Perpendicular Lines

As encouraging as the following four pitching lines have been for the Red Sox ...

• 8 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
• 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
• 8 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
• 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

... these four have been just as distressing:

• 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
• 0 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
• 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
• 0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Manny Delcarmen has allowed a run in each of his last four appearances. He's looked terrible, and there was no excuse for Francona to bring him in last night. That was just bad managing. Better managing would be starting to let David Aardsma try his hand at some more late-inning appearances.

Delcarmen and Javier Lopez are both in the AL Top 10 in appearances. If that statistic doesn't change, we're going to see a lot more starting pitching performances like the ones in the first list thrown away by relief pitching like the type in the second list.

Comments

[dabize]

Where's Timlin in that list?

He may not be in the top 10 for the AL in appearances, but it sure feels like he's in there way too often for my health.

I can't help wishing that Hansen was around Fenway on a regular basis, taking some of these setup assignments with Aardsma.

I don't think that he would be overawed by that job, especially considering how low the bar has been set by Timlin, MDC and Lopez.

[Atheose]

A WHIP of 0.63 for the starters in the last four games. Fantastic.

Delcarmen's troubles have worried me, as he was a very important--and underrated behind Oki and Paps--fixture in the bullpen last season. Lopez is, well, a cancer.

[Paul SF]

Timlin's only been in nine games versus a league-leading 14 for Delcarmen and 13 for Lopez.

[Devine]

Delcarmen's been brutal recently, but I'd way rather have him trying out the 7th inning than any of those other schtoons (although Aardsma could be okay eventually). If Timlin blows one more time, can we please just call up Hansen? Sure, he could suck, but it couldn't be much worse.

[LocklandSF]

Hey all...

I'm back from my 2+ weeks of traveling, Vegas sucked, Italy was amazing. After a week in Tuscany, I have decided that America pretty much blows, thank god for baseball.

So, what did I miss?

[attackgerbil]

Lockland, the Venetian on the strip didn't quite stand up to Tuscany?

Welcome back, sounds like an awesome trip. I'm quite jealous.

[rootbeerfloat]

Lock - Good to have you back! Ten years back I spent months in Italy installing a high speed telecom system. I'm convinced that all the good food, good wine, and amazing architecture is designed to distract everyone from the fact that your phone only works half the time. Not a bad trade-off, perhaps...

[Paul SF]

That actually sounds pretty good, RBF.

[SoxFan]

Italy not only has good food, it has produced some lovely ...um... cooks.

Giada De Laurentiis
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ei

[Brad]

Oh, man. I love Giada. Someone (not mentioining names) is so jealous when I watch the show, fully aware that I can hardly boil water. :)

[Micah-SF]

I'd really like to see Hansen and Masterson in the bullpen before too long, if things keep going like this - Hansen looked pretty awesome in his one callup outside of a single mistake pitch, and he can't honestly do worse than MDC, and Masterson looked great in his start. It's very clear that we're not going to be able to go all season on 2 relief pitchers.

[LocklandSF]

Thanks all. It was amazing. The food and wine alone, just incredible. I have some pictures, even baseball related pictures, to show everyone, but I need to time to get them together and get then online.

[LocklandSF]

Authors, I just sent you all an email to the gmail account with some baseball related Italy pictures, AG, I copied you on it too.