And with that final out, Andy Sonnanstine who was 1-8 with a 6.30 ERA coming into today's game, just earned his second career win in the majors. If this was the playoffs (the Devil Ray's in the playoffs? I know, just indulge me) I would be upset about this game. But today, even after the Red Sox failed to score the tying run from second with no outs in the 9th inning, I find it hard to be upset with the effort they gave in this game. Let's not forget, the Red Sox were down 6-0 going into the 7th inning.
There are a few things I took away from this game. First of all, how unlucky can one pitcher be? Daisuke has certainly had a strange welcome to the majors, and this game was no exception. While he isn't clear of blame for today's performance, much of what happened was behind his control. Not only were there a few bloops hits that fell in just over the heads of the infielders, but there were a couple dribbling infield singles as well. Most of this hits that he gave up weren't hit very hard.
And such bad luck isn't anything new for the Japanese import. While overall, his run support has been pretty good, the runs never seem to come at the right time. Often, the Red Sox bats are at their quietest when Daisuke's pitching is at it's best. The majority of his losses on the season qualified as a quality start (at least 6 innings pitched while allowing three earned runs or less). Over those five losses, he has an ERA of 3.07. He's also received two no decisions in games which he lasted seven innings or more while allowing a single run.
Like I said, I just can't find it in myself to be disappointed over this loss. At this point in the season, it's a success whenever the Red Sox don't lose ground. Even when the both the Red Sox and the Yankees lose, the Red Sox still come out on top because they're still shrinking the elimination number. Even with a Red Sox loss today, the magic number still went down from 39 to 38.
And for those of you who declared Gagne a bust after just three appearances, you may want to reconsider. While it's still yet to be seen whether Gagne will work out or not, three appearances isn't enough to judge any reliever. Even the best relievers struggle. In fact, in his past three appearances, Mariano Rivera has allowed at least 3 hits and one earned run in each of them. And as far as relievers go, you'd be hard pressed to find too many who are better than him.
What troubles me much more than the troubles Gagne had in Baltimore, is the slump that Kevin Youkilis is currently in. Youkilis is arguably the most underrated player on the Red Sox. With his "legendary" plate discipline, he's usually the table setter for the big bats. Since the All-Star break however, Youkilis has hit only .226 and has gotten on base at a rate of only .350. He's been in an especially vicious slump lately. Over the last 6 games he has only two hits in 24 at bats. Ouch.
