This just in: The Red Sox are not good at baseball.
After back-to-back wins, the Sox followed Daisuke's lead into a night of terrible pitching and below-average hitting to lose to the Rays 13-3. The loss was their 82nd of the season, guaranteeing a record below .500 for 2012.
Daisuke actually had the best control of any Sox pitcher, though that isn't saying much. He only lasted three innings, walking just one, but allowing nine hits and give earned runs. He was followed by certified insane person Alfredo Aceves, who pitched two lousy innings, giving up four runs on two walks.
Not to be outdone, Daniel Bard came in and faced five batters, walking three, giving up a hit, and retiring one. Bobby V had seen enough, and moved on to Andrew Miller...who walked both batters he saw. Scott Atchison provided a brief respite from the balls, pitching 1.2 uneventful innings, before letting Chris Carpenter continuing the wild ways with two walks.
I bother to point all this out because that's how excruciating this game was to watch. Ten walks, 15 hits, 13 runs...just terrible.
And at the risk of repeating myself...why was Daisuke out there in the first place? What purpose does he serve the organization in starting a game? I know everybody else was just as terrible, but why not Clayton Mortensen? Maybe throw a start at one of the Pawtucket guys just for the fun of it? There is absolutely no purpose to Daisuke Matsuzaka starting a game for the Red Sox at this point.
Then again, you could probably argue that at this point there's not much purpose to their games, period.
