Here are some major stats for the Sox for the last 30 days:
.279BA - 5th in AL behind Baltimore(.291), Los Angeles(.282), Detroit(.281) and New York(.280).
.366OBP - 1st in AL.
.454SLG - 1st in AL.
So they have been getting on base and hitting for power better than anyone else in the AL the past 30 days. And this isn't a thing where 2 or 3 people are bringing up the numbers to make it look good for everyone, but most of the offense has been contributing. Of the regular 9 only Lugo has a BA lower than .267 in that span, only Lugo and Lowell have an OBP lower than .357, and only Lugo and Pedroia have a SLG lower than .400. Other than Lugo and to an extent Lowell the entire lineup has produced very well the past 30 days. And Lugo has been great so far in July, so hopefully he wont be a complete albatross for much longer.
Despite all that they are only 18th in baseball in terms of runs scored with only Oakland, Los Angeles, Seattle and Tampa Bay scoring fewer runs in the AL. Is this just being unlucky, or is the entire team really unclutch? If they are just unlucky one can expect this to pass and they'll start scoring a lot of runs sometime soon, but if they are all tremendously unclutch how can the addition of one bat make much of a difference if the rest of the lineup continues to choke with RISP?
The pitching has also been very good the past 30 days:
3.70ERA - 2nd in AL behind Detroit(3.62).
1.33WHIP - 3rd in AL behind Minnesota(1.18) and Detroit(1.27).
But those stats are largely because the bullpen has continued to be fantastic (2.02ERA, no one with an ERA higher than 3.27) while the starters have been less than stellar. Despite the low ERAs of Matsuzaka (2.70) and Beckett (3.27) the rotation has a combine 4.55ERA over the past 30 days. While I don't believe that an additional bat would be necessary or would make that big of an impact, the addition of another starter could make all the difference in the world. Hopefully said deal wouldn't mortgage the future, but if they can manage a nice number 3 starter to fit between Matsuzaka and Schilling without giving up any of their top 3 prospects I would feel a lot more confident in the team.
Maybe Lester will magically discover control or Clement will come back in and pitch like he did in early 2005. But I'd sooner expect Julio Lugo to compete for the batting title.
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