The Texas Rangers played a nice & steady brand of baseball over the weekend, almost sweeping the Boston Red Sox. If not for a 9th inning implosion by Frank Francesco on Friday night, the Rangers would be 1-1/2 games up in the Wild Card.
The Red Sox have issues that need to be addressed. An off-day is a good time to do it.
1) Starting pitching. We knew it could be a long weekend in Texas when #4 Penny & #5 Tazawa were 2 of your 3 starters. It may be time to try Bowden & others until Wakefield & Dice-K are ready to come back.
2) Struggling offense. The suspension of Kevin Youkilis, the #4 hitter, is over. Youk's presence in the lineup can't do anything but help this struggling offense to be more consistent. When Varitek, Anderson & Gonzalez are your bottom three, don't expect much production.
3) Tough schedule. The Sox start a 3-game series at the unfriendly Rogers Centre on Tuesday before returning home for 10-games against the Yankees, White Sox & Blue Jays. 13 games in 13 days to close out the month of August. At least 10 are at home where the Sox play much better than the road.
I'd like to see us finish the month within 5 games of the Yankees & have the lead in the Wild Card. Any Vegas people want to take that bet? We need the #3, 4, 5 starters to step-up & the offense to average their usual 5-6 runs per game to turn this thing around.
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