I'm sure Cliff Lee is breathing easier as his abdominal strain fades in the rear view mirror, and now his owners can breathe a bit easier as well. Lee held the Angels to 1 one on 3 hits and 2 walks in a complete-game win on Tuesday. Cliff only needed 102 pitches to get the job done and was effective (once again) despite giving up 16 FBOs and striking out just 2. Lee pounded the Angels will first pitch strikes and worked ahead in the count, pitching to contact from pitchers counts ... in other words, a classic Cliff Lee start. He seems fine to get back in your lineup if his return start against Toronto scared you off. The A's are next.
The Transformation of Josh Beckett continues. Last night against Toronto the first inning looked like a bad flashback to 2006 as Beckett gave up a homerun to Alex Rios on his first pitch of the night. Adam Lind followed that with a ringing double and it looked for all the world like his first inning struggles from last year. But this is not last year's Josh Beckett. Instead of rearing back for a harder fastball, Josh made some quick adjustments that allowed him to get the ball down in the zone and he rolled from there. He thought his way through his struggles, something we wouldn't have seen last year. The fact that he faced some early adversity and stayed true to his new pitching personality is almost the final good sign. Josh continues to mix in his offspeed stuff with much more command and confidence. The Jays after the game, to a man, basically said what we already know. This is not the same guy they faced in 2006. Josh got his 21 outs in just 89 pitches, he fanned 5 and improved to 7-0 while lowering his ERA to 2.51. The Orioles are next at Fenway.
Dustin Pedroia was 2- for -4 with a 3-run HR on Tuesday in Toronto raising his average to .254 on the year. Dustin has a bit of a roll going with 3 multiple-hit games strung together and a 4-game hitting streak. In those 4 games he is 8- for -13 (.615) with a HR and 5 Rbi. This is as good as it gets for Dustin but hopefully he will gain some much-needed confident from this spurt and help him establish himself at the plate at the MLB level.
The good news is that he got the win and improved to 2-0. The bad news is that Jeremy Bonderman got cuffed around again on Tuesday, this time by the Mariners who got to him for 5 runs in 6 IP on 7 hits, 2 walks and 7 Ks. The M's got three of the runs in the first inning as Jeremy's well-documented first-inning issues continue. We are probably just days away from the obligatory goofy solution attempt ... more extensive warm ups ... telling him to just "think it's the second inning" ... you seen it all before. The bottom line is that even though he pitched well after the first inning last night, this isn't helping your bottom line much. Jeremy has allowed 14 runs in his last three starts over just 17 IP (7.41) . Not good. He's given up 27 hits in that span and walked 4 more (1.82 WHIP ... again I say ... not good). With the exception of his GB rate which is a tick low, all of Jeremy's peripherals are good. His walk rate is actually down in fact. His BABHIP is up a bit to .336 but that is not really too far above recent norms. There is nothing here to indicate there are major problems. This seems like a patch of rough road at this point. The Twins are next at the Metrodome where Jeremy is 1-2 in 4 starts over the last three years with a 4.97 ERA. I'm not saying it's time to reserve Bonderman in most cases but if you have a comparable alternative you may want to sit this next one out.
Bartolo Colon's scheduled start on Saturday is still written in pencil as he gauges how well his biceps issue responds this week. He will throw a side-session tomorrow and we will probably have definitive word on Saturday's start after that.
