso Marte come off the DL this month. If they click, Joe Girardi would have a nice righty-lefty combination. But is there reason to think they will? Marte is a journeyman, and Bruney is another one who’s never stayed healthy consistently. New York is hoping to draw to an inside straight—that all the prospects for improvement pan out, while none of the downsides do. Such does happen with at least one or two teams everywhere, but if it becomes what you’re banking on, you’ve got problems. And New York has pitching problems.

But everyone has problems, be it in baseball or in life. How do the Red Sox measure up to our rivals on the mound? The answers here look pretty good. With a rotation generally allowed to have been a disappointment, the Sox were still 7th in the AL in ERA. That’s with Tim Wakefield’s 4.55 ERA making him the ace of the staff, Jon Lester sitting on an ugly 6.07 before Sunday’s gem, Dice-K still searching for his first win, Brad Penny at 5.63. And even with his recent resurgence, Josh Beckett is still at 4.60 ERA. Where are the prospects for improvement here? Everywhere. Is anyone performing at a level that’s over their head? Nowhere.

And if you go to the bullpen, it looks even better. Papelbon and Rivera cancel each other out. In the setup area, Boston has no less than five pitchers who would be the #1 setup guy in the Bronx. Which of Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez, Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito would Joe Girardi not prefer over anyone he currently has? Quite frankly, it’s not a stretch to include Daniel Bard in there and say Boston’s top six setup guys are better than New York’s best. Let’s also not forget John Smoltz is due back this month.

If it seems to you that the New York surge has been built heavily on a lot of late-inning rallies and narrow wins, you aren’t imagining things or being overly influenced by ESPN highlights. The Yanks are 8-4 in one-run games, while the Sox are 8-8. Given Boston’s superiority in the pen this can surely be assumed to end up at least even. And that’s being generous. Making things square here alone, picks up four games in the loss column.

New York still has the superior offense, ranking 2nd to Boston’s 6th. This is an area that could get tough for the Sox, as the Yanks could easily be the best in the league, while any improvement from Ortiz could be offset by slowdowns from Jason Bay, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek. But the Sox still have the top on-base percentage in the league, and should be able to get enough runs to support a strong pitching staff.

I don’t write this to dismiss New York. Their strengths offensively are clearly there, and they have enough in the pitching rotation to be right there in the mix for the long haul. But nothing’s happened so far that should lead us to think that they’ve irrevocably seized control of the AL East. The smart money here still says that these two teams ultimately settle this in the American League Championship Series come October.

IN THE SENIOR CIRCUIT

The Dodgers-Cubs has been MLB’s highlight series of Week 8. Chicago was a trendy preseason pick to win the World Series. Here at the Bos-Wash Corridor we tentatively tabbed them to win a third straight Central title, with the caveat that a healthy Chris Carpenter tipped the balance to St. Louis. Thus far, Lou Pinellia’s Cubbies have disappointed most observers, though they remain in the midst of a heated four-team race. Thus far, they’ve taken two of three from the Dodgers, as the teams get ready to conclude the series in tonight’s ESPN showcase.

Things don’t look for the Cubs in the big picture. They’re performing poorly on offense. Aramis Ramirez is out until early July at least. Milton Bradley isn’t getting it done. Derek Lee looks to be finished as a potent bat. The pitching staff has underachieved in spite of getting decent years thus far from Ted Lilly and Sean Marshall. The temperamental Carlos Zambrano has been okay. He’s capable of getting on a major hot streak, but his reputation has always been better than his consistency. Rich Harden is having injury problems, a circumstance that hardly qualified as huge shock. Ryan Dempster has started having problems with a blister, and those of us who’ve followed the career of Josh Beckett, know that they can be a nagging problem for an entire season. The bullpen is also a problem and Kevin Gregg is the one closer on the four NL Central contenders (Brewers, Cardinals and Reds joining the boys from Wrigleyville) who’s been unreliable.

Meanwhile, life is good in Milwaukee and St. Louis. The Cardinals are getting great pitching and it’s started with the aforementioned Carpenter. He’s 3-0 with a stunning 0.62 ERA in five starts. If the 2005 Cy Young winner finally has his form and his health back, watch out. The rest of the rotation is solid, the bullpen is excellent and any team run by Tony LaRussa will be well-prepared. Offensively, Albert Pujols is having another monster year, and while the lineup is not deep, there’s enough there that it’s not a one-man show.

Milwaukee is surprisingly in first place, in spite of losing Sabbathia and Ben Sheets to free agency. Yovani Gallardo has stepped up as the ace, and Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are still the muscle end of the Family. Even though the Brew Crew lost Rickie Weeks for the season, they have Craig Counsell in reserve, a utility infielder who gets on base, is steady afield and has World Series experience as a key part of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. An interesting sidebar in this race is that the Central crown could come down to whether the Brewers get good starting pitching from Braden Looper and Jeff Suppan. The former just came over from St. Louis this year, and the latter was the NLCS MVP during the Cards’ run to the 2006 World Series title.

Cincinnati is the fourth wheel in this race, but it shouldn’t be too long before the wheel comes off. The offense was heavily dependent on Joey Votto, their outstanding first baseman, whose .464 OBP and .627 slugging was Pujols-esque. But while Cincy gets decent power from Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips, they have no one else who gets on base consistently. Even had Votto not gone on the DL this weekend (albeit for personal reasons, not medical issues), this is not an offense that was going to sustain through the summer months. If the Reds wonder how well one-man shows work, they need only look across the state where LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are nursing their wounds after being shocked out of the Eastern Conference finals by Orlando. If one-man teams don’t work in basketball, they certainly won’t fly in baseball. The Reds travel to St. Louis to start Week 9 and then come home to host the Cubs on the weekend, so now’s the time for them to plant their feet and stand firm.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Boston concludes this ten-game trip with a visit to AL Central leading Detroit to lead the week off. This will be the prime matchup in all of baseball in the early part of the week. The Yanks will have a seven-game homestand for Week 9 against the Rangers and Rays. The Red Sox return home on the weekend to play Texas, a team that will certainly be challenged to uphold its league-leading status this week. It all sets the stage for another Yanks-Sox brawl in the Fens to open Week 10, which leads into the long 15-game run of interleague play that has become traditional on the June calendar.

Ellsbury's Offense

In my column a week ago today when I looked at the All-Star picks for each position and sized up how the Red Sox starter fit into that picture, I remarked that at centerfield Jacoby Ellsbury was a subpar offensive producer, even if his defense was outstanding. That comment might seem strange, if not downright ignorant. After all, Ellsbury is hitting over .300. After his two-hit game in Minnesota last night, he’s on a 21-game hitting streak. He’s swiped 18 bases, including a breathtaking steal of home against the Yankees on Sunday night baseball. So I went to the replay booth and went deeper into how Ellsbury stacked up against his peers. Upon further review, the original call stands. For what the Red Sox need of him in his current role, our starting centerfielder and leadoff hitter is far from up to snuff.

It’s impossible for any Sox fan not to like Ellsbury. He’s a sparkplug and he plays every day. His 195 at-bats are most on the team and fourth in the American League. Who can forget what he did for this team in 2007? As a September call-up he was dynamite, and invigorated a squad that looked like it was straggling down the finish line in the face of the red-hot Yankees. In the ALCS of that year, trailing 3 games to 1 against Cleveland, Terry Francona permanently inserted him into the lineup in place of Coco Crisp. The Sox never lost again and Ellsbury was a huge reason why.

But getting it done as a September call-up, whom the rest of the league doesn’t know, is one thing. Doing it as an everyday player is quite another. And the numbers don’t add up. While the batting average is excellent, the on-base percentage, of .335 is below average. When you consider how many hits Jacoby gets, that OBP looks even worse. What’s going to happen when he hits the inevitable slump? Good hitters keep themselves productive during dry times by getting walks. There’s no evidence that Ellsbury can do that consistently, and valuing batting average over OBP is a characteristic of the pre-Theo Red Sox teams that always found a way to underproduce against expectations. And Ellsbury’s slugging percentage is unsurprisingly low, at .374, so it’s not being made up for with power to the alleys.

If you compare Ellsbury to other centerfielders on our principal rivals for the division title, it looks a little bit better. Only Melky Cabrera in the Bronx is indisputably better, with a .368/.481 split. Only B.J. Upton in Tampa is indisputably worse, at .285/.284. Vernon Wells for the Jays, whose career has rapidly declined the past few years is at .321/.414. Within this framework, Ellsbury’s production is average.

Of course his offensive role is not to be the centerfielder. It’s to be the leadoff man. So how does he matchup against the leadoff hitters for the three other AL East contenders? Here’s a quick breakdown:

Derek Jeter: .359/.452
Marco Scutaro .400/.445
B.J. Upton .285./284

Now Ellsbury has dropped to a clear third, behind one former utility player and another aging star that’s hearing whispers he’s washed up. If we dig even deeper, the comparison gets worse before it gets better. In Ellsbury’s roles of centerfield and leadoff hitter, the rest of the American League at-large and the National League are stronger. Adam Jones and Tori Hunter are the standard right now at center, blowing away the board with OBPs over .400 and slugging percentages in excess of .600. Over in the National League, Ellsbury’s OBP would place him ninth, below average in what has been considered the below-average league the last several years.

Measured against leadoff men beyond the AL East, the downward spiral continues. Scutaro and Jeter still hover near the top, while Brian Roberts (Baltimore) and Ian Kinsler (Texas), are the best. Ellsbury’s on-base average is better than only three American League leadoff men—Curtis Granderson. Orlando Cabrera and Upton. And Granderson easily makes up for his inability to get on base with strong power production (.467 slugging). So in a 14-team American League, the Red Sox rank no better than 12th at the lineup position that will get the most at-bats over an entire season. And the National League? Ellsbury would be about 10th, his numbers only marginally better than Willy Taveras in Cincinnati, a journeyman who couldn’t stick in Houston or Colorado.

What about the stolen bases, you ask? Here we come to a question of offensive philosophy. If you are one who believes the stolen base is a vital part of the offense, you’ll quite logically think that Jacoby is an outstanding leadoff man. I don’t feel that way. I hold to the view that the steal is a vastly overrated part of the game. At best, it’s neutral—even a successful steal means the batter had to take a pitch he might otherwise have driven. The distraction the base stealer creates for the pitcher can be equally applied to the batter. As difficult as it is to hit a major league pitch, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is when you see a runner breaking out of the corner of your eye.

With Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis right behind him, is it really necessary to risk Ellsbury giving up an out if he’s caught or picked off? The stolen base is like the sacrifice bunt—it has its place, but in a very limited sense. I suppose I could quote legendary Oriole skipper Earl Weaver (who was speaking of the bunt) and say its only place is buried in the closet. But both tactics are essentially one-run strategies, in a sport whose games are most often decided by innings with crooked numbers, a reality that Jon Lester again got all too familiar with last night. I suppose the stolen base debate could be approached from many angles, but for now let’s just leave it as this—if you think Ellsbury is great because of it, our debate is then not over the merits of the player—he clearly is a great base stealer—but what statistical paradigm is the most accurate mode of analysis.

Now that I’ve spent over a thousand words saying nothing but negative things about Jacoby, let’s talk about some positives. This column was about offensive production, so that meant his greatest asset—his defense—was left unmentioned. But he is one of the top defenders in the league at a position where defense is vital. And while his OBP numbers have not made any real improvement over 2008, the fact he is getting hits so consistently is heartening. You don’t see him getting jammed inside with the same frequency as was the case last year. Given his youth, improvement is still very possible.

The problem is not so much Ellsbury, but the role the Red Sox are trying to fit him in. He just doesn’t produce enough to be a leadoff guy. There has to be more than batting first than just stealing a base. Even the biggest proponent of the steal, would have to acknowledge that using the lineup spot guaranteed to hit most over the course of the year should go to someone who can…well…hit. Men on base consistently mean more fastballs for the middle of the order guys. It means more multi-run homers. It means more crooked number innings. If you look at Jacoby’s profile—great defender, pesky hitter, if not selective, no power—it’s that of a good bottom of the order guy. If he batted eighth or ninth, this whole discussion changes. We’re measuring him against a completely different class of players, one of which he likely comes up much better against.

Right now, there’s not a ton of options within the lineup, at least until Ortiz (or a potential replacement) hit well enough to move up. As of now, you can put Pedroia in the leadoff hole, but then who hits #2? The failure of Julio Lugo to live up to the contract he got three years ago to hit leadoff continues to hinder the team today and we likely to have play it out as is for a while.

What concerns me more, is that if there’s any recognition on the part of management that Ellsbury has done nothing since October 2007 to suggest he’s a legit leadoff guy, they have done a fantastic job of concealing it. This is an area that needs to be fixed. I never like hasty in-season trades to repair a leak, but in looking at the lineup for the next few years, situating Ellsbury to a more appropriate role has got to be a priority.

A Great Week To Be A Sox Fan

It was a great week to be a Red Sox fan. The team went 4-2 against the Blue Jays & Mets, and moved back into first place, after opening the week three games back. But that paled in comparison to what happened at Fenway Park on Wednesday night. David Ortiz hit his first home run of the season, and the response from the crowd was absolutely electric. The thunderous applause and curtain call Papi got were never louder when he was delivering the walkoff home run in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS that helped get the legendary comeback started. It was a reminder of what is truly great about the Fenway Faithful. In the intervening years since ’04, I’ve often lamented the intrusion of a foreign element into Red Sox Nation, an obnoxious breed of quasi-Yankee fans masquerading in Boston caps and demanding nothing less than a World Series title and instant gratification. The response to a slumping Ortiz showed that there’s plenty of fans who still share the old Fenway faith.

There’s plenty of reasons to be loyal to the big slugger besides sentiment. Another player who was struggling so badly that he looked to be finished has found new life. Jason Varitek has the pop in his bat back, and a two-homer game from him on Wednesday against Toronto gave him eight on the year. Those were just the highlights of a three-game sweep of the front-running Jays that vaulted Boston within a half-game of the lead when the weekend opened.

Interleague play didn’t go well for the leaders of the AL East. The Blue Jays were swept by Atlanta. The Yankees still have their cardiac heroics going, but it didn’t stop them from losing two of three to the Phils. The BoSox had their own issues with the Mets, but salvaging a win on Sunday pushed them into first place. Toronto and New York are a half-game back, and Tampa has started to play well of late. The Rays have won seven of ten and moved to within four of the lead. However, this good news was dampened by the fact that Steve Kazmir and Troy Percival are going on the disabled list. In the case of Percival, it may mean the end of his career. With three solid teams in front of them and down an arm in the bullpen, this may be too much for the Rays to overcome, even with David Price on the way to the bigs.

It was a tough series in Fenway for the Red Sox against the Mets. On Friday night, Julio Lugo stood up and showed why the shortstop position has got to be entrusted to Nick Green and Jed Lowrie, when the latter comes back from his wrist injury in June. Lugo failed to turn a double play because he stood flat-footed and got nothing on the throw that should have ended the inning. Instead, the Mets got two more hits and two more runs. Later in the game, Lugo had a chance to atone as he came to the plate with men on second and third and one out. He popped up. He singlehandedly cost the Sox two runs in a 5-3 defeat (I’ll let him off the hook for one of the runs the Mets scored after the double play, as I don’t think it excuses a pitcher giving up successive hits).

Saturday night was a gut-wrenching loss, but easier to live with. Josh Beckett was brilliant, going eight innings and giving up only one run. But Paps let the game get away in the ninth with a two-out, two-run home run that hit just above the line on the Green Monster that marks whether a ball is in play or out of the park. After initially ruling it in play, a circumstance that would have left the tying run at third, the umps went to the replay camera and ruled it a home run. It was the correct call. Even as Paps came out for the ninth, I had the feeling that he was due to let one get away. And the home run hit was a prototype Fenway shot. It was well-hit, but a deep flyout anywhere else. That sort of blown save is just the cost of doing business if you’re a closer at the Fens.

A FOUR-TEAM RACE HEATS UP

The race for the AL East is already red-hot and the landscape looks good for Boston from this standpoint—there’s plenty of reason to believe we can play better, as you review the key statistical areas. For those of you who are new to the site (and since this site just started in March, I guess that means everybody), The Bos-Wash Corridor focuses on on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The Sox rank first (in the entire American League) in OBP, continuing a tradition of selective hitting that has characterized the Theo Epstein era. We stand fourth in slugging. Yet the team is sixth in runs scored, which is at least a superficial indication that the breaks are not falling our way and we’re getting the necessary production to score more.

By comparison, Tampa has taken third-place ranking in both areas and converted them into the most productive offense in the league. New York is third and sixth respectively, but #3 in runs scored. And Toronto is fifth in both OBP and slugging, while standing second in runs. Looking at these three teams, only the Yanks seem to have stats that will sustain themselves.

Now let’s go to the other side of the ball, so to speak, and look at how the four rivals stack up in preventing teams from getting on base and slugging, and correlate it to team ERA. The Red Sox are very poor at keeping men off base, the key reason for their pitching struggles. They rank 11th, and are a mediocre 7th in slugging percentage. They stand at #7 in ERA. New York is even worse ,with 12/13 rankings appropriately placing them 12th overall. Tampa’s numbers show them at ninth and tenth, and is #10 in ERA. Only Toronto is getting good pitching, and is the best in the league at preventing OBP. The Jays are #5 in stopping slugging, and that has given them the second-best team ERA overall.

That’s a lot of numbers to jam into a couple paragraphs. But it can be boiled down to this—looking at both hitting and pitching, and presuming that team production levels hold stable, the Red Sox can count on a modest improvement in runs. Toronto can be expected to decline substantially, Tampa more modestly. New York is probably around where they should be.

Of course this is just one layer of analysis. It presumes that any improvement or decline of individual performances within each team will balance each other out (i.e,, if Jason Bay cools off, Big Papi will heat up). Whether that’s realistic or not varies from each team and we’ll save going to the next layer for another column. But a team that’s gotten subpar performances from Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and David Ortiz, and is just getting Dice-K back from injury certainly has nothing to fear from performances finding a happy medium.

LIFE BEYOND THE AL EAST

The Texas Rangers continue to be the surprise of the league, and with Toronto’s six-game losing streak, the Rangers are unexpectedly—to say the least—the team with the best record in the American League on Memorial Day. But putting Texas under the same microscope we just used on the top four AL East teams does not bode well for the Rangers. They stand seventh in runs scored, and eighth in ERA, which is a long way from adding up to the best in the league. Their 13-8 record in one-run & extra inning games, while not extraordinary, is likely to come back to the middle. This alone would be enough to wipe out the three-game lead they currently hold on the Angels.

On the positive side, Texas’ performance in OBP and slugging, both offensively and by the pitching staff, suggest they can hold their middle-of-the-road rankings, and no one in the Dallas area would have turned that down at the start of the season. Furthermore, no Rangers are having seasons that can be marked as certain to turn downward. The leading offensive contributors are Ian Kinsler and Michael Young—no surprise there. Nelson Cruz and Hank Blalock supply a power supplement. If they fade, it’s reasonable to think that others, such as Josh Hamilton or former Red Sox farmhand David Murphy (lost in the Eric Gagne trade) could pick up the slack.

But if Texas is going to come back to the pack, let it hold off for a few more days—they host the Yankees for a three-game set starting on Monday.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Boston goes to Minnesota for a four-game set starting on Memorial Day. Brad Penny pitched his third straight good game this past week against Toronto and will get the ball tomorrow. Jon Lester pitched extremely well in capping off the sweep of the Jays and goes Tuesday. Dice-K and Beckett round out the series. Beckett’s strong outing on Saturday night looks to be a clear sign that he’s back on track, having delivered three straight good games of his own. For the weekend, the team continues a nine-game road trip by going north of the border to rematch with the Jays.

Cleveland will be a key player in the AL East this week, hosting the Rays for a four-game set to start the week and the Yanks to end it. The Blue Jays try and get back on track in Baltimore, where my wife will be fortunate enough to be in a company luxury box for the Tuesday night game, before coming back home to face the Sox.

TROUBLE WITH HAYNESWORTH

Shifting gears to football briefly before closing the week out, the Redskins look to be in some hot water regarding the signing of Albert Haynesworth. The team is alleged to have been in contact with the free agent about an hour or so before the rules allowed, and losing a draft pick due to tampering is now a possibility.

I suppose I could be cynical and say that given our drafting record in the high rounds, this is a surefire way to keep us from blowing cap money on a failed prospect. But that aside, this whole tampering thing is really nonsense. It was ridiculous when the Packers brought it up against Brett Favre and the Vikings last summer, and it's equally so here. What is "tampering" anyway? A team either has a contract with a player or they don't. If you have a contract, I can talk to the player all day and it means nothing. If you don't have a contract, you have no binding rights. Trying to regulate who can talk to whom and say what is a huge can of worms that's impossible to regulate consistently. Nor is it necessary. Contracts are the only controlling authority that's necessary.

All-Star Overview

A regular weekly feature of this site will be tracking the race for All-Star spots. The one modification I make, is that this race is viewed as a season-long process, with the final ballot at the end of the year. Personally, I’d like to see the All-Star game itself stay as it is, a popularity contest for players the fans want to see. But at year’s end, there should be an official All-Star team announced for each league, encompassing each position, four starting pitchers, two setup men and a closer. This would not only eliminate the popularity contest and focus strictly on baseball merit, but it would also ensure that we have a full season’s body of work to evaluate.

My preferred statistical evaluations are on-base percentage and slugging percentage. More than any of the Triple Crown categories, they best encompass all facets of offensive production. On the defensive side, I focus on zone rating, a stat which was created to best measure the ability to measure range at the position, not just fielding percentage. This is a stat with a special place in Red Sox lore. It was Nomar Garciaparra’s declining zone rating that persuaded Theo Epstein the Sox could no longer hope to win the World Series with him at shortstop. In July 2004, the multi-team deal that dealt Nomar to the Cubs and brought Orlando Cabrera, Doug Mientkewicz and Dave Roberts to Boston was struck. The rest is history.

So without further adieu, here’s how I see the All-Star race shaping up after 6+weeks. Comments are included, with a Red Sox flair to them, and future columns will probe more deeply into individual races.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Catcher: Victor Martinez (Cleveland). Also in the mix is Mike Napoli for the Angels, but Martinez’s track record strongly suggests that if he stays healthy, he’s going to be tough to beat out. Jason Varitek isn’t going to contend for this spot, but with a .454 slugging percentage, he’s not the offensive liability he was for Boston last year.

1st Base: Justin Morneau (Minnesota). Morneau’s just keeping the seat warm. Once Kevin Youkilis returns to the lineup tonight and starts piling up the at-bats, he’ll move back into the lead. Over in Detroit, Miguel Cabrera has found his bat and is having a big year, though he’s a big defensive liability.

2nd Base: A hotly contested position here, with four AL East teams having viable candidates, including Dustin Pedroia, who leads all AL second baseman in OBP. Baltimore’s Brian Roberts is strongly in the mix, with a better slugging percentage than Pedroia and slightly better zone rating. But the best balanced package at this writing comes from Kansas City and Alberto Callaspo.

3rd Base: Evan Longoria in Tampa is the man and no one else is close. Mike Lowell’s having a nice year power-wise and hitting for average, but lower walk totals have hurt his on-base numbers. A-Rod may get into the mix if he gets on one of his patented tears. Although the cynic might say that in missing April and most of May, Rodriguez was on the DL during his most productive time of year.

Shortstop: Jason Bartlett is another runaway leader for the Rays. Dominant in all three categories he has become the most complete player at a position which has not been strong in the American League for several years. The league’s problems here mirror Boston’s, which has never adequately replaced Nomar.

Left Field: A lot of Red Sox players will either be voted into the All-Star game, or get close, based solely on the team’s prominence in the national media. But there should be no griping if Jason Bay makes it. Sitting on a .429 OBP and .625 slugging, we can safely say that Manny couldn’t do it better, and the new left fielder is reminding everyone why Massachusetts is the Bay State.

Center Field: This one’s more open than a quick glance at the stats would show. Adam Jones in Baltimore is having a monster offensive season, and Tori Hunter in Anaheim is not far behind. But to my surprise, both rank at the bottom of the AL in defensive range. This is a position where everything’s flipped—the top defenders lack offensive production, and I believe when in doubt, the first job of a position player is to hit. On that criteria, I go with Jones. But Vernon Wells, the top-rated defender could make a run if he can get his offensive game in order. Jacoby Ellsbury ranks #2 afield, but is subpar in both offensive areas.

Right Field: The East Coast is the place to be to watch great right field play. Nick Markakis, who last year supplanted a declining Vlad Guerrero as the best in the league, is having another big year in 2009. J.D. Drew and Nick Swisher are right in the mix and could move into the lead with sustained hot streaks. Beyond the Hudson, Shin-Soo Choo in Cleveland leads all players here in on-base percentage, and has decent power, but the latter is well behind what Markakis, Drew and Swisher are producing.

Designated Hitter: The troubles of David Ortiz are well-documented and won’t be rehashed at this time. Adam Lind of Toronto is the clear leader, with Jim Thome (White Sox) and Jason Kubel (Twins) close enough to be in shouting distance.

Pitching Staff: It’s not a strong year in the American League, and the Red Sox’ problems are a part of that, with no viable candidate for the starting rotation coming out of Fenway, after it was anticipated that Beckett, Lester and Dice-K would all be huge factors. The decline in starting pitching league wide can’t be blamed on Kansas City’s Zack Greinke, sitting on a dazzling 0.60 ERA or Toronto’s Roy Halladay, who’s 8-1 and still chewing up innings like the workhorse he is. Filling in spots after that becomes tough. It might surprise a lot of people to know that C.C. Sabbathia should still get one of them. At 63 IP, he’s one of the league’s top horses, and with his recent run of good starts, he’s now 4-3 and a solid 3.43 ERA. Mark Buehrle is a little short on innings, but a 6-1 for a shaky team, he’s a good choice in a weak field.

Boston’s strength has been its bullpen and that can be seen in the choices here. Ramon Ramirez is lights-out and the best setup guy in the league. He would be joined in the setup role by a former Red Sox now in Seattle, David Aardsma. And the closer has to be Paps, a perfect 11-for-11 on saves and a 1.00 ERA.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Catcher: Yadier Molina is enjoying an All-Star start in St. Louis. His brother Bengie has found a power surge out west in Pac-Bell Park, where eight home runs have led to .532 slugging percentage. And Russell Martin in LA is having a good, albeit powerless year, to this point and is the player to beat over the long haul.

1st Base: Albert Pujols is the gold standard and there’s no point overcomplicating it. Some honorable mention can go to Joey Votto and his amazing .470 OBP in Cincinnati. The NL Central is where to go for quality first baseman. From Pujols to Votto to Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder. And that doesn’t include Lance Berkman in Houston, who hasn’t gotten fully cranked up yet.

2nd Base: Chase Utley is another gold standard player, although Orlando Hudson is making a strong push at him for the Dodgers. Utley’s stronger in both offensive categories. Hudson ranks higher defensively, but not by enough to overcome the edge at the plate. Over time, the more relevant question is not what to measure, but whether Hudson can keep hitting well enough to keep it a legitimate debate.

3rd Base: While David Wright is having an excellent year in the new Citi Field and Chipper Jones still gets in done in Atlanta, there’s no way to avoid Ryan Zimmerman and his .624 slugging percentage in Washington.

Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez has emerged as the best in all the game. And after ranking towards the bottom of the defensive ratings last year, he’s now up to #2, eliminating any reason not to choose him. It will be a huge upset if anyone but him gets the nod at the end of the year. A tip of the cap to Ryan Theriot for the Cubs, a steady offensive threat and the best defender in the league.

Left Field: Some strong candidates here, with MVP-caliber numbers being put up by Ryan Braun (Brewers) and Adam Dunn (Nationals). Could the Red Sox make a bid for Dunn in a trade should Ortiz fail to come around? Interesting possibility, given the team would have almost certainly bid on him in free agency had the full extent of Papi’s problems been known. But there’s one National Leaguer we haven’t mentioned here yet, and that’s the resurgent Raul Ibanez. His 13 home runs are the trigger behind a stunning .699 slugging percentage for the new Phillie left fielder, and a big reason the champs are back in first place and not missing Pat Burrell.

Center Field: He gets a lot of grief, and he’s still not worth the contract he got, but Carlos Beltran is a steady winner at this position every year. Consistently at or near the top in every category, offensively and defensively, he’s in the lead again this year. His top challenge comes from Kosuke Fukodome, whose .444 OBP is answering his critics who said he couldn’t hit.

Right Field: Another competitive position, and the leader right now would be Brad Hawpe of the Rockies. A .400 OBP and .598 slugging are the best package on the board. Players who could challenge are Hunter Pence (has the OBP, but needs to up the ante on power), and Jayson Werth and Justin Upton, both of whom are having good years, but not quite All-Star level.

Pitching Staff: There aren’t as many variables as there were among the American League starters. The leaders in ERA have similar records and innings pitched, so it’s pretty easy to come down the board and take the top ERA pitchers. Johan Santana (Mets), Wandy Rodriguez (Astros) and Jair Jurriens (Braves) all sport winning records and sub-2.00 ERAs. I then skip over Dan Haren whose next in line to instead to grab Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto who is 4-2, 2.35 ERA in one of the worst parks to try and pitch in.

For the bullpen, the Mets’ efforts to upgrade are paying off. The major investment in Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) have paid off, as he matches Papelbon’s 11-of-11 save conversion. Four are right behind him at 10-for-10, but fall short of K-Rod’s overall appearances. The Mets also get a setup position ,with Bobby Parnell’s 20 appearances and 1.96 ERA. The last setup spot goes to Leo Nunez at Florida, who’s pitched 19 innings in 18 games and kept his ERA below the 2.00 mark.

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BOSTON SUPERFECTA FALLS SHORT

The Bruins lost in the NHL playoffs over the weekend, dropping Game 7 of their second round series to Carolina. The defeat denied the city of Boston the chance to sweep all four major pro sports championship in a six-year period (2004-09). What makes the potential achievement even more amazing is that using this timeframe actually discounts not one, but two Super Bowl wins by the Patriots (2001, 2003), renders one of the Red Sox’ two titles irrelevant and ignores the fact that in 2008 the Patriots ripped off a 16-0 regular season that stands as the greatest accomplishment in team sports in my lifetime. A Stanley Cup would have been the perfect crown. It didn’t happen, but the Bruins have the look of a team that could come back strong next year and finally complete the superfecta.

That wraps it up. See you back here first thing Monday morning for a look at the division races, once the Sox come off this big series with Toronto and then the first round of interleague games against the Mets over the weekend.

Six-Week Assessment

I suppose a West Coast trip could have been worse, but Week 6 was still a disappointing one, as the Sox dropped 2 of 3 in both Anaheim and Seattle. Right now is, I think, a pretty good checkpoint for marking the end of the first part of the season and taking stock. Interleague play will start up next weekend, and we've got a showdown with Toronto coming up before that. Boston stands 22-16 at this point, a pace to win 93-94 games. We currently trail the Jays by three games and are 1.5 games up in the Sox. If the season ended today, we'd be in the playoffs, which would have the following matchups:

Boston-Texas
Toronto-Detroit

Los Angeles-Chicago
NY Mets-Milwaukee

What's been most interesting about this season is that at the start of the year, the Sox' hopes were seen as heavily resting on the Big Three of Beckett, Lester and Dice-K, with the offense hinging on a recovery from David Ortiz. The latter hasn't come anywhere close to happening. Dice-K's been hurt all year. Lester and Beckett have been awful. Yet the team is still right in the neighborhood of where most observers were projecting. It's not realistic to think it can hold this way for much longer, but it speaks volumes to the depth of the organization that we can have this many key players performing poorly or not at all, and still keep it going for a six-week period.

As we head into the season's second movement, Bos-Wash Corridor will be undergoing a minor modification in its format. Instead of recapping each series as it ends, I will be doing a twice-weekly column, one to be published Wednesday, the other on either Sunday night or early Monday morning after the week's games have been concluded. This post will take a look at the whole of major league baseball, look ahead to the key series, and delve specifically into who the Red Sox are playing and how we matchup with the coming opponents. The midweek post will focus on individual players, looking at the best at each position and examining how the Red Sox starter fits in.

The Good & The Bad In Anaheim

The biggest strength and most potentially fatal weakness of the Red Sox came into sharp focus at the beginning and end of their series in Anahem this week. We won the opener 4-3 on the strength of the bullpen. Justin Masterson gave six solid innings and even though the Angels led it 3-1 after seven, the Sox rallied to win 4-3 as Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez and Paps kept things under control. The winning run came in the top of the ninth when Varitek doubled home J.D. Drew. The captain is not having a great year by any means, but his offense has been enough to justify the offseason decision to keep him on board as the regular and tutor to George Kottaras.

Mike Scoscia's team rallied back and took the series. On Wednesday, they roughed up Tim Wakefield, overcoming a 4-0 deficit on the strength of five runs in the third and coasting home to an 8-4 win. One positive sidebar to this game was the relief appearance of Daniel Bard. A first-round pick out of North Carolina in 2006, Bard remains a highly regarded prospect and he tossed two shutout innings. If he pitches well and can become a part of the bullpen, it can open up maneuvering room to deal a pitcher as part of a package to get a big left-handed bat.

Which brings us to David Ortiz and the finale. We all know Papi has struggled badly to start the season and it hit a new low on Thursday afternoon. In a 12-inning affair, the big man went 0-for-7 and left twelve men on base, including stranding the bases loaded twice. The final failure came in the top of the 12th. It is hard watching him struggle like this and loyalty (if not common sense) dictates that he be given not just a little more leeway, but several additional second chances than any other player might be given. The numbers are awful--a .318 on-base percentage ranks ninth among designated hitters with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title (only Hank Blalock in Texas trails him), and his woeful .300 slugging is worst among the 10 qualifying DH's.

On the positive side, offensive production from the DH position in general has declined, as was pointed out in a column by Fox's Ken Rosenthal who examined the possibility of Boston dumping the big man. The top producers at this position are names like Adam Lind (Toronto), Jack Cust (Oakland) and Jason Kubel (Minnesota). Only Cust can be considered a potential rising star. We're clearly a long way from a few years ago when you had Papi in his prime, Jim Thome still ringing up huge numbers, Jason Giambi filling the stat sheet and a healthy Travis Hafner swinging away in Cleveland.

It's now on to Seattle, where the Sox look to get back on track. We remain a game behind Toronto, although that's a mixed blessing. We held firm in the standings, because the Yanks won two of three from the Jays, so while we didn't lose ground, our rivals are a little closer in the rearview mirror.

Finally Beating Tampa

It wasn't easy, but the Red Sox finally got a series victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, taking two of three at Fenway in a weekend marked by huge games for Boston sports.

On Friday night, as the Celtics were getting crushed by the Magic in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semis and the Bruins were down in Carolina falling behind the Hurricanes 3-1, the Red Sox kept the hometown happy with a five-run outburst in the sixth inning that turned a 3-0 deficit into a quick lead and paved the way for a 7-3 win. Jason Bay hit a three-run shot, J.D. Drew hit a two-run bomb and Dustin Pedroia had four hits. And Brad Penny was solid for the second straight game against a lineup that has otherwise bedeviled the Red Sox staff. Penny worked into the seventh inning before turning it over to the Okajima-Ramirez-Paps tag team to close it out.

Saturday was ugly and more along the lines of what we've seen all too often when these teams play. The Rays offense sets the tone early and then blows it wide open by the middle of the game. Evan Longoria hit a line drive home run to dead center off Jon Lester. After the game seemed to be settling down and the Sox only trailed 2-1, thanks to a Rocco Baldelli long ball off his old mates, Tampa racked up six runs in the fifth and chased Lester to the showers, a 6.31 ERA following him along the way. The Rays had 17 hits for the game.

On Sunday night, Bostonians were channel-surfing again and it was a clean sweep. The Bruins blew away Carolina quickly and stayed alive. The Celtics went down to the wire before Glen Davis hit a 21-foot jumper to beat Orlando by a point and keep the defending champs breathing. And the boys from Fenway followed suit. Josh Beckett battled and delivered a good outing, working six innings and giving up three runs. Playing the Rays has begun to feel like playing the Yankees did from 2003-06 when you felt like a 6 IP/3 ER outing wasn't just decent, but a downright gem. Matt Garza also pitched well, his third straight greating outing against the Sox, but we got to him for three in the fourth, aided by a defensive miscommunication when a blooper came off the bat of Nick Green. It was tied 3-3, before Bay doubled in the lead run in the eighth. Again it was Oki-Ramon-Paps trio finishing it off, but this one got adventurous. The Rays put men on first and third with no one out, but Papelbon reached back and struck out the side and the Boston Trifecta of Sunday night was complete.

Week 6 will be spent out on the West Coast. The Sox go to Anaheim to face the Angels for a three-game set that starts Tuesday night. Those who tivo games, note that Thursday's start time is 3:35 ET. And the weekend will be in Seattle, before the team comes back home to face Toronto.

Manny Steals The Show--Again

The Red Sox' two-game split with the Indians that was marked by a record-setting 12-run inning last night seems almost a footnote in light of what happened over the last 24 hours. Manny tested positive for steroids and is suspended for 50 games. That's an issue for the Dodgers and the National League, but its implications for the place in history of the teams he played in will be raised as an issue. And even within the confines of the Hub, the playoff runs of the Celtics and Bruins are more high-profile right now. We'll delve into the Manny issue after a quick recap of the Tribe series.

For the second straight start, Justin Masterson had a nice game going and again let it get away from him with big innings in the middle-to-late timeframe. The Sox led 2-1 in the fifth when the Indians touched him for three runs. They tacked on three more in the seventh, all at the expense of the starter. In spring training I agitated for Masterson to be a regular part of the rotation, but I'm seeing the wisdom of Terry Francona now. He seems to lose it once you get to about the 5th. It will be good to have him as a member of the pen again when Dice-K returns this month.

On Thursday night, an 84-year old American League record fell. The Red Sox scored 12 runs in the sixth inning and turned a 2-1 deficit into a 13-2 victory. They scored every run before recording a single out. No one deserved the offensive outburst more than Tim Wakefield, who pitched another solid game and picked up his 4th win. Wake has carried this staff at a time when we've needed him the most. Last season he started to fade towards the end of the year. If the same happens again in '09, it shouldn't be forgotten how much he kept the rotation afloat early on.

On to Manny. I guess there are times it pays to keep your mouth shut. As the steroid allegations came out on Yankee players--from Giambi to Clemens to Pettite and finally this spring to A-Rod, I maintained a silence. There was a temptation to righteousness against our rivals. But to me, it always seemed to good to be true. Was it really possible that the Red Sox, a feared offensive force in an era of steroid abuse, were somehow completely clean? Not a single user amongst them? There were no fingers pointed at anyone in particular, but it was a little surreal to me.

And it was easy to see how the Red Sox could have come out so squeaky clean in the Mitchell Report. It's author, George Mitchell, is a minority shareholder in the team. This is a man who as Senate Majority Leader once held the entire U.S. economy hostage for the sake of his own partisan gains, so thinking that he'd do a little whitewashing to protect a baseball team was very easy to swallow. I think it also seems clear that Mitchell was doing the bidding of Bud Selig. How was it that A-Rod was never mentioned in the report? Perhaps because Selig didn't want the legacy of the man who might break Bonds' home run record tarnished in any way? That the report was at all complete was simply not believable. So I adopted a wait-and-see approach. No trash talking of the Yanks, at least on this. I didn't even allow myself to think it in the privacy of my own mind.

Once A-Rod was busted, it seemed only a matter of time. I had believed him to be clean, primarily because he didn't seem built like a steroid user. For that same reason, I figured Manny was off the hook. But that was my own ignorance about how PEDs have advanced. It's no longer just about bulking up, it's about reflect enhancement too. And with Rodriguez guilty, I started to figure this day was coming too.

But the notion that this taints the Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 championships should not be entertained. If you're a Sox fan who tried to use the Yankee problems as a way of tainting their dynasty run, then I can't help you--you have to take your medicine and apply the standards equally. But I always believed that this is simply a case of a sorry era in baseball history being played out, and it is unrealistic to reassess a team's place as a champion, unless it can be established they were the only serious users. Such was clearly not the case.

Much like individual players should be denied the Hall of Fame if they are found guilty of steroids, it's certainly fair to reassess the Red Sox' offensive machine against earlier counterparts in light of this new evidence. But it's not reasonable to change our view of how they fared against their contemporaries.

Carbon Copies In New York

Whatever ailed us in Tampa over the weekend was quickly fixed in New York during a quick two-game sweep of the Yanks. The Sox ran their record against the Pinstripes to 5-0 on the year and earned a split of the six-game road swing among their top two preseason rivals for the division crown.

Both games seemed like almost carbon copies, with modest adjustments made in the sequel. Consider the following similarities:

--In both games, Boston seized an early 4-0 lead.
--In both games, New York closed to 4-3 in a single inning, keyed by a big Johnny Damon home run.
--In both games, Boston pulled away in the eighth inning against the bullpen.
--In both games, a struggling Boston ace (Lester & Beckett) got on track.
--In both games, the Sox roughed up a young Yankee phenom (Hughes & Chamberlain).
--In both games, Jason Bay hit a huge home run.

Bay just keeps coming through. On Monday, his two-run shot in the eighth provided the key insurance in securing a 6-4 win. On Tuesday he got started early, with a three-run bomb that made it 4-0 before Joba Chamberlain even had an out. With seven home runs, Bay is slugging .644, 9th in the American League. He's getting on base at an even more proficient rate, as his .487 on-base percentage ranks second in the AL to only Youkilis. Undoubtedly a big relief to Theo Epstein, as Bay's performance keeps any Red Sox fans from having a straying eye out west where Manny is off to a big start of his own.

The New York bullpen continues to let Joe Girardi down. The key late runs were scored off names like Alfredo Aceves, Jonathan Albaladejo and Mark Melancon. This reminds me of the 2000 Washington Redskins, who spent all kinds of money in free agency and then ended up blowing three games because we didn't have a decent kicker.

Boston comes home to Fenway for a five-game homestand that runs through the rest of Week 5. It starts with a two-game set against Cleveland on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wed: Pavano-Masterson
Thur: Laffey-Wakefield

Pitching Blowup In Tampa

The first trip of the season to Tampa was a disaster, especially when it came to the starting pitching. The inability our starters have to be able to prevent the Rays lineup from just exploding is a pattern, going back to Game 2 of the ALCS last year, that just can't seem to be stopped.

Thursday's opener was supposed to be a pitcher's delight with Matt Garza and Josh Beckett. At least Garza held up his end of the bargain. He was perfect through six, conjuring up images of Mike Mussina in Game 1 of the '04 ALCS or Felix Hernandez, when he stole the show at Dice-K's Fenway debut, in the way he shut down Red Sox hitters. The only Boston hit would be a little infield single that nobody in the lineup but Jacoby Ellsbury could have beaten out. In the meantime, Beckett was atrocious. He seemed to have things under control early, but in the third inning a walk and an infield hit just brought the house of cards tumbling down and it was 6-0 before anyone could blink and it ended 13-zip. That's two straight awful starts for Beckett, both against the teams we were projected to be competing with for the AL East title.

Friday night only went better if you want to use a 13-run loss as your benchmark for improvement. Tampa won it 6-2, getting all six runs in a fifth-inning explosion off Justin Masterson. A grand slam by Evan Longoria was the killer blow and negated three hits by Dustin Pedroia and a pair of doubles by Kevin Youkilis.

We got on the board Saturday, although it wasn't because of the pitching. Tim Wakefield struggled, as he nearly coughed up a 6-1 lead and left the game holding on by one run. But a big home by Mike Lowell gave some insurance. Pedroia and Youk were again offensive heroes, as the former had two hits and three walks, and the latter hit a bases-clearing double. The bullpen combo of Hideki Okajim and Ramon Ramirez gave three shutdown innings to get things under control late and the Sox won it 10-6.

Sunday's finale was a well-played baseball game and if nothing else we got a nice outing from Brad Penny who went six innings and gave up three runs. It wasn't quite enough, and the story of the game was Carl Crawford stealing six bases, tying a major league record. I knew the Sox were bad at preventing steals. Whether that's Varitek, our ability to hold runners on, or a combination of both, I don't know, but when I see an opposing runner take off I generally assume he's going to make it. And if an opponent gets a speedy runner on, I assume that if he wants to get a jump, he will. But even given those low expectations, this was still as bad as it can get.

Starting pitching was supposed to be the Red Sox' great strength, led by a Big Three of Beckett, Lester and Dice-K. It has not worked out that way. Dice-K's been hurt, Lester's struggled and Beckett has been just plain bad. Throw in the fact that Penny's been mostly hideous, and our rotation is performing very poorly. Here's a look at starters' ERAs. I'm also posting numbers for New York and Tampa, so there is a viable basis for comparison. No disrespect intended to first-place Toronto, but we're still not at the point in the season where I'm ready to scrap preseason expectations:

Boston
Wakefield: 2.91
Masterson: 4.37
Lester: 5.40
Beckett: 7.22
Penny: 7.61

New York
Chamberlain: 3..13
Pettite: 3.82
Sabbathia: 4.85
Burnett: 5.40
Hughes: threw six shutout innings in his first start back

Tampa
Shields: 3.51
Garza: 3.82
Kazmire: 5.40
Niemann: 5.68
Sonnanstine: 6.75

As you can see, Boston's the worst of the three, even with Wakefield being the top individual starter in this group. Now there's no reason that can't improve--in fact, Beckett's ERA in particular can't help but go down, and when you watch Lester he looks to be throwing the ball better than the numbers indicate. But we do have to be cognizant that continually getting starters rocked is eventually going to wear down the bullpen and negate our greatest strength. Things need to change.

It's an odd schedule for Week 5, with a pair of two-game series the first four days and ending with yet another matchup with the Rays back in Fenway. By week's end we'll have 10 of our 18 scheduled dates with Tampa in the books. But first we go to New York to conclude the road trip on Monday and Tuesday.

Mon: Lester-Hughes (7:05, ESPN)
Tue: Beckett-Chamberlain (7:05)