Red Sox Road Ahead: Week 4

Posted by Patrick Pho in Featured Articles, Red Sox on April 26th, 2010 | one response

(Patrick will be previewing the week ahead for the Red Sox each and every week- start your week off right and read everything you need to know for the games ahead.)

Note: Stats are accurate as of Sunday afternoon and game times are EST

Rapid Recap

Boston Red Sox
8-10
4th in AL East (5 GB)

Ok, maybe we panicked a little too soon.

This past week the Red Sox won both the Texas and Baltimore series. The Sox are still lingering in the bottom half of the AL East and injury woes are piling up with Jacoby Ellsbury (ribs) and Mike Cameron (abdomen) both hitting the disabled list. Suddenly the Sox’ outfield looks shallow, motivating the Sox to reacquire Jonathan Van Every from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade.

At Bat…

Who is Darnell McDonald? (Winslow Townson / AP)

Filling in for the wounded outfield starters has been a platoon of bench players Jeremy Hermida, Bill Hall, and Darnell McDonald. Hermida and McDonald have taken advantage of the increased playing time; each hitting two home runs this past week. The two have also hit a combined .375 the past seven days. McDonald made a splash with Boston fans quickly with a game-tying, two-run homer in his first game and a walk-off hit to win it.

Here’s what you need to know about the new players in the Sox outfield:

Hermida was projected to have a lot of upside as the Sox fourth outfielder and now has the best chance to fill the void left by Ellsbury and Cameron. He’s a mid-to-low average hitter who possesses average to above average power. However, he strikes out a little bit more than I’d like and he is nowhere close to his counterparts when it comes to defense.

Darnell McDonald has been in and out of the majors since 2004. The AAA player hasn’t shown much in his stints in with the Orioles, Twins, and Reds; we have to keep our expectations in check for this hot start could fizzle at anytime.

Bill Hall is the epitome of a defensive replacement, he has terrible hitting skills that prevent him from playing full time and you should be worried he’ll be starting some games.

On The Mound…

Clay Buchholz did everything he could to give the Sox a winning chance this past Thursday limited the Rangers to three runs over six innings and struck out 10. However the Sox couldn’t drum up the runs and Clay got pegged with the loss. Josh Beckett got tagged for seven runs this past Wednesday and is still trying to get things going to start the season. Tim Wakefield gave up six runs in his last start against Texas, making him the odd man out when Daisuke Matsuzaka returns late this upcoming week.

Schedule and Opponents

Red Sox games available over the radio on the WEEI Red Sox Radio Network and on NESN in the New England television market (unless noted).

Monday, April 26 at Blue Jays 7:10 PM

Tuesday, April 27 at Blue Jays 7:07 PM

Wednesday, April 28 at Blue Jays 7:07 PM

Friday, April 30 at Orioles 7:05 PM

Saturday, May 1 at Orioles 7:05 PM

Sunday, May 2 at Orioles 1:35 PM

Toronto TV: SNET

Baltimore TV: MASN HD

Pitching Match-Ups

Monday, April 26

Blue Jays: Dana Eveland, LHP (2-0, 1.93)

Eveland previously played for Oakland where he was able to put up good enough numbers in 2008 to consider him a possible pitching prospect. He doesn’t have very dominating stuff and is a ground ball pitcher. So far this season he’s kept runs down to a minimum but really counts on his defense for support.

Red Sox: Josh Beckett, RHP (1-0, 5.26)

Looking at Beckett’s slow start, there’s nothing out of the ordinary with his velocity and batted ball numbers- the biggest thing that sticks out his lower strikeout rate and high walk rate. A 3-5 career record and 6.62 ERA against Toronto doesn’t bode well for a rebound outing.

Tuesday, April 27

Blue Jays: Shaun Marcum, RHP (0-1, 4.00)

Shaun Marcum has a tough job ahead of him this week against the Sox (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Marcum leads the rotation in the post-Halladay era and has done his best to try and keep Toronto in games. He’ll go deep into his starts and so far hasn’t allowed more than four runs in a game. He has a good dominance of the strike zone and doesn’t walk too many batters. While he’s not a MLB ace- he’s the best arm that Toronto has right now.

Red Sox: Clay Buchholz, RHP (1-2, 2.70)

Clay has a career record of 3-3 with a 3.79 ERA against Toronto.

Wednesday, April 28

Blue Jays: Brett Cecil, LHP (1-0, 5.40)

Cecil looked strong in his previous start against Tampa Bay, going 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts. However, he did give up four runs and two home runs. Home runs have been a problem for Cecil in the past- will the Sox find the power to take advantage of it?

Red Sox: Jon Lester, LHP (0-2, 6.23)

What is Lester’s glaring problem when looking at his start of the season? Walks. He’s walked three or more batters in each of his starts so far which is on the high side for him.

Friday, April 30

Orioles: David Hernandez, RHP (0-3, 4.84)

Hernandez hasn’t been all that terrible as a starter this season, improving with each start, he has kept his earned runs to four or less in each of his starts. The fly ball pitcher hasn’t found the dominating strike out rates he displayed in the minors.

Red Sox: John Lackey, RHP (2-1, 5.09)

Lackey has bounced back against his last start against the O’s allowing three runs over seven innings. Hopefully he’ll continue to dominate the birds with another start against the team.

Saturday, May 1

Orioles: TBD

Red Sox: Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP

Dice-K expected to return this week (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Saturday’s match-up is in the air, the Orioles havn’t announced their starter for the weekend game yet and we are expecting Dice-K to return but it is not 100% certain. Check out John’s take on Matsuzaka’s return.

Sunday, May 2

Orioles: Kevin Millwood, RHP (0-3, 3.38)

Millwood went the distance in his last start against the Mariners, going eight innings and keeping Seattle to four runs. However, with the Oriole’s cold offense, he got tagged with the loss. Coming off a solid season last year, he is starting the season off with an increased strike out rate and lower walk rate. A steady increase in his fly ball rate should be cause for concern.

Red Sox: Josh Beckett, RHP (1-0, 5.26)

Opponents In-Depth

Toronto Blue Jays

10-9
3rd in the AL West (4 GB)

Probable Line-Up

Fred Lewis, LF
Aaron Hill, 2B
Adam Lind, DH
Vernon Wells, CF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Alex Gonzalez, SS
Jose Bautista, 3B
John Buck, C
Travis Snider, RF

The Blue Jays just lost two out of three in Tampa Bay and won two out of three against Kansas City prior to that.

Injuries

Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion (shoulder) was put on the disabled list last week. He joins an entire rotation of starting pitchers including Brian Tallet (forearm), Scott Richmond (shoulder), and Marc Rzepczynski (finger).

Who’s Hot

It’s a veteran power surge with Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells, and Alex Gonzalez each clubbing three homers in the past 14 days. The big story has been Wells and his red hot start to the season. Wells has been labeled as overvalued in recent years and if he can remain healthy could finally live up to his big contract.

Who’s Not

Travis Snider is a young talent in the outfield but is has been hitting .125 in the past two weeks.

The Bullpen

Jason Frasor was the team’s closer on opening day but has already lost the job to Kevin Gregg who already has five saves and is looking better than his days back in Florida.

Baltimore Orioles

3-16
5th in the AL East (11 GB)

Probable Line-Up

Adam Jones, CF
Nick Markakis, RF
Matt Wieters, C
Miguel Tejada, 3B
Luke Scott, DH
Nolan Reimold, LF
Ty Wigginton, 3B
Garrett Atkins, 1B
Julio Lugo, 2B

The Orioles were swept by Seattle before losing two out of three in Boston.

Injuries

Brian Roberts (Abdominal), Felix Pie (Shoulder), and Mike Gonzalez (Shoulder) are all on the D/L. Miguel Tejada is battling a hip injury and is currently day-to-day.

Who’s Hot

Wigginton continues to stay hot and has a .364/6 HR/12 RBI line in the past two weeks.

Who’s Not

Ex-Red Sox Julio Lugo has seen some increased playing time with all the injuries in the O’s infield and has a .063 average over the past two weeks to show for it.

The Bullpen

Jim Johnson is currently holding down the closer role and is pretty unchallenged because they have nobody else. You might remember former Red Sox Cla Meredith in the set-up role.

My Outlook

Toronto is off to a good start and may have good enough pitching to keep the Sox down in this upcoming series. If our starting pitching can rebound we maybe able to win a couple in Toronto. Baltimore should be another walk in the park to end the week. I’ll say it’ll be a 3-3 split.

How do you think the Sox are going to fare this upcoming week? Let Patrick know on Twitter at @dmbosstone!