Red Sox Report: Bats Go Silent, Westmoreland On The Comeback Trail
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Don’t blame the pitching!
The Boston Red Sox just wrapped up a 3-game series at Fenway with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Sox were lucky to go 1-2 in those 3 games.
Boston bats combined to go an anemic 9-86 in the series for a team batting average of just .105. Thank goodness that Jon Lester pitched as well as he did in the series-opener or they would have been swept at home!
Not having David Ortiz’s bat in the line-up for the entire series didn’t help matters. However, by no means does that explain why the Red Sox offense went into hibernation these past two days.
In fact, Jacoby Ellsbury accounted for one-third of Boston’s hits picking up 3 of the 9 in the series. What does that say about the rest of the offense?
Despite the horrific performance over the last three games, the Red Sox still have the best offense in baseball with a .277 team batting average. That’s 10 percentage points higher than the next best hitting team in baseball which is the NY Yankees.
Their 649 runs (heading into play last night) was also tops in the Majors, as was their .455 slugging percentage, their .350 on-base percentage and their .805 OPS.
While now is certainly not the time to panic (they’re 8 games clear of the Rays for the AL Wild Card spot), it’s still a reason for minor concern.
This offense wasn’t supposed to struggle like this. And, with all of the injuries that they have had to their pitching staff, it was expected to carry this team for a majority of the season which it has done for the most part.
Josh Beckett may be the unfortunate victim of a lack of run support at times as has Tim Wakefield in his bid for career win #200, but all-in-all, the Sox offense has produced consistently.
That production will be an absolute must for the remainder of August and September as the Sox try to wrap up their spot in the playoffs. Even without Big Papi, Boston’s offense needs to and should produce more moving forward.
-The bursitis in the right heel of David Ortiz had him on the shelf once again on Wednesday. Ortiz had an MRI and was wearing a walking boot Wednesday. He said that the heel felt better than it did Tuesday. Big Papi hopes that he will be able to return no later than a week from now and feels that he could possibly play in one of Boston’s upcoming 8 games away from home.
-With Big Papi on the shelf, manager Terry Francona is taking turns as far as who he puts at DH. Yesterday Adrian Gonzalez got to DH which Francona suggested Gonzo doesn’t like to do. Still, Francona sees the value of taking a break from playing out in the field this late in the season and will make his DH decisions accordingly.
-After Wednesday’s loss to Tampa, the Red Sox are now 4-10 at Fenway Park against the Rays dating back to the start of the 2010 season.
-Portsmouth, Rhode Island’s Ryan Westmoreland continues his attempted comeback from brain surgery almost a year and a half ago. Westmoreland was one of the Red Sox brightest young prospects when he started experiencing problems such as a numbing sensation in his fingers. He became lethargic. There were problems with his vision, his hearing and balance. He was diagnosed with a cavernous malformation in his brain. Because of where the growth was and the nature of the surgery, he has had to relearn things that most of us take for granted like walking, talking and tying our shoes.
Now, Westmoreland is ready to face live pitching down in Fort Myers. He will not be asked to swing at those live pitches, only track them. Still, he is in an amazing place considering where he came from.
Nobody really knows if Westmoreland will ever be able to return to the type of bright young prospect he once was after being picked in the fifth round of the 2008 draft by Boston. In 2009 for single-A Lowell, he batted .296 with 7 HR’s and 35 RBI’s in 60 games. He had an on-base percentage of .401 and stole 19 bases and was a New York-Penn League All-Star.
While he seems determined to get back on the fast track to the Big Leagues where he can help the Red Sox win games, that would seem to be insignificant at the moment. The 21-year old has already won the biggest and most important challenge of his life. Everything else is icing on the cake!
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It