April 27th Red Sox

       The Sox were lucky in enough to face Humber the start after his perfect game, but they didn’t let him contain their hot bats. Instead the Sox erupted for nine runs against him during his five innings, raising his ERA from 0.63 to a rough 4.66. I said in yesterdays entry that the White Sox have some good pitching, but I wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to slow down the Sox offense and that was certainly the case last night. On the other side of things Felix Dubrount continued his consistency tossing six innings allowing just three earned runs. Perhaps the best moment of the night was seeing Junichi Tazawa combine three scoreless innings to record his first save of his major league career. He missed the entire last season with Tommy John surgery, but he looked very sharp last night. The Sox had high hopes for this kid before his surgery and the bullpen could use a few more outings out of him like last night. 

        The Sox continued to display their power last night as well as their early dominance, scoring two in the first and adding another five in the third inning. That early run support is going to be a key factor in the success of the Sox starters for the remainder of the long season. Kevin Youkilis may have finally busted out of his slump with a grand slam in the top of the third inning. He went 3 for 4 with two runs and four runs batted in. Just behind him in the lineup catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a big night, going deep twice against not-so-perfect Phillip Humber. The Sox lacked power early in the season, but it is a big boost to a lineup when guys up and down your order have the potential to go yard at any given time. With Aviles showing great power in the past few games and Salty yesterday the Sox may not have a thirty home run guy on their squad, but they have plenty who can hit at least twenty. 

        Tomorrow it will be Daniel Bard taking the baseball to the mound for the Sox hoping to extend their winning streak to five games and one win shy of .500. It will be interesting to see how Bard performs after having pitched out of the bullpen on Monday. He looked like he was really getting into a rythm before the weather disrupted his routine and he knows he is fighting to stay out of the bullpen. Sox fans aren’t really sure where they want Bard and his next couple of performances will have a big impact on wether or not he stays in the rotation or takes over the closer role. The bullpen had another scoreless performance and I don’t dare say it but...