Sox Waste Fine Doubront Outing. O’s 2-Hit Boston, Win 4-1

Felix Doubront has a load of potential. He’s big, left-handed and has that Andy Pettitte-like unshakable demeanor that could make him a solid starter for years to come. Going into last night’s second game against the Orioles in Baltimore he was 4-1 with 4.09 ERA.

During Doubront’s young career his achilles heel has been consistency and command. While he leads the club with 44 strikeouts, he also walks a lot of batters (21). That number still puts him behind the “Is-There-Any-Way-I-Can-Pitch-My-Way-Out-Of-The-Rotation” award competitors Clay Buchholz (27 walks) and Daniel Bard (25 walks).

"Doubront is the classic definition of wildly effective. Doubront knows where the fastball is going. He just doesn’t always seem to know where any of the other pitches are going."

In the second inning Tuesday night Baltimore’s Steve Tolleson also knew where Doubront’s fastball was going – right down the middle of the plate. After Doubront walked Wilson Betemit (did I say wildly effective or just wild?), Tolleson smoked a belt-high, right over the meat of the plate fastball to right centerfield to put the Orioles up 2-0.

In his first game back with the big club and playing first base after a rehab stint  (Adrian Gonzalez played right field and Will Middlebrooks remained at third), Kevin Youkilis smashed a solo shot in the fourth to straight away centerfield to make it 2-1 Birds. If you’re a Youk optimist you can say that Bobby Valentine wanted to keep his strongest offensive lineup in the game (Ortiz, Gonzalez, Youkilis and Middlebrooks all in the batting order) while not exposing Youk to the rigors of third base immediately. If you a realist like I am you believe Youk is being showcased for a trade and Middlebrooks is Boston’s third baseman to stay.

The game remained tight through the eighth inning with both starters and bullpens settling down and both batting orders whiffing at a staggering rate – 12 Ks per side. Both Doubront and Orioles starting pitcher Brian Matusz struck out nine batters each. Doubront (6 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 9 Ks, 2 BB) deserved better. He lowered his ERA to 3.96 and in most games could have come away with a W. Matusz, who has frankly peen pretty awful in 2012, matched Doubront’s line (6.1 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 9 Ks and 1 walks) and ultimately bagged the win.

In the bottom of the eighth after Matt Albers walked Matt Wieters on four pitches he made a meatball mistake to Betemit who took him yard to put Baltimore up 4-1. Ballgame. Matusz and a trio of Oriole relievers allowed just two Boston hits. Aside from Youk’s single firecracker, the Boston offense had zero pop.

The two teams play the rubber game of the series at 12:35 pm at Camden Yards on Wednesday as Daniel Bard (3-5, 4.85 ERA) goes against Jake Arrieta (2-4, 4.72 ERA).