With the Celtics season ending over the weekend, Boston’s full attention is now on the Red Sox, and that may not be such a good thing. The team lost their fourth straight, and seventh out of eight with their 4-1 loss to the Marlins Monday night in Miami. During the tough recent stretch the team actually has gotten decent starting pitching, the issue has been lack of hitting. Of the teams’ last seven losses they have scored three runs or less in four of those games.
Josh Beckett struggled early Monday night, but settled down and retired 15 of the final 16 batters he faced. In the first two innings Beckett allowed four runs on six hits, which was enough for him to take the loss. For the second straight game Beckett did not speak to reporters following the game. While I don’t agree with Beckett not talking after his last two starts, and think he owes it to the fans/reporters, let’s remember it was just over a month ago that most of the Boston media was hammering him for his “golf outing” and “what he does on his 18 off days a year is his business” comments.
Once again members of the Red Sox had issues with the umpiring. After being ejected for arguing a call after striking out Friday night, Kevin Youkilis once again got into it with an umpire Monday night. Youkilis was barking at the home plate umpire from the dugout about his previous at bat and needed to be ushered down the steps by Nick Punto.
The Red Sox have spent a great deal of time blaming the umpires over their recent rough stretch of play, and that starts at the top with their manager Bobby Valentine who was ejected from Sunday’s game and then spent a considerable time before Monday’s game talking about the poor umpiring.
Bats fail to do much damage– Michael Silverman has just how much the Red Sox hitters are struggling of late.
How Dustin Pedroia put concerns about his thumb in rear-view mirror– Rob Bradford has a look at Dustin Pedroia and how he is determined to snap out of his recent slump.
Red Sox need to look inward, not at umpires, to straighten out offensives woes– Didier Morais says complaining about the umpiring is the last thing the Red Sox should be doing right now.
Depth of bullpen should help weather loss of Hill– Brian MacPherson says with the teams’ depth in the bullpen they should be able to get by with Rich Hill being out the next month.
An equal exchange– Nick Cafardo looks back at the trade the Marlins and Red Sox made sending Josh Beckett to Boston and Hanley Ramirez to South Florida.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Off topic to all the links above but it looks like ESPN is getting the hint they need changes to their NBA pre/post coverage:
@richarddeitsch Mark Gross, who execs ESPN’s NBA
coverage, said he leans toward ESPN again going w/o a traditional studio
host next season on pre/postgame.
(They originally tried this because of how bad they were mocked compared to Inside the NBA on TNT.)
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“And, in the type of news you don’t want to read about Gronk:”
The only types of news I don’t want to read about Gronk is him getting arrested or hurt. Acting like a well-off young 20-something in the offseason doesn’t really bother me.
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Looks like this article is making some rounds today:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2012/06/which_way_shoul.html
“Among those Red Sox fans who actually watch the game and can name more
than three players, there is a growing willingness to start over. Blind
faith is being chipped away by a roster of underachieving players. Fan
blogs have taken a different tone. The same is true on Twitter and in
comments section here on Boston.com. There is discontent like never
before among fans.”
“Worse, there is growing apathy. People show up late to Fenway and leave
early, that is if they come at all. NESN’s pre-game show is full of
injury updates and analysts marveling about the players on the other
teams. The Globe dumped the Sox off the front page of the sports section
when the Celtics played last week. There are now several media outlets
that regularly skip road trips. The cost is greater than the interest.”
Wow, which outlets are skipping the road trips here?
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Wiggins is embarrassing himself. How much does he get paid?
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Did I mishear John Dennis this morning railing against other “talk show hosts” that he heard talking about the Celtics not having over achieved? Unless I am mistaken he was referencing Felger. So that begs two questions:
Why was he listening to the enemy?
What does Big O think?
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I heard part of that, as well. I guessed that it was Felger but didn’t hear it all, so I didn’t want to make a bad assumption. They basically dedicated their morning to trying Sandusky through the media and trashing Felger or “other hosts”. Really not sure how that works for winning listeners back.
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