This entry was posted on 6/8/2009 9:46 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
After struggling to gain solid footing during the first month of the season, the mound horses at the front of Boston’s starting rotation are taking some huge Clydesdale-sized steps forward for the Red Sox. Both RHP Josh Beckett and LHP Jon Lester nearly tossed no-hitters in their last two starts, and have much more resembled the respective No. 1 and No. 2 starters that everyone associated with the Sox assumed they’d be before this season began.
Beckett is scheduled to pitch on Monday night, and has put together six consecutive quality starts for the Red Stockings while going undefeated since a rough start against the Tampa Bay Rays back on April 30. Over his last six magnificent 2007-esque appearances, Beckett is 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA in 41 1/3 innings and has once again climbed back to the top of Boston’s rotational heap.
“We’re now seeing what we expected (out of Beckett and Lester). Any time you have talented pitchers you’re capable of dominating a game, and we certainly have those kinds of pitchers,” said Sox pitching coach John Farrell. “Guys feed off each other, no doubt. When one starter goes out and has a team in check and a game under control, you see that begin to breed confidence in the next guy the day before he’s slated to pitch.
“We’ve been on a pretty solid run here of late. A somewhat long-awaited run, but nonetheless our starters are now doing what we expected them to be doing (all year).”
Lester’s reemergence has been a much more recent development as he’s dominated in three of his last four outings, and has fanned 23 batters in his last two starts – the first Sox hurler to rack up consecutive double-digit strikeout games since some guy named Pedro Martinez was stalking the Fenway mound back in 2004. Lester is averaging a career-high 10.29 strikeouts per nine innings this season, which marks a huge bump from his career number of 7.28 K's per nine innings and clearly marks a pitcher that's showing moments of dominance. The 25-year-old is also third in the American League with 85 strikeouts behind a couple of guys named Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay.
Beckett and Lester both returning to form has had an amazing impact on the bigger picture of the Boston starting staff, as well. The starting rotation is finally close to submerging under a combined 5.00 ERA while currently sitting at a 5.02 mark following Sunday’s game. The bat-missing Sox starters also lead the major leagues with 26 wins and top the American League with 290 strikeouts this season.
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka, who took the loss on Sunday afternoon, and RHP Brad Penny can be even better than they’ve been in the early going, but the Boston starting rotation is finally headed in the right direction with both Beckett and Lester again throwing with their normal authority. Things are only looking better with John Smoltz set to join the Sox roster on June 16 at the earliest, and Tim Wakefield in the middle of one of his "in the zone" with the knuckleball stretches.
Something will obviously need to give with Matsuzaka struggling, Wakefield older than some of the dirt that surrounds the Fenway pitcher's mound and Penny bringing all kinds of trade rumors with him every time he takes the ball -- but these are all welcomed issues to have in a big league baseball world where talented guys like Fausto Carmona, Ian Snell, Jeremy Guthrie and Francisco Liriano are flaming out in other hardball cities.
