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Red Sox Strut: Week Three

By Matthew Loper |

Now, to fully understand what the Red Sox Strut is, it means to have reason to walk with a confident, proud air around you. Some people mistake it for vanity, arrogance, or being pompous. This incorrect assumption is not what we mean. The Strut is about knowing that your deeds showed off your amazing skills to the baseball-loving public.

POSITION PLAYER:

It was a strange, up-and-down week for the Red Sox. They finished the week with a 3-4 record that was capped off by getting destroyed by the Orioles in Baltimore. They also had an emotional victory that was helped in large part by last week’s “strutter” Brock Holt. That big game wasn’t enough to hand him the crown for week three though.

Dustin Pedroia had thrown his name in the hat with eight hits total on the week, three RBI, a homerun and making contact on the ball that would allow a run to score on a throwing error in a one-run victory over Tampa on Tuesday. However that performance was not enough to keep Hanley Ramirez from regaining the throne and doing the strut.

Ramirez had four two-hit games and a total of nine hits on the week in 23 at-bats. While he was removed from the game on Friday night for precautions after he complained of soreness, he came back strong on Saturday and Sunday. He added three homers this week to move to eight on the year so far and now has a total of 17 RBI. Ramirez has clearly proven to be the protection for David Ortiz that Boston was looking for. While some fans have been questioning his instincts in the field, his presence at the plate has been a huge reason that the Red Sox are over .500.

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PITCHER:

It was a tough week to decide who was strutting for the Red Sox pitching staff this week. Joe Kelly struggled in his one and only start. Wade Miley had one very solid start on Monday and got a W, however he was rocked on Sunday in Baltimore.

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Justin Masterson had two very positive performances – one in which he went five innings giving up just three hits and one run and adding six strikeouts in a shortened Marathon Monday game and another in which he threw 90 pitches in seven full innings. That was nearly enough to earn him the honors this week, but late in the game he gave up a couple hits and finished with three earned runs. That game also ended in heartbreaking fashion and 5-4 loss to Baltimore in ten innings which perhaps left a sour taste in my mouth.

That brings us to last week’s winner – Koji Uehara. While Koji did earn two more saves this week, one was quite shaky. He gave at least one hit in all three appearances, and totally blew a save on Saturday night that ended in a walk-off win for the Orioles. The lack of any velocity on his fastball and a complete reliance on his splitter (21 of his 23 pitches on Friday night were split-fingered fastballs) have got Sox fans questioning the closer role going forward.

That leaves this week’s winner as the one-and-only Clay Buchholz. While Clay only had one start this week, he made the most of it. He went six full innings and threw 104 pitches. His final line: 2 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts and 0 homeruns. While Boston would end up going on to lose the game 2-1 to Tampa, this performance is precisely what the Red Sox need out of their number one pitcher. Hopefully Buchholz can snowball this start into a string of successful outings going forward. Strut young man … STRUT!

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