A Tale of Two Sweeps

Competition:

1. Angels: First place in the AL West, weak offensively but deep in all pitching aspects.

2. Mariners: Bad. Now with Felix Hernandez!


The Clay Bucholz Game

1. Horrifying. Sox get shelled.

2. Kinda good, by the youngster's standards. Two rare homeruns account for the three runs in his 5.1 IP, and he was unhittable at times. Red Sox scrap to win in 12 innings.


Offense

1. Scores 8 runs total. Leaves plenty of baserunners on in the eminently winnable second game.

2. Scores 11 runs in the regular 27 innings. Leaves plenty of baserunners on in the eminently winnable second game. Wins it anyway.



Bullpen

1. Makes the "Vlad Guerrero and pray for eight walks" lineup look like Murderer's Row. A particularly irritating performance is given by Manny Delcarmen (pictured above, with bloody nose and anus) in letting in the winning runs in the third game; if he could be relied upon, Tim Wakefield's excellent start likely wouldn't have been extended into the 8th inning in the first place.

2. Yesterday. Justin Masterson. 2 2/3 perfect innings pitched. 27 pitches, 20 strikes. I'm already dreaming of this situation repeating itself:

Daisuke/Wakefield/Bucholz (?): 6-7 IP.
Masterson: 1-2 IP.
Papelbon: Game over.


Final feeling:

1. Dejection. Josh Beckett tired off something awful in the second game, as (sorta) did Tim Wakefield, but this team couldn't hit shit. Also, K-Rod (and that stupid nickname) makes my blood boil, so just seeing him come out twice, successfully, knocked three months off my life expectancy.

2. Highly qualified satisfaction. Hey, it's just the Mariners, even if it's also the first (yes, first) road sweep for the Sox this year. The offense was still inopportunistic. Perhaps Papi's presence as much as his bat could change things. Hell, if the overall swing in emotion gets Jacoby Ellsbury's batting average up to .270, I'd be content.