Final Score: Boston Red Sox 0, Oakland Athletics 3Justin Duchscherer. He was a reliever, right? Survey says yes. Funny, usually the progression goes the other way. I see he had a below-average year last year; perhaps in typical Oakland Athletics fashion, they decided that he'd have better luck starting than relieving. Anyway, it doesn't seem like such a bad choice: lifetime against the Sox, he's got a 1.91 ERA in a bit over 28 innings and twenty base runners during the same time period. This year, his ERA+ ballooned back to 198 after last year's dismal 85...basically, the guy's in his prime, and he's pitching like he knows it.
Yesterday, unfortunately, fit the pattern: one-hitting the Sox (thank you, Big Papi, for preventing the ignominy of no hitter) with a little help from Huston Street to turn the start of the West Coast trip into a two game losing streak. Duchscherer's excellent pitching did double damage, too, wasting an fine two run, nine strikeout performance by Beckett where he danced around seven hits but seemed much more consistent than his home run plagued outing a week ago.
This afternoon the A's try for the sweep and the Sox try not to be beaten, once again, at another aspect of their own game: offense two days ago, pitching yesterday...I guess it would be base stealing today. Jon Lester's pitching; I hear he's a bit of a golden boy now.
Posts
