Finally .500, Red Sox Fans Can Rejoice
BOSTON (CBS) - On a dank and dreary Monday in Boston it's OK to let out a whooooo! The Boston Red Sox are finally at .500.
Nobody thought this team would start 0-6 or 2-10. And, nobody thought it would take until May 15th or 40 games to climb to .500 in the AL East standings.
Boston did a lot of things well in the sweep of the Yankees this past weekend.
Start with the starting pitching. Clay Buchholz (7IP 5H 2R 2ER 1BB 7K) was superb in Friday night's 5-4 win. Everything was down, down, down in the strike zone with lots of movement. He changed speeds well. It was his best outing of his season as he looked like the pitcher we saw in 2010. Then it was Josh Beckett's turn Saturday night (6IP 4H 0R 0ER 2BB 9K) in Boston's 6-0 victory. The amazing thing to me in watching the Sox starters is how 100-plus pitches is such a grind against the Yankees. Always has been. Same goes when the Sox are hitting; Lots of pitches, no easy outs. And finally, Sunday night Jon Lester showed why he's one of the best in the game by gutting his way through six innings (6IP 5H 4ER 4BB 7K) in a 7-5 series sweeping win.
Amazingly, with the win Sunday night Lester now has the highest winning percentage in the history of the modern era with pitchers who have at least 50 decisions. He is 66-26, good for a .7173 win percentage surpassing Spud Chandler, Pedro Martinez and all others. Any time I see any of these accomplishments for Lester I can't help but think of how John Farrell begged the Sox not to trade this kid for Johan Santana. Thank you Mr. Farrell.
Meanwhile, What I liked about the Sox offense this weekend is that the team's stars produced. Not much more to say about Adrian Gonzalez. And no, I'm not going to go along with some stories I've been reading where it says Gonzalez is "better than advertised or than we thought". Nope, I've been saying all along he is that good. He's one of the game's best players. Period. Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, and David Ortiz all produced as well.
Boston's bullpen was very good, including Matt Albers and Jonathan Papelbon. And, the defense was solid too.
Now we look ahead to what may be a difficult week at Fenway. The Red Sox have two with Baltimore and two with Detroit before the Cubs pay a visit for inter-league play. The 4 games this week all have a chance of having rain problems. Lousy conditions. Mentally the Sox simply need to grind it out and keep winning.
But that is for later.
Monday we celebrate a huge milestone for this team. A return to .500 and the beginning of the 2011 Red Sox season.
