I feel like I say this every couple of weeks, but we really needed this off-day. This team has been in full sleepwalk mode since they swept Cleveland at the Jake to start the second half of the season.
Reportedly, Ozzie is taking a relaxing trip to Miami today. Damaso Marte got an extra day off after showing up late yesterday. Orlando Hernandez had a short work day yesterday, so he shouldn't be tired. The offense has kept itself fresh by not having to run around the 360 feet of bases very often.
We should be ready for the stretch drive, right?
Randomness
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Scott Podsednik has twice as many strikeouts (25) as he has steals (12) in the second half. Also over that span, he has more caught stealings (11) than walks (9). He has yet to hit a triple or HR.
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Juan Uribe has 11 extra base hits in September. Timo Perez has 10 extra base hits this season. Uribe's previous high month was 7 in May. The most in any month by a Sox player this year was Jermaine Dye with 14 in May. -- Which brings me to...
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The current lineup needs to be shaken up.
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Carl Everett needs to take a seat against right handed pitching. Ross Gload, Brian N. Anderson, and Joe Borchard should be able to outperform Carl's .241/.306/.445 line. More than anything, his bat can no longer be a black hole in the #3 spot.
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Uribe needs to be moved up in the order. -- I called for him to be batting second in Podsednik's absence, now he needs to be batting 2nd or 3rd. I know his OBP doesn't back me up on this, but anyone who has watched him play for the last 4 weeks knows he is a different player.
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I say move Uribe to 2nd or 3rd based on what you want to do with Tadahito Iguchi. He has expressed displeasure with batting from the #2 spot and would like to see more action from an RBI slot.
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The rotation needs to quit worrying about awards, and start pitching with a set of juevos like they did in the first half. -- Part of that would be accomplished by removing L. Duque from the rotation to be replaced with Brandon McCarthy.
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Finally, I'm going to keep hammering on this little tidbit until it goes away. The Sox have not come back from a multi-run deficit to win a game since July 30th. -- It's not like this is an impossible feat. The Sox three best pitchers, (right?) Freddy Garcia, Mark Buehrle, and Jon Garland, all were staked to early multi-run leads against the Royals and Angels on Thursday - Saturday. They all lost.