By Bill Chuck
Special to CSNNE.com
Things are starting to feel better around the Nation but every time you say that the Sox lose a couple of games. Take a look at the standings today and it at least feels a little normal with the top three teams in the AL East the Yanks, Rays, and Sox and there are only four games separating the three teams.
Lets take a peak under the hood heres your Sox Nine to Know:
1. The Sox are not the Pittsburgh Pirates, the .500 mark is not a milestone, its a mill stone. It is simply not where this team wants to be, yet moving beyond it this season has been a real pain.
The Sox are 6-6 against the East.
The Sox are 8-8 against the West.
The Sox are 2-4 against the Central.
They are 11-11 against right-hand pitchers.
They are 5-7 against left-hand pitchers.
They are 10-9 at home.
They are 6-8 on the road.
They are 1-1 in extra innings.
They are 2-5 in one-run games.
They were 2-8 after 10 games.
They were 9-11 after 20 games.
They were 4-16 after 30 games.
They are 5-5 in their last 10 games.
They are 12-8 in their last 20 games.
They are 16-14 in their last 30 games.
Oh, and by the way, the Pittsburgh Pirates are 17-17.
2. Jacoby Ellsbury has a 17-game hitting streak, which is the current longest active streak in the American League. In May 2009 Jacoby had a 22-game streak, which is his longest.
Boston Red Sox
Sox hitting streaks of at least 20 games since 2000
3. Ellsbury stole his 10th base of the season yesterday to lead the team. This is the third time he has had 10 in a season. He led the AL in 2008 and led the majors in 2009.
Here are Ellsburys career totals of steals by year:
Who led the Sox in steals in 2010? (Answer below)
4. Carl Crawford looks like he is finally over the Mendoza line for good sitting at .211 this morning. His numbers are still pretty puny but just remember he hit .155 in April. He is hitting .387 this month and we are starting to see his unique combination of speed and power.
In fact, there are only two active players with over 200 doubles, 100 triples and 100 homers, and weve been honored to see both play at home in Fenway:
5. David Ortiz is having a pretty good season (.292, four homers, 16 RBI) in large part thanks to his success against lefties. Against righties he is hitting .263 with two homers and 11 RBI. Versus lefties he is hitting .364 with two homers and five RBI.
6. Clay Buchholz in his last two games looks much more like the pitcher we saw in 2010. Hes 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA, a .233 batting average against, and a 1.160 WHIP. His overall numbers are still not very good: 3-3, 4.19 ERA, .289 BAA, and a 1.629 WHIP.
7. It is really hard to say anything positive about John Lackey thus far this season. On an inconsistent starting five, he is the weakest link.
Check out these pitchers with at least five starts by worst WHIP:
Lackey is has the sixth worst WHIP and Buchholz is still at number 13. Lackey is also tied for the second worst ERA on the list and third worst BAA of the group.
8. Catchers in the AL are only hitting .221 as a group, so clearly expectations dont run high at the position. But Jarrod Saltalamacchia is not hitting close to his listed weight of 235 at .203 and Jason Varitek is hitting an anorexic .128. Only the Twins have catchers hitting below the Sox Salty-Tek combo and Minnesota has an excuse with the great Joe Mauer on the DL.
AL catchers by team:
9. Finally, heres another reason why we love Jon Lester
Check out his decreasing WHIP each season:
Okay, thats your Nine to Know, now go and show off how much more you know about the Sox than your friends and then you can tell them that you learned all this at Nation STATion.
BTW: the Red Sox 2010 leader in stolen bases was Ryan Kalish with 10.
Stats and tables provided by Baseball-Reference.com.