Red Sox Pitchers In The Midst Of An Historic Stretch Of Dominance… Sox Win An Ugly One In LA, 4-3

The consecutive-game streak was broken last night, but the Red Sox got right back to work tonight as staff ace Jon Lester started a new one. No, obviously, I’m not talking about a win-streak because, as we all know, the Red Sox WON last night. The streak I’m talking about has to do with the starting rotation.

While this edition of the Red Sox may have gotten off to an historically-bad start, Red Sox Nation shouldn’t forget this is a club that many pundits predicted would win 100 games. And while the offense has not shifted into high gear (yet) the high hopes for the 2011 club were equally dependent on the quality of the pitching staff, as well as on the production of the offense. The lineup continues to struggle to score runs, but we should not overlook the fact that the starting rotation has started to round into shape.

Beginning with Josh Beckett’s outing last Saturday against the Blue Jays, Red Sox starting pitchers had gone at least five innings in each of the succeeding five games without allowing more than one run in any outing:

Beckett allowed one run in seven innings on Saturday (Sox win)
Lester yielded one run in six innings on Sunday (Sox win)
Dice-K tossed seven shutout innings on Patriots Day (Sox win)
Lackey gave up one run on Tuesday night in Oakland (Sox loss)
Buchholz surrendered one run in 5.1 IP on Wednesday (Sox win)

It was the first time since 1947 that the Red Sox rotation went five consecutive games in which the starting pitcher allowed one or fewer runs while pitching at least five innings in each ballgame. That’s 64 years, folks. Two generations of Red Sox fans. My mother and father hadn’t even met one another the last time a Red Sox staff pulled this off.

Ironically, the streak ended against the Angeles last night in what may have been the best performance by a Red Sox starter this season. Josh Beckett was nearly brilliant for eight innings. He retired the first nine hitters of the game. Then, after issuing a walk to start the fourth inning, he set down nine of the next ten batters he faced — the only exception being an infield single by SS Erick Aybar in the sixth inning.

The “impressive outings” streak came to an end in the seventh inning when Beckett walked the leadoff hitter (DH Bobby Abreu) and then surrendered a two-run home run to RF Torii Hunter. He retired the next six hitters in succession before finally yielding to Daniel Bard in the ninth inning. The Red Sox eventually won the game, 4-2, in extra innings.

The club had ridden this succession of outstanding performances to five wins in six games, entering tonight’s contest against the LA Angels. Jon Lester bore the responsibility of starting another string of impressive outings. He succeeded.

That’s not to say this was Lester’s best performance. It wasn’t… nor was it as good as Beckett’s outing on Thursday night. But the object of the game is to keep the other guys off the scoreboard and record “wins”, and that is precisely what he did. The southpaw toiled for six innings – and when I say ‘he toiled’, I mean he busted his tail. He struck out the first four Angels he faced, but seemed to get too fine thereafter. He threw 111 pitches and worked his way through eight different full counts… but when he left the game, the Red Sox were ahead, 4-0.

They would need every run of that four-run advantage, because Matt Labers would surrender a run in the seventh and Bobby Jenks would allow two more runs to score in the eighth inning. But with the Sox clinging nervously to a one-run advantage in the ninth, it was Pappy to the rescue! Closer Jonathan Papelbon entered the ballgame for the third consecutive day with the result hanging in the balance… and he recorded his third straight Save. After throwing 43 pitches in the previous two contests, he needed just 13 pitches to finish off the Angels in tonights 4-3 win. He allowed a one-out single to rookie pinch-hitter Hank Conger, but he got the last two outs to increase the club’s modest win streak to three games.

It was an ugly game. The Red Sox took advantage of a blown call by the third base umpire that helped to score the first run of the game. Both clubs had defensive lapses that helped the other team score runs. Los Angeles twice failed to make plays they SHOULD have made… those misplays led to three Sox scores.

In the third inning, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia lofted a fly ball to right field that Gold Glover Torii Hunter tracked to the base of the wall. But rather than catch the ball, as he would normally do, Hunter committed a miscue. The ball glanced off his glove and Salty ended up with a double. Actually, it seemed the catcher would end up on third base, but he hobbled immediately after rounding the second base bag and retreated to the base. One-half second after I tweeted that he might be injured, he tagged up and advanced to third base on a long fly ball by SS Marco Scutaro.

Except, he wasn’t safe. NESN replays show that Hunter’s throw from the right field foul line beat the catcher, and that 3B Alberto Callaspo tagged him a split second before he reached the third base bag. But third base ump Brian Gorman called him safe. Salty scored moments later when jacoby Ellsbury whistled a double down the right field line.

An Angels error directly led to the two runs the Red Sox scored in the fourth inning. With two outs, Jed Lowrie drew a walk and advanced to third base on a double by JD Drew. It appeared as if the team would waste yet another scoring opportunity when LF Carl Crawford lofted a fly ball to shallow right-center field… but as 2B Howie Kendrick, CF Peter Bourjos and Hunter converged on the baseball, Kendrick and Hunter yielded to the center fielder. Bourjos was not prepared to take command of the situation. He was slow to react to the deference showed him by his teammates. The split-second delay caused by the miscommunication allowed the ball to fall in safely, for a two-base error. Lowrie and Drew scored.

The Olde Towne Team added another run in the sixth inning on a Lowrie double and Drew rbi-single.

The game seemed safely in hand as it headed into the seventh inning. But Albers allowed a run in the seventh… and Jenks allowed a pair of runs in the eighth, including a run that scored from second base on a passed ball by Salty (who looked as lost as even in the field).

The offense is 4-for-31 with RISP over the first two games of this series… and the bullpen was largely ineffective in tonight’s game. If one or the other of these factors were changed, then closer Jonathan Papelbon would have been able to take the night off after throwing 25 pitches in Oakland on Wednesday and 18 more pitches in LA last night. But with Daniel Bard unavailable (after pitching in two consecutive ballgames), Pappy was called on to close out another win. Thirteen pitches was all he needed, despite allowing a one-out single to pinch-hitter Hank Conger.

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UPDATE: In his post-game remarks, Lester conceded: “I nit-picked a little bit and got into some deep counts, and there were a lot of foul balls. I just didn’t get that early contact that I needed. So unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go real deep in the game and I just had to grind it out.”

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With his eight punch-outs this evening, Lester increased his career strikeout total to 742. He needs only two more strikeouts to overtake LHP Lefty Grove for 15th place on the franchise list.

The only lefties in franchise history with more strikeouts than Grove and Lester are Bruce Hurst (1,043) and Dutch Leonard (771). If all goes according to Hoyle, Lester will pass Hurst sometime in the first half of next year.