The headlines of a September pennant chase sound all too familiar in Red Sox Nation:
“Historic 22-0 loss shrinks AL lead to 3? games”
“Starting pitcher breaks hand during clubhouse tirade following loss”
“Division leaders request forfeit when opponents held up by hurricane”
Red Sox fans certainly have heard it all before. But this team has blown a 10? game lead in the division and their starting rotation has not been what the fans and management expected. Wait, what’s that you say? These headlines are out of the Bronx? Did the Mets relocate?
To Red Sox Nation, it certainly seems too good to be true that the Sox have cut what was seemingly an insurmountable 10? game Yankee lead on August 16 down to only 2? games, with one month to play. The Sox have won 21 of their last 24 and are 29-10 since purging a disgruntled Nomar Garciapara from the lineup. No Nomar, no problems? The answer is not so simple.
Entering the season, many experts recognized that the Red Sox had moved ahead of the Yankees in terms of quality pitching. The Sox acquired ace Curt Schilling and closer Keith Foulke, while the Yankees lost key starters Roger Clemens, David Wells and Andy Pettitte.
Replacing these three Yankees mainstays were an unproven Javier Vazquez and an aging Kevin Brown. These two have hardly acted as adequate replacements. Vasquez has been inconsistent and Yankee management is exploring voiding Brown’s contract after he broke his hand punching a locker last week.
The Yankees’ attempt to trade for future hall of famer Randy Johnson in July came up short and they were forced to settle for Esteban Loaiza. Loaiza is 0-2 with an 8.46 ERA since becoming a Yankee, while the man they traded him for, Jose Contreras, has won four games with his new team, the Chicago White Sox.
Meanwhile, Curt Schilling has been every bit the savior Red Sox fans anticipated, leading the league in wins. Pedro Martinez has looked every bit like the three-time Cy Young winner we are used to seeing dominate hitters around the league and even Bronson Arroyo has been a pleasant surprise as the fifth starter.
The big difference between the 2003 Red Sox and this year’s version is the same reason Grady Little is no longer the skipper: the bullpen. Last season, the Red Sox bullpen had the most innings pitched in the American League. Despite this, the team won 95 games and qualified for the playoffs. Their bullpen ERA was sixth worst in the league and the five teams with worse bullpen ERA’s averaged 96 losses apiece. Had they not performed so horribly last season, Grady Little would have had no problem going to the bullpen with the season on the line. The Yankees had the best bullpen in the American League last year, recording both the lowest ERA and the least innings pitched. That rest in the regular season makes all the difference when the season is on the line in the playoffs.
The numbers for this season speak for themselves. The Sox now have the least bullpen innings pitched and the fifth lowest bullpen ERA in the American League. Meanwhile, the Yankees lead the American League in bullpen innings and like last year’s Red Sox, are ahead of only five teams in bullpen ERA.
Superstars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter cannot pitch middle relief and the Bambino stopped pitching a long time ago. It looks like the George Steinbrenner didn’t stock those cupboards as well as he’d thought. For nearly 200 million dollars a year, you would think somebody could relieve for a few solid innings.
With all this said, Red Sox fans will still be hearing the same familiar excuses for not winning it all this year–only this year the excuses will be coming out of the Bronx!