Red Sox Game 130 recap: Proving ground, episode one!

Highest WPA: Stephen Drew, .022 (1-3)
Lowest WPA: Will Middlebrooks, -.144 (0-3, K, 2 LOB, GIDP, as if Goog wasn’t already gonna be smug tonight)

You really have to applaud the scheduling gurus who set the Red Sox/Dodgers series on the anniversary of last year’s Soxpocalypse/Renaissox blockbuster. Or maybe you should hate them for attempting to make the jobs of media hacks that much easier for a few days. Of course, as a guy who writes a hundred or so recap blogs a year, I suppose I’d qualify as a media hack, so… thanks for the shortcuts!

Unfortunately, round one goes to the Dodgers, though the story was mostly Ricky Nolasco, who threw eight innings of two-hit ball and kept the Red Sox scoreless (with the aid of some luck on a few line drives). On the other side of things… John Lackey was similarly good, save for one bad pitch to Hanley Ramirez. But history repeats itself; since Tampa Bay won today, Carl $@^#ing Crawford (on base for that Ramirez homer and 2 for 3 on the night) proved a big part of the Red Sox losing their grip on first place. Let’s hope that’s the last comparison we make to 2011 ever again.