Boston Roundup

The Red Sox are infuriating to watch right now. Aside from taking two of three from the Yanks, and a gem of a game from Beckett against Sabathia. Last night's spanking against the Rays takes the cake as the most embarrassing game to date, for a multitude of reasons. The worst is that it came from a team that was 1-8, statistically last in every hitting category, and had scored only TWENTY runs in their first nine games. But Daisuke seems to always cure a poorly-hitting teams' woes, and he did just that, allowing 10 men to reach base and giving up seven runs in two innings. Wakefield couldn't do much better, and Dan Wheeler continued his horrid start giving up four runs in the ninth.
Without blasting the Red Sox over their horrible 2-8 start, there are a few quick fixes that need to be made now. The Dice-K experiment must end. They should cut ties with him immediately, and put Doubront at the back of the rotation. 2011 is the final year of Dice-K's contract, and after going 33-15 in the first two years, has gone 13-14 with an ERA hovering above 5.00. He averages over 4.5 walks per nine innings, struggles to get through the second inning every game, and is obscenely painful to watch. Doubront pitched well in three starts last year, and at 23 is ready to be given a shot at the five spot in the rotation.
Francona also needs to settle on a lineup. Last year the Red Sox used the most different lineups in baseball, but that was due to injuries. Now, with Pedroia and Youk healthy, and new bats in the lineup, it is time to pick a lineup and stick with it in order to generate some consistency. Crawford would rather not leadoff, and true he doesn't have the best OBP, but he has a .360 OBP over the last two seasons, much better than his career .336 number. Only Ortiz and JD Drew had a higher OBP last year (of the remaining 2010 team), and Crawford simply fits the bill as the best option in the leadoff spot. The 2-3-4 spots are locked down with Pedroia, Gonzalez, and Youkilis, respectively. Ortiz fits the five-hole as a power-hitting lefty, and followed by Cameron, Drew, Salty, and Scutaro, the lineup has a nice lefty/righty pattern until the bottom two.
Aside from the start of the season disaster with the Sox, there are two huge series to look forward to with the Celtics and Bruins. The B's open the first round of the playoffs on Thursday with a matchup against the Canadians, and the Celtics look like they will take on the Knicks in round one. The Bruins-Habs series is intriguing, as the B's went 2-4 against them this year, but outscored Montreal 16-10 and won two of the last three on the season. Hopefully the Bruins can keep their momentum going from the last time the teams faced, when the B's dominated in a 7-0 victory. Thomas was in net for both Bruins victories, and will be key to winning the series. Boston has faced Montreal 4 times in the last ten years, winning only one of those series (they swept them in the first round last year).
The Celtics-Knicks matchup will be an interesting one. They face off Wednesday in their scheduled regular season finale, and will begin their best of seven series in the upcoming week. The two teams last faced in the playoffs during the 1989-1990 season, when the Knicks won the series three games to two. The teams faced off three times this season, and the Celtics won them all. All three were tight matchups, and there is no reason not to expect the same result from the series. However, only the third game featured the current Knick lineup, with Melo and Billups in the mix. But some would argue the Knicks are now worse-off, as they are now without the depth of Gallinari, Chandler, Mozgoz, and Felton. They have gone 13-13 since the trade, winning their last five in a row, but were 28-26 prior to the trade. The deal hasn't transitioned the team far from their .500 record, and unless they can truly exploit the Celtics' lack of center depth, the C's should take the series in 5 games at worst. But if Amare comes out hot and the Celtics continue to play half-heartedly, they are in for a much more interesting series.