What has happened to Red Sox Three-Headed Monster?
Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester has done this a lot this season, which is not a good sign for a pitching staff that is usually dominant. (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)
The Boston Red Sox, on paper, have one of the most decorated starting rotations in the major leagues. This staff is headlined by Josh Beckett, who won 20 games in 2007, Jon Lester, who boasted 16 victories last season, and Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had 18 wins and a team-leading 2.90 Earned Run Average in his 2008 campaign. Usually, a team has one ace to build around, one pitcher that it can count on every fifth day. The Red Sox, prior to this season, had these three, which paid great dividends. These days are a distant memory, as each star has struggled to live up to expectations with a lackluster beginning to the 2009 season.
Beckett has five wins, including victories in three of his last five starts. His recent success is encouraging, given his struggles to begin the season. In a two start stretch prior to this current hot streak, the hard-throwing righthander allowed 15 earned runs on 20 hits in only 9 2/3 innings. His repertoire, which features a 96 mile-per-hour fastball, a 12-to-6 curveball and a sharp splitter, hasn’t fooled his opponents. He has overwhelmed opponents at times this season, but has been in trouble so often that I won’t prematurely jump to the conclusion that his recent effectiveness will continue. So, even though he has allowed no more than three runs in each of his past five outings, and has relinquished 2 runs on 8 hits in his past 15 innings, I am not quite sold that the Beckett of old will present on a consistent basis.
Yet, because he has been so dominant in May, his performance makes up for the disappointing, and utterly bewildering string of porous outings by Lester and Matsuzaka. In ten starts this season, Lester has been dreadful. He’s 3-5 with a 6-plus ERA. Arguably the most dependable of 2008, the 25-year old lefthander has given up 74 hits, allowed 40 runs, given up 11 home-runs, and walked 21 batters in just 59 innings pitched. Like Beckett, he has been frustratingly unpredictable. Of his ten outings, he’s pitched well in four of them; in the other six, he allowed five runs four times, six once, and eight. Some teams, again like Beckett’s situation, have struggled with his repertoire, but others, especially those that are patient at the plate, have not. He has been particularly hurt by the big inning. In four of his five losses, he has been roughed up for four runs or more in a single inning. His tendency to fall apart, and his inability to work out of jams gives me little confidence that he will right the ship and pitch consistently for the remainder of the season.
Daisuke Matsuzaka has been plagued by a shoulder injury, and has made only four starts on the season. When he has pitched, he’s been in the same boat as Beckett and Lester. The only difference between the three is that Matsuzaka doesn’t have a positive start to his credit. Known for his endurance, and ability to pitch deep into games, he has averaged a measly four innings per outing. Similar to the situations of Beckett and Lester, the quality of his stuff has lessened drastically, reasoning for why he has allowed 16 runs on 28 hits in such a short span.
Each pitcher has talent, and is capable of working their way out of their respective slumps, but a transformation has to be immediate, or the Red Sox will be in deep trouble, and quickly find themselves out of the hunt.
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