Another game, another win folks. 7-1 in their last eight games, up to .500 to close out April, and well on their way to helping Clay Buchholz fullfill his quest to be MLB's first 20 game winner with a 5.00 ERA or higher (3-1 on the year, 8.69 and rising!).
It's frankly astounding. Day to day the outfield is made up of: Ryan Sweeney, who's flat out raking and is currently my main squeeze on the team, Cody Ross, absolutely winning my heart one bat flip at a time, and Darnell McDonald, who I don't really like...No offense Darnell, it's just that you can't hit the ball.
And despite this Quad-A lineup they're throwing out there night after night, they're first in the MLB in runs. First! Papi is one of the two or three most feared batters in the AL again, Pedroia is doing his damn thing like always, and Mike Aviles? He's doing a poor-man's Nomar in '99 impression. They're flat out rolling. Remember, they scored 2 runs combined those last two games in Chicago, and they still maintained the league lead in runs scored. This is a team that's going to mash all season long.
So that brings us to pitching, which has pleasantly seemed to turn the corner this week (Buchholz excluded, though some of that blame goes to Bobby V...Really Bobby? You couldn't take him out after 6 last night and give the kid a confidence boost?).
Felix Doubront has been a mini-revelation. Leading starters in k/9 and second in ERA to...Daniel Bard, who despite not having started since Single A ball has shown real promise in his starts this season and is leading the staff in ERA...but yea, why get 6-7 innings a start out of him when we could pitching one inning at a time maybe 3 games a week? Get real folks. This kid's got the stuff to be a starter and that's where he belongs until he fails his way out of the rotation.
Even the bullpen looks...well they look better, which albeit wasn't difficult given their start, but still, it's a step in the right direction. Most importantly Aceves seems to have righted his ship in the past week...I mean, he's cut his ERA from 24.00 to 10.29, so that's something to be proud about.
