Wow, Cliff Lee sure is impressive.
While the usual crowd of Red Sox fans who like to form a single-file line at the Tobin Bridge after a regular season loss are certainly worried about facing Lee twice in October, they should be rejoicing that he chose to pitch in Philadelphia and not New York.
Can you imagine the Yankees with a 1-2 punch of CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee? Count your blessings that he chose the Phillies.
If the Red Sox and Phillies do meet in the World Series, it will be no easy feet to win 4-of-7 from a team that has Lee, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt in their rotation and features the likes of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley in their lineup. However, you would still have to like the Red Sox chances considering the team that they have.
All that World Series talk is for another day. Let's just cross our fingers and hope that John Lackey will give the Red Sox a chance to win tonight...
Nick Cafardo wrote an interesting piece in today's Globe about the Red Sox lack of production from right field.
The struggles of J.D. Drew and Mike Cameron have made this an issue that Theo Epstein will probably have to address within the next month.
Cafardo lists ten possible replacements. I am intrigued with Carlos Beltran but I worry about his health, especially how his knees would hold up playing right field in Fenway Park. The other name that stands out to me is Michael Cuddyer but with the Twins making a run in the Central Division, he might not be leaving Minnesota.
Terry Francona has always been loyal to his veterans so it will be worth watching if he sticks by Drew and Cameron before any trade is made or if he turns to Josh Reddick (who is potential trade bait) while waiting for reinforcements...
One (very) short term answer in right field could be Adrian Gonzalez. Francona may put the leading A.L. MVP candidate in the outfield today in order to get David Ortiz a start at first base.
I understand that the Red Sox are struggling to score right now and missing Ortiz' bat - along with Carl Crawford and Jed Lowrie, both of whom are on the disabled list - doesn't help matters but I think it's too much of a risk to put the slow-footed Gonzalez in right field and risk a potential injury in order to try and win a regular season game.
If this were the World Series, I would be all for preparing and placing Gonzalez in the outfield but to me, June is not the time to panic and make that move. I would prefer to see Francona just give Gonzalez the day off and put Ortiz in the lineup tonight and then once in Houston at the end of the road trip.
As great as Gonzalez has been, Ortiz is back to being "Big Papi" and there's no reason to sit him for ten straight days...
Although this is not Red Sox related, it's worth noting that Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela tossed no-hitters 21-years-ago today.
For those of you scoring at home, that was my 9th birthday.
I'm not counting on John Lackey to bless this birthday in the same manner...
Enjoy Big Papi tonight...
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