The story of the game tonight was Phil Humber. Robin’s crew needs someone to step up in the rotation, and if Humber can give us quality starts like he did tonight and command his pitches, that will be more than enough. It was great to see him right the ship after a tough first inning, as in his pre-DL starts, he let things snowball a ton.
It’s been up and down for Humber so far in 2012. Photo courtesy WGN
– Addison Reed and Brian Omogrosso did well tonight, but Matt Thornton made some pitches that made me scratch my head. The Sox have a ton of struggling rookies already, so they don’t need a struggling veteran as well. Thornton has been up and down all year, and if the Sox are going to count on him to be the main stopper back there and try to get out righties in addition to lefties, they are going to have a lot of late inning headaches. Kenny Williams needs to get some help in this bullpen.
– Man, is Youk trying to stick it to these guys or what? As if Youkilis needs motivation to make him play harder than he already does! The Red Sox were put in a tough spot with Will Middlebrooks coming on the way he did, but in the Valentine-Youk feud aspect of the whole thing, it’s nice to see Youk get some payback.
– Alejandro De Aza had his first good game in a while. He’s been so instrumental to this team’s success this season, and it’s good to see him show some signs of life. Let’s hope tonight’s game kick starts him out of this slump.
Pedro Hernandez, acquired in the Carlos Quentin trade, makes his Major League debut tomorrow night as he faces Felix Doubront. With the way the pitching staff is right now, trying out a new guy like this may not be the worst thing in a world. Maybe the Sox find out that he’s a good lefty who may be able to fill a bullpen spot the rest of the way. Hernandez was 7-2 with a 2.75 ERA in 12 starts in AA Birmingham, so it will be interesting to see if that success can translate to the MLB quickly.
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Posted by Luke Stanczyk, “GSB!” Editor