Red Sox Dominating Despite Little Value from Starting Pitchers

You may have noticed that the Red Sox are 12-2 so far in July. In doing so, they've passed the Yankees for the best record in the American League, and are only a half game worse than the Phillies for the best record in baseball. They now sit at 58-36, erasing all memories of a team that was 0-6, 2-10, and didn't go over .500 until the 41st game of the season.

What you may not have noticed is that their run this month has come with very little help from their starting pitching:

Player	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9
Josh Beckett	2	0	1.71	21.0	13	4	1	2	20	0.714	0.4	0.9	8.6
Tim Wakefield	1	0	5.82	17.0	29	11	2	3	10	1.882	1.1	1.6	5.3
John Lackey	2	1	6.14	14.7	22	10	2	2	16	1.636	1.2	1.2	9.8
Andrew Miller	2	1	7.90	13.7	18	12	2	11	3	2.122	1.3	7.2	2.0
Jon Lester	0	0	0.00	4.0	0	0	0	1	5	0.25	0.0	2.3	11.3
Kyle Weiland	0	0	13.50	4.0	8	6	1	2	2	2.5	2.3	4.5	4.5
Total	7	2	5.21	74.3	90	43	8	21	56	1.493	1.0	2.5	6.8

Josh Beckett has continued to be outstanding, and Jon Lester has pitched only 4 innings this month because of a lat injury. After those two, the Red Sox starting pitchers have a 7.11 ERA in 10 games - AND THEY'RE 8-2 IN THOSE GAMES! That's partial luck, of course. On Sunday, the Red Sox scored only 1 run, and won. On Monday, they gave up 10. It's hard to imagine them having a better record if they'd received more resonable starting pitching, but they might. In their two losses this month, they've scored 13 runs.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, it will get better. Josh Beckett showed no ill effects of the hyperextended knee that made him unable to appear in the All-Star game, pitching 8 shutout innings on Sunday. Jon Lester will return on Friday, and Clay Buchholz should return in August.

Other than that though? It's tough to get a read on John Lackey - those peripherals don't line up to a 6.14 ERA at all, but he's been hit hard all season. Every time he appears to be getting back on track, he takes a step backwards. The Red Sox have Kyle Weiland on the mound tonight, in what will likely be his last start before Lester takes his roster spot. Tim Wakefield turns 45 two weeks from today. After three very solid starts, Andrew Miller has been terrible in his last two, walking 9 and striking out nobody. At least 40% of their starts in August and September are going to come from this group.

Still, it's hard to be negative about a team that's winning just about every day. First of all, the bullpen has been excellent recently:

Player	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9
Alfredo Aceves	2	0	1.32	13.7	7	2	0	3	8	0.732	0.0	2.0	5.3
Dan Wheeler	2	0	3.00	9.0	4	3	1	1	7	0.556	1.0	1.0	7.0
Matt Albers	1	0	0.00	8.3	5	0	0	4	11	1.08	0.0	4.3	11.9
Jonathan Papelbon	0	0	4.50	8.0	9	4	1	2	12	1.375	1.1	2.3	13.5
Daniel Bard	0	0	0.00	7.7	4	0	0	2	9	0.783	0.0	2.3	10.6
Franklin Morales	0	0	0.00	5.0	1	0	0	1	4	0.4	0.0	1.8	7.2
Bobby Jenks	0	0	0.00	2.0	1	0	0	0	1	0.5	0.0	0.0	4.5
Randy Williams	0	0	13.50	2.0	3	3	0	1	2	2	0.0	4.5	9.0
Scott Atchison	0	0	4.50	2.0	2	1	0	1	1	1.5	0.0	4.5	4.5

Bard hasn't given up a run since May 23, and is continuing to establish himself as one of the better relief pitchers in the game. The real story in the bullpen, though, is Alfredo Aceves. He's been the guy to pick up the slack when the starting picher gets knocked out early, or the game ends up going 16 innings. Because of the starters' struggles, Aceves has needed to be a workhorse this month, and he has delivered in a big way. It's tough to imagine why the Yankees let Aceves go. Sure, maybe he's a bit of a headcase, and he has an injury history, but he wasn't even a free agent - he was still under team control, and the Yankees simply decided not to offer him arbitration. On a $650,000 salary, Aceves is arguably the difference between the Red Sox being ahead of the Yankees and behind them.

Enough about the pitching though:

Player	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
Dustin Pedroia	70	61	25	6	0	6	9	5	0.410	0.486	0.803
Jacoby Ellsbury	65	58	23	4	2	4	6	9	0.397	0.446	0.741
Kevin Youkilis	61	52	19	5	0	2	5	12	0.365	0.459	0.577
Darnell McDonald	28	23	6	2	0	2	4	6	0.261	0.393	0.609
Josh Reddick	45	39	10	2	1	3	5	11	0.256	0.333	0.590
David Ortiz	50	41	9	4	0	2	9	11	0.220	0.360	0.463
Carl Crawford	5	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.400	0.400	0.400
Jarrod Saltalamacchia	38	32	7	0	1	2	5	9	0.219	0.316	0.469
Adrian Gonzalez	65	55	15	4	0	1	9	13	0.273	0.385	0.400
Marco Scutaro	57	50	11	0	0	3	7	10	0.220	0.316	0.400
Yamaico Navarro	21	19	4	1	0	1	2	4	0.211	0.286	0.421
Jason Varitek	23	20	4	4	0	0	2	6	0.200	0.273	0.400
Drew Sutton	7	5	1	0	0	0	2	1	0.200	0.429	0.200
J.D. Drew	45	38	6	2	0	0	6	9	0.158	0.267	0.211
Andrew Miller	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0.000	0.000	0.000
Tim Wakefield	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0.000	0.000	0.000
Josh Beckett	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.000	0.000	0.000
Team Total	587	505	142	34	4	26	71	111	0.281	0.374	0.519

Led by Dustin Pedroia, the Sox have scored 98 runs in their 14 games this month, four times scoring double digits. The Red Sox team OPS of .893 this month would put them 9th best *player* in the American League this season. What makes it so incredible is their depth - despite an "average: month so far from Adrian Gonzalez, they have enough other big bats to pick up the slack. Even the oft-maligned catching due of Saltalamachhia and Varitek has produced some pop in spite of low batting averages. Hitting like that will cover a LOT of flaws in the run prevention department.


Tables made with TABLEIZER.