Sox Big Stars Reason for Failure

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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

Stick a fork in them, they’re done! Any hopes of the Red Sox being a playoff team in 2010 went out the window thanks to their back-to-back excruciating losses in Toronto and Texas.

Many will look back at the 2010 season and proclaim that it just wasn’t meant to be for this Red Sox team. Too many injuries ultimately led to their demise. They would be wrong.

Yes, the injuries certainly hurt this team and played a major factor in its outcome, but the real reasons for this team’s failure can be found in two areas: the starting rotation and the bullpen.

For starters, Beckett and Lackey haven’t been subpar, they have been simply awful! Beckett may be having the worst season of any “ace” in major league baseball. His inability to hold an 8-1 lead in Texas last night is just the latest example of his horrid performance in 2010. Why Beckett has been so horrible is anyone’s guess. But his performance this year has single-handedly destroyed what has otherwise been an amazing performance by no-name fill-ins for this team.

Ditto for highest paid member of the team – John Lackey. The Red Sox spent boatloads of cash to bring him in as a free agent last offseason but he has resembled more of a back of the rotation starter. Granted, his performance in Toronto Thursday was very good and worthy of a win, but those have been too infrequent. At close to 19 million dollars a year, we should expect much better.

Which brings us to the bullpen. This crew played a major role in these past two losses with Jonathan Papelbon starting things off in Toronto. Papelbon blew his 6^thsave of the season preventing what would have been a sweep of the Blue Jays.

The Red Sox closer has been nowhere near his dominant self this season as opposing hitters have been sitting on his fastball. His lack of command of the splitter and lack of bite on his slider leave him no choice but to rely on his fastball almost exclusively making him predictable and hittable.

He hasn’t been the only problem in the bullpen. With the exception of Daniel Bard, this crew has proven to be unreliable virtually all season long.

So we can lament the injuries to this team all we want, but in the end it was their pitching which let them down. And that is why the 2010 Boston Red Sox will be watching the playoffs on TV this October.