Sox Can Handle Pitchers, Need Some Bats

The Sox' winning streak got me thinking about something. 5 of the last 9 games were games that were concluded with scores within one point of each other. In 4 of those, the runs scored by the winning team were either 1 or 2. Unbelievable, fantastic, amazing pitching? Or terrible offense?

Game 1: The Sox’ victory of the Cubs. Buehrle led the team in a 2-1 win. Buehrle’s ERA coming into the game was 5.40. Silva’s was 2.93. Conclusion? If we go by the numbers alone, terrible offense on the Cubs’ side; Unbelievable, fantastic, amazing pitching causing the Sox to score few runs.

Game 2: The Sox’ loss against the Cubs in Floyd/Lilly’s almost double no-hitter. Lilly’s ERA coming into the game was 3.28. Floyd’s was a larger than life 6.18. Conclusion? By the numbers, the Sox simply got out-matched and the Cubs are terrible hitters. In reality, Floyd is a very good pitcher who was struggling, and Lilly was a pretty good pitcher and the Sox were just not good enough offensively to get his stuff on a good day.

Game 3: The Floyd-Strasburg showdown in the Nationals’ own stadium. Floyd’s ERA coming into the game was a better, but still unnecessarily high 5.64. Strasburg’s was a much-hyped 2.19. Conclusion? Well, this one is a bit of a head scratcher. Like I said before, Floyd is a very good pitcher who was finally getting back in the groove. Strasburg made a few mistakes and had to pay dearly for them. But I am a big believer in the NL factor, so the head-scratcher is trying to figure out how that plays into the win.

Game 4: The Peavy complete game against the Nationals. The Sox won it 1-0 against Martin, whose ERA coming into this game was 4.19. Peavy’s was 5.90. Conclusion? The Sox should have been able to handle Martin and Peavy was back in form.

Because the Sox ran into some very good pitching (despite the fact that they were playing, as I’ve mentioned many times, teams that were playing below .500), it is understandable that they struggled to put up big numbers against their opponents.

HOWEVER- I do still think that the offense needs some serious help. I’m not sure if Viciedo will provide the boost the Sox need. In fact, I'm almost sure he won't. But with that in mind, I will make a prediction. I know you won’t believe me until you see it happen. And I don’t agree with it. But if I was to put my money on the Sox picking up anyone else (And, hey, why wouldn’t they add another bench player to rotate in the DH position? We already have about 9. The more the merrier?), it’s going to be Jermaine Dye. The Sox have a history of picking up former players, and especially older folk. (Griffey, anyone?) I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But don’t you just have a feeling about this? He’s probably sitting at home trying to figure out how to work his Wii Fit, and despite the fact that he’s had time to accumulate quite a bit of cash money, he’s probably looking for a job.

Does anyone else have any crazy predictions for the rest of the season?