Game 4: Sox 1 Tribe 3

Geez, where's this vaunted offense we were supposed to have this year? Once again the Sox get manhandled by a relatively unknown pitcher, this time it's Josh Tomlin. Until the last inning, it seemed like the Sox batters couldn't wait to get up to the plate so they could groundout on the first pitch (12 ground outs in the game for Tomlin, 15 PAs for the Sox were 3 pitches or fewer). The way this offense is supposed to be built, even if they have a rough game they should be patient enough to force the starter out by the 5th inning. Tomlin was pulled with only 91 pitches after 7 innings and the 8th inning reliever retired the side on 7 pitches!

Scutaro looked particularly bad and may have Lowrie breathing down his neck soon, especially if Lowrie is supposed to be the better defender. Saltalamacchia got his first hit and RBI so hopefully some of the pressure will be off of him. He's got to be more patient though. Really everybody looked terrible today though.

On the pitching side, I thought Beckett looked okay. He did give up 3 runs to a weak offense and he spent most of the day in hitter's counts, getting knocked out after 5. But he didn't have any control over his fastball tonight so eking by and giving his team a chance was encouraging. The curve looked good and the changeup was a great change of pace that had a lot of hitters fooled. I don't remember him throwing that pitch before. The bullpen came in and took care of business. Albers was wild but benefited from a generous strike zone to get three Ks. Jenks and Bard were both overpowering.

Rough loss today. Hopefully it'll be warmer tomorrow and more people will show up at the park (only 9,000 fans for today's game!). We've got to get the hitters going tomorrow, especially with Dice-BB taking the mound.