McAdam On Gresh & Zo: 'Red Sox Are Wasting Very Good Starting Pitching'
BOSTON (CBS) - CSNNE Red Sox insider Sean McAdam joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Andy Gresh and Scott Zolak to chat about Wednesday night's 5 hour 17 minute extra innings 6-4 win over the White Sox.
If you happened to miss it, consider yourself lucky.
The battle of the Soxes featured 18 total walks and 16 pitching changes in what McAdam described as "one of the worst games I've ever seen in my 26 years covering baseball."
McAdam added, "That one will go down in infamy. ... It became comical after awhile. It was like watching a Monty Python skit unfold."
At 6-9 and at the bottom of the barrel in the AL East, the reigning World Series champions aren't exactly getting off to the right start in 2014. The Sox rank 24th out of 30 teams in runs scored in all of baseball, so point your finger at the offense as a reason for the slow start.
"Certainly missing two regulars [Shane Victorino and Will Middlebrooks] -- and last night add a third with Mike Napoli sitting one more night with that dislocated finger --two significant bats out of the lineup does impact things. It's kind of a domino effect. When you look at the bottom third of the order some nights, two of those three guys are journeyman Ryan Roberts and utility guy Jonathan Herrera, it starts to look more like a National League lineup.
"I'm at a loss to explain why they've been this bad. They've gone five games in a row before last night without scoring more than four runs. That shouldn't be in a lineup featuring Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and up until last night Mike Napoli. It's one of those things that's tough to explain."
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After talking to hitting coach Greg Colbrunn and manager John Farrell, McAdam told Gresh and Zo it's the team's belief that everyone is trying to do too much, "trying to hit the five-run home run" -- but despite all that they should not be struggling to score as much as they have.
Clay Buchholz was good, not great in his third outing of the season last night. He needed 52 pitches to get out of the first two innings but was able to figure it out over the next four.
Aside from some stinkers (Felix Doubront's implosion vs. Texas and John Lackey's shellacking in New York come to mind), the Red Sox pitching staff has been very good.
It's just a shame it's been going to waste.
"I think what's been lost here is that they've wasted some very good starting pitching through the first 15 games. They lead the American League in quality starts. They now have 11 in 15 games. If you have that kind of ratio throughout the season where two thirds of your starts are six innings or more and three earned runs or less, you're gonna be in pretty good shape.
"If they had been getting the offense people expected they'd be in a lot better shape. Look at the final score every night and it looks like some NHL Stanley Cup playoff scores. It's 3-2, 4-2, 4-3 every night, and they just haven't come up with enough big hits."
Listen below for the full discussion, including a Victorino and Middlebrooks update, as well as the scouting report Edward Mujica:
McAdam: 'Red Sox Are Wasting Very Good Starting Pitching'
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