The Mariners shut us out. Facing Felix Hernandez, Sean Green, and Ryan Rowland-Smith, the Red Sox were able to come up with seven hits and no runs. We lost, 8-0. That’s pretty unusual. When we lose, we don’t usually lose by eight runs in a shutout. Colon allowed six of the runs on eight hits over five innings, and Aardsma allowed the other two on two hits in one inning. Javier Lopez was absolutely perfect, going three innings with one hit and one walk. 2.70 ERA from our resident lefty sidewinder. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Bartolo Colon is now 3-1 on the season. He made two errors, on a throw and a pickoff, and only three of the six runs were earned. He walked one, struck out two, and managed to inflate his ERA to 3.91 and his WHIP to 1.39. Last night’s loss ended a thirteen-game winning streak at home.
With Ortiz and Dice-K on the DL, Ellsbury listed as day-to-day, and Crisp with a seven-game suspension, I’m not very comfortable with the fact that Colon allowed three unearned runs and made two errors. Everyone has a bad day, of course, but does the bad day have to result in a shutout loss by eight runs, more than a third of which were unearned? The fact that only three were earned confirms the fact that Colon still has a great arm with great stuff. The fact that these two errors were his first two of the season confirms the fact that Colon can get around the mound. But the fact that half the runs he allowed were unearned reveals that he isn’t necessarily that great at fielding his position. Pitchers make errors, sure, but three runs is a bit much.
Colon wasn’t alone, though. Mikey Lowell had a throwing error on the game. That’s what I call unusual. Lowell won the Gold Glove at third base in 2005. Yesterday’s error was only his fifth of the season.
All in all, a disappointing night for Boston. But we’re still in first place, the Yanks are still in last place, and Wake will start against Miguel Batista this afternoon. Batista is 3-6 with a 5.99 ERA and a 1.85 WHIP. Wakefield should be able to handle him. We’ll see.
