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The Red Sox blog on SBNation is Over the Monster. I was cruising past it today to see what they had to say about last night's game. This was their headline from the recap from yesterday's game: "Acceptable Losses: Red Sox Fall To Orioles, Why That's Not So Bad."
We have thus reached a day I did not expect to soon see: a day where the fans of Pink Hat Nation are making excuses for why it's okay that they got beaten by the Orioles. What a world!
We'll have to see what excuses they will be making if the O's win tonight. That may be a bit of a tougher task, as we'll be seeing Josh Beckett. Small sample size, of course, but Beckett's looked good so far in 2011, striking out a batter per inning over four starts in which he averaged seven innings per start. Beckett had an awful 2010 so he's looking to make a comeback. Will the Orioles start to wreck that comeback? Omens are not terrible. Luke Scott is slugging .750 off Beckett in 25 PAs. Derrek Lee's homered twice in only six ABs, and Vladimir Guerrero has .298/.411/.489 over 56 PAs. Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis also have good numbers in significant at-bats. Whether that means anything or not, we will find out.
Jeremy Guthrie pitches for the O's. We love Guts. The team apparently doesn't, as they have given him no run support, so he's 1-3 despite a 3.12 ERA. The bad news is that six Red Sox regulars have a .381 OBP or better in at least 29 career PAs against Guthrie. The good news is that two of those regulars (Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury) are sucking in 2011, David Ortiz has one extra-base hit in his last 11 games, and Jason Varitek is in the lineup again and he is old and terrible. Smithers... release the robotic Richard Simmons!
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