Silver lining

Despite the storyline of how the Red Sox patched things together to keep battling through crippling injury after crippling injury, the best story of the 2010 Red Sox is the development of Clay Buchholz, who has emerged as a Cy Young candidate after being named pitcher of the month for August.

Interestingly, this analysis shows that Buccholz's career, despite some fits and starts, has actually been slightly better than Jon Lester's when he signed a five-year $30 million extension in 2009.

The report suggests that's about what Buchholz would get if he were to sign an extension. I've got three words to say to that: "Book 'em Danno."

Tonight's games: Trent and I took a road trip to visit Christine at work for lunch today, and the Phillies took a road trip to play one game in Colorado. Unfortunately, they had to take Joe Blanton with them. He gave up six runs (four earned) in 4.1 innings. The Phillies battled back, so maybe they'll let him travel with the team when they return to Philly tonight. They scored nine runs in the 7th inning and held on for the 12-11 pitchers' duel. Former Sox Manny Delcarmen took the loss.

The Red Sox beat the Orioles 6-4.

Manny traded

I was sad and surprised to read that Manny Delcarmen was traded to the Rockies. I always rooted for the guy, a Boston boy who demonstrated tantalizing ability at times but never seemed to truly fulfill his potential despite stellar seasons in 2007 and 2008.

I also wondered why and how the Red Sox became sellers. Yes, they're about done, but they're still alive. Theo Epstein still says no surrender:

Asked if there's an appropriate time to waive the white flag, Epstein said, "That's a tough question. It's kind of like the Supreme Court said about pornography: 'You'll know it when you see it.' Right now, we're not eliminated. We're trying to get really hot."

"It'll be difficult, but not impossible," said Epstein. "I'm not going to sit here and assess how difficult it will be. I'll leave that up to you guys. I think, that, as I just said, we need to play better and get hotter than we've been at any point this season. This is not the position we want to be ion. I'm not going to sit here and blow smoke and say where we want to be. We're not."

I'm going to miss Manny (Trent was crying hysterically over the news, or maybe he was just having a bad day), but we felt better after reading this headline on FanGraphs: Rockies Overpay at Second Deadline.

I think Theo made a good deal. From FanGraphs:

The real story here, however, is the guy coming back to Boston. (Chris) Balcom-Miller has had a fantastic season with Asheville in the Sally League, posting a 3.31 ERA in 108 innings backed up by a fantastic 117:19 K:BB ratio. That's a 6.2 K/BB for a 21 year old in his second professional season. Baseball America said prior to the season that Balcom-Miller's ceiling was as a "solid middle-of-the-rotation starter," and one has to think that this season would only improve his stock.

The Rockies might need warm bodies, but that's about all they will get out of Delcarmen. He no longer projects as a productive reliever. Meanwhile, the Rockies will send a very promising starting pitching prospect out of the system for what might be at best a minuscule increase in their playoff odds. It's hard for me to classify this deal as anything less than an overreaction to the Rafael Betancourt injury by Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd, and the end result will be a similarly talented (if not worse) team in Colorado and a weakened farm system.

Tonight's games: The Red Sox aren't getting hotter than they have at any point this season, losing to the Orioles 5-2. ... The Phillies play late again in Los Angeles. I stayed up for a good chunk of the game last night. Christine stayed up until Shane Victorino got the Phillies first hit in the 8th. Then, for some reason in the middle of the night, she turned on the TV. A replay of the game was on. We were confused beyond our normal sleep-deprived state.

More hurtin' SoxandPhils

The SoxandPhils injury bug is reaching epidemic proportions. Off the top of my head: Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, Ryan Madson, J.A. Happ, Clay Buchholz, Victor Martinez, Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Placido Polanco and Carlos Ruiz are all injured.

Now, Manny Delcarmen has hit the DL. And, Utley's injury is worse than expected: He's gone for eight weeks. And, Ruiz is still showing concussion symptoms. And now, Brian Schneider left tonight's game with a hand injury. At least Dustin Pedroia is not taking his injury sitting down, or standing up.

Not content to sit on his duff, he took grounders on his knees:

"I'm just keeping my [expletive] ready," Pedroia said. "That's all I've got for you. I've just got to keep my arm in shape."

Pedroia — amused that he was at the center of media attention yesterday — clearly cannot stand to be on the disabled list. So, while being driven around in carts, the second baseman is doing all he can to remain sharp, even though he is unlikely to be back for six weeks.

"I'm pretty bored," Pedroia said. "There's not really a lot to do for me right now. I really don't do much. I just sit down, lift weights sitting down. That's about it."

I love the spirit, but won't be happy when we learn about how someone can cause serious injury by taking grounders on their knees.

Tonight's games: The Red Sox are off. The Phillies lost to the Pirates 3-2. Christine is fearing a four-game sweep.

Ready to ride

Christine and I have followed our teams for 324 games, and now it could all be over in three games each, or we could have a long, intense month that ends with one of us not talking to the other.

Nothing is better than winning in the playoffs, and nothing is worse. The long marathon comes down to minutiae right now. Just ask the Twins and Tigers, whose season ended in game No. 163 before the Twins pushed across a run in the 12th inning to win 6-5. You have to love that they needed extra innings in an extra game to complete one of the biggest comebacks in baseball history. And, yes, we're quite familiar with how the NL East was won in 2007.

Before we make our predictions for the first round, here's a quick recap of today's SoxandPhils playoff notes: Cliff Lee starts game 1; Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ join the reality TV stars in The Pen; and Eric Bruntlett, Clay Condrey and Tyler Walker aren't on the roster for this round.

Christine is upset about the last one because Walker has been arguably the second best reliever on the Phillies this year. And he's been prominently featured as the Phillie most looking forward to his playoff debut.

No real surprises today for the Red Sox (although they're not announcing their roster until tomorrow), except for the fact that Manny Delcarmen was in a car crash on Saturday. That's odd they managed to kept that quiet for so long. And I forgot how good Jonathan Papelbon has been in the playoffs, so he's probably going to get rocked in his first appearance now.

Our picks: Of the SoxandPhils' preseason predictions, only Christine and I have our World Series in tact. She has the Phillies over the Angels; I have the Red Sox over the Phillies. We each stand by our picks, but mine was more precise {thanks for rubbing it in}:

World Series: Red Sox over Phillies. Jason Bay hits a walkoff home run in Game 7 - the first blown save in three years for Brad Lidge.

Here are my picks for the first round: I'm not as confident in the Sox as I have been in the past two years, and I am nervous that their dominance over the Angels in the playoffs is bound to even out eventually, but I think the Sox will pull it out in five.

I'll go with my heart over my head and take the Twins over the Yankees in four. But if the Twins lose Game 1, they'll be swept.

Despite the Phillies bullpen issues, I think they have enough to beat the Rockies in four. I'll take the Cardinals in four.

Christine's picks:

Rockies vs. Phillies: Phillies, no doubt.

Cardinals vs. Dodgers: Cardinals. I want an easy road to the World Series, and the Cardinals would definitely provide that.

Twins vs. Yankees: Yankees. Blah. But don't worry, they won't win it all.

Red Sox vs. Angels: Angels. If you'll recall my preseason pick, I wanted to say the Red Sox for the Wild Card, but Greg was kind of pissy over that. So I elevated them to AL East champs over the Rays (my division pick). Should have stuck with my Wild Card instinct. Anyway, this part of the prediction will stand. This is the year the Angels finally beat the Red Sox in a round of the playoffs, setting up an Angels-Phillies finale.

Catching up with SoxandPhils keystone combos

I've read a few interesting tidbits about our teams' midfielders in the past couple days.

Everyone knows Chase Utley is real good and has been the best second baseman in baseball the past few years. This FanGraphs blogger, however, suggests he has been nearly Albert Pujols good, but has largely been ignored by MVP voters. Ironically, this Chase Utley admirer, Erik Manning, covers not the Phillies, but the Cardinals. He notes that Chase hasn't yet cinched a spot in the Hall of Fame, but he's got a good shot at being an all-time upper pantheon type of player.

While checking Utley's Baseball-Reference page to see how close he is to being a Hall of Famer, I noticed some interesting friends and foes in his player comps: David Wright, Victor Martinez, Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, Marcus Giles and Carlton Fisk.

It's hard to believe Utley hasn't finished higher than seventh in MVP voting. Maybe he should try to raise his profile by garnering attention by doing something - say, cursing on a national broadcast.

Or, he could ask the SoxandPhils middle infield MVPs - Jimmy Rollins and Dustin Pedroia - for advice.

Speaking of J-Roll, everyone knows he's having a down year at the plate, but he may be having a historically good season in the field. Jayson Stark reports he could become the first NL shortstop to handle more than 600 chances with three errors or fewer:

When a player is in the midst of a historic offensive season, the world catches on to it by now. But how come, when a guy is chasing a historic defensive season, it's a bigger secret than Dick Cheney's cholesterol count?

The Red Sox MVP second baseman is starting to power up for the stretch run. He weathered a 183 at-bat homerless stretch in the middle of the season and had his first multi-homer game last night:

And as far as the numbers taking care of themselves, he's three homers shy of the 15 he hit a year ago.

"You get more at-bats throughout the year, and it all evens out," Pedroia said. "It's not like I'm going to hit 30 home runs in a year or anything like that. But I'm definitely going to hit some."

And his new double-play mate has a strange season going. I swear I noticed this days ago, but Alex Gonzalez is hitting .289 - that's good. But he's only getting on-base at a .289 clip - that's not good. How does someone go 84 at bats without a walk?

Today's games: Both of our teams are in tight ones against less than top-notch competition. The Red Sox have blown a lead in a game started by Paul Byrd (Manny Delcarman's the culprit of the blown lead) and trail the Orioles 4-3 in the 6th.

When I started updating the scores, the Phillies were starting the 8th tied at four after Cliff Lee gave up a run in the 7th, but the red-hot (Christine swears he's not juiced) Jayson Werth hit another home run, followed by Pedro Feliz. In the 8th, Phillies 6, Nationals 4.

I wonder who gets the ball if it stays close in the 9th.

Lifetime achievement award

Nick Cafardo today endorsed an unlikely star for his first All-Star game: Tim Wakefield. Amazingly, Wakefield has never made it to the Midsummer Classic in a 17-year career with 186 wins. He's been so classy and so consistent that Cafardo felt obliged to write about his All-Star chances even after pitching poorly, but just good enough, to beat the Yankees yesterday:

It may even be time to start thinking about things like the All-Star Game, one accolade that has eluded him.

"It would be huge," said Wakefield, whose eight quality starts are second on the Sox to Josh Beckett's nine. "It's one thing you want in a career is to make an All-Star team. We've won two World Series; just to add it to the list of things that you can say you've accomplished in your career. Obviously it would be nice to make a team and hopefully I can continue to pitch the way I've been pitching and finally make one after 14 or 15 years. Hopefully I can be in St. Louis."

In his best year, when the Red Sox plucked him up after he was discarded by the Pirates in 1995, he was 7-1 at the break with a 1.61 ERA. He didn't make the cut because he only had 10 starts in the American League. Besides, Erik Hanson made it for the Red Sox, going 7-2 with a 3.61 ERA in his first 14 starts.

It's too soon to start compiling the All-Star roster, but Wakefield probably won't get a spot because I can't see more than one Red Sox starting pitcher on the staff, and Beckett has better numbers (7-2 with a 3.77 ERA).

Wakefield's 2009 season is a perfect example of why the All-Star rosters could be expanded to honor career contributions of special players.

In other news: Pablo Osuna, a veteran journeyman playing in the Phillies minor league system, has been suspended 50 games for drugs. I hope this is an isolated case pertaining to one player and is not tied to the organization. ... Mike Pelfrey's teammates were proud of him for putting Chase Utley in his place last night. Here's the coverage from the Mets perspective:

"He's a guy that I look at who always takes his time in the box," Pelfrey said. "I don't know if he's thinking or what in between pitches, but I was ready to go, and he wasn't. ... And I was mad."

But according to Phillies coverage, Utley didn't notice:

And there was the minor (so minor that it really never happened) sixth-inning flare-up between Utley and Mets starter Mike Pelfrey. A few New York reporters asked Utley about it after the game, and he looked at them like they each had 12 heads.

Basically, Pelfrey was miffed when, just as he was ready to deliver a pitch, Utley stepped out of the batter's box. Pelfrey yelled toward the batter's box, and although it appeared he had more to say to Utley after the at-bat (a groundout to second base), both players said there were no words exchanged.

That's hysterical. The Mets are even too inept to fight with the Phillies. That, or Chase is just playing a brilliant mind game with the young Met. {Little of A, but mostly B. Utley wouldn't acknowledge something like this, especially to the press. He knows exactly what Pelfrey said but will never admit it. That's the way it should be.}

Tonight's games: Brad Penny battled for six innings (I was even reconsidering my previous get-rid-of-Penny posts) protecting a one-run lead (David Ortiz hit a big home run off CC Sabathia), but then the vaunted bullpen (Manny Delcarmen) blew it. Delcarmen gave up a barrage of hits, allowing three runs, most horribly a two-run double to Alex Rodriguez - his first hit of the series. The Sox have rallied, and the game is now tied at 3-3 in the 8th with the bases loaded and no one out.

Meanwhile, the Phillies and Mets went into extra innings for the second straight night. They've played some good games this week, making me kind of hope the Mets can win the Wild Card. That would be an entertaining NLCS with a new way to crush Mets' fans spirits.

Like, for instance, a three-run home run from a 37-year-old slugger having a career year who is not on steroids. Oh wait, that's what happened tonight. Phillies 6, Mets 3. So the Sox and Phils each head into the big showdown with series wins against the New York teams.

Losing to the rivals

Both our teams lost to their rivals tonight.

Chan Ho Park was the big goat for the Phillies in their 7-4 loss against the Mets.

Christine: How long are we going to be stuck with Chan Ho Park in the rotation?

Me: Judging by Adam Eaton, a year and a half.

He was pretty darn bad tonight: seven runs on six walks and eight hits over 4 2/3 innings. I've said since spring training he shouldn't be a starter - now I no longer have faith that he would be serviceable in the bullpen. Christine thinks he'd be fine switching spots with J.A. Happ.

In the 6th I was starting to believe in mystique and aura when the Mets over threw third base. I believed for all of two seconds until Greg Dobbs ran past second on his way to third, forcing Chris Coste to try to score when he had no chance.

Ryan Howard struck out to end the game with a poor swing at a bad pitch. "What the (insert Chase Utley's favorite word here) was that?" Christine said.

Red Sox: All I know about this 6-2 loss to the Rays is this: When flipping to MLB Network to try to find a mid-game update, they were talking about where Evan Longoria ranks among third basemen. They mentioned he hit a grand slam tonight. Ugh.

Justin Masterson pitched almost as poorly as Chan Ho Park, but Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez each pitched a scoreless inning, preserving their 0.00 ERAs.

Tomorrow: We're going to our first game. A colleague mentioned the rainy forecast. "No biggie," I said. "It won't be any worse than the last game we went to."

Mixed emotions

Last year, when the Red Sox were down 3-1 to the Indians, I wasn't confident of victory, but I knew they could do it.

This year, however, they don't look like they belong on the field with the Rays. Imagine that - the little doodles are on the verge of going to the World Series.

The feeling is not as bad as when I conceded the 2004 American League Championship Series when they were down 3-0 to the Yankees. I'm not conceding to the Rays yet, but there is a similar numb feeling.

The Rays appear younger, healthier, hungrier and better. But the Red Sox still have the heart of a champion, so the Rays would be best served to finish off the job on Thursday because we have Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester ready to go. Yeah, I know, not exactly Derek Lowe, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez of '04 or Beckett, Curt and Dice-K last year.

If you don't know the gory details by now, the Red Sox lost 13-4 tonight and trail the Rays 3-1. Tim Wakefield and Manny Delcarmen each gave up five runs - Wake lasted two and two-thirds of an inning, Delcarmen just one-third.

What the F???: What's worse, that Sweet Caroline would still be played with the Red Sox trailing by 11 runs in an absolutely critical playoff game or that the fans would still be singing along? I think the latter. What the hell ever happened to the spirited Red Sox fans I fell in love with in the 1980s? The die-hard Fenway Faithful have been a disgrace - booing the team, leaving early and now singing Neil Diamond as the Red Sox dig themselves deeper and deeper.

The faltering Red Sox took away some of the high I've been on after the Phillies dramatic Game 4 win on Monday, taking a 3-1 lead over the Dodgers.

When it felt like the Dodgers were going to win it and tie the series, Christine couldn't watch. She missed seeing Chase Utley's great double play, Shane Victorino's clutch home run to tie it in the 8th, followed shortly by Matt Stairs' two-run pinch-hit home run that will go down in Philly lore because of its significance and his post-game comment.

She started watching again to see Brad Lidge's first more than three-out save of the year. Of course, in Philly fashion, Carlos Ruiz had to let a third strike get by him in the 8th to prolong the drama of that inning.

This town is abuzz. It's like everyone suddenly woke up and realized there's a baseball team and that the .500 Eagles are not the only game in town. It should be interesting to see what happens should the Phillies advance to the World Series.

I've already cautioned Christine that should the Phillies and Rays meet in the next round, it will be more of a series than she's seen so far. Meantime, I'm still rooting for Cole Hamels to wrap it up tomorrow to give the Phillies the edge over a surely exhausted Red Sox team who just had a dramatic three-game comeback against the Rays.

[Photo credits: Boston Globe (Wakefield), Associated Press (Victorino)]

Game 1 starter?

Maybe I'm overreacting to Josh Beckett's embarrassing outing on Sunday, but if the Red Sox make the playoffs, should Jon Lester be considered for Game 1 honors?

He won again tonight (12-4) as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 6-3, keeping pace with the red-hot Rays. The White Sox are winning; Twins are losing.

But the story is Lester. A day after Beckett couldn't come through, Lester put up his predictably fine line: one run on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts over seven innings. He's just money. Manny Delcarmen tried to blow it for him, but Jonathan Papelbon bailed him out with a four-out save.

NL: The Phillies and Marlins were off; the Mets lost, so the Phils gained ground. They're just 1.5 games out. Yea!

Swept a-Ray

In observance of the five-year rule that says no complaining for five years after a championship, I won't mention that Daisuke Matsuzaka, our $100 million pitcher, routinely pitches only five innings. I also won't mention tonight's disgraceful 7th-inning performances by Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen.

I'll just tip my hat to the Rays - they're the better team right now. They're fun to watch, and as I've said plenty of times, it's going to be a challenge against them this year. If this is the ALCS matchup, it has the potential of being just as intense as 2004 against the Yankees and last year against the Indians.

{Stop being obnoxious, Greg. Your team looked old and played old. Those who aren't old sucked it up tonight. I think you should worry about holding off the third-place team this weekend before you start talking about the ALCS.}

For the Phillies, if you define a winning streak as two or more consecutive wins, they have their first since June 12-13. But two errors by Ryan Howard in the 9th made it a very tense non-save appearance for Brad Lidge. It ended 7-3 with the bases loaded. Adam Eaton, who fans gripe cost the Phillies $24 million, went five innings, just like Dice-K. He got the win.

Ugly win for Phils; hideous loss for the Sox

"I'm tired of the Phillies being stuck in jams and sucking," Christine said before Brad Lidge struck out Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley to end the game with the potential tying run on base.

And that quote summed up tonight's game - a rare win for the Phillies, 8-6 over the Rangers.

Cole Hamels didn't have his best stuff but labored for seven innings, giving up four runs. Fortunately, he was matched up against Vicente Padilla, who pitched like he did when he was a Phillie. And we may have a legitimate sighting of the offense - every starter except Pat Burrell had a hit. Chase Utley had three, including a homer, and Ryan Howard also hit one out. Jimmy Rollins tried to stretch a triple into a homer in the 6th, but ran through a stop sign and was thrown out at home. Wonder if he's due for another benching.

Funny moments in the broadcast: Chris Wheeler on Hamels' pitch count at the start of the 7th: "He's thrown 193 pitches." I think he forgot to clarify that it was actually only 93 pitches. Not even Dusty Baker would leave a young ace out there for 193 pitches. ... In the dugout, Brett Myers put on a catchers mask (hmm, with the way he's pitching, maybe not such a terrible idea). He then gave it to So Taguchi, who also put it on. We'd love to hear the conversation between those two.

Stinky Sox: Ugly, ugly, ugly game for what may be the second-place Red Sox. Jon Lester entered with 11 straight starts of three earned runs or less - the longest for a Sox starter since Pedro Martinez in 2002-03. Lester gave up six in five innings tonight in a wild back and forth 11-10 loss to the Astros.

The offense, paced by four hits each by Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell, more than did its job. Lester gets a pass - he's entitled to a bad start every couple of months. But the bullpen? Two runs, one earned, for David Aardsma in the 7th, and three for Manny Delcarmen in the 8th.

The Rays are tied with the Pirates in the 13th inning. If they win, the Red Sox are once again the hunters.