Pitching, pitching, pitching. Wil Ledezma put together another good start, and has yet to give up a run in his first two since moving into the rotation. Jamie Walker has also quietly put together a nice run. After starting out with a 4.66 ERA and a .284 batting average against over his first 19 1/3 innings, he’s managed to whittle his ERA down to 3.28 and his batting average against down to .230. He’s still prone to giving up the long ball, but if he can keep pitching like this, the left handed set up job is his.

Mears also continued to throw well, and picked up his 4th save (of the week, although this was one was of the cheap, three run variety, and I’ll get to using relief pitchers in a minute). At least we’ve finally found our closer.

One of my current gripes is how relief pitchers, specifically “closers” are used. I know you need someone to throw in the ninth when the game is on the line, but the Tigers had a 2-0, and runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth. Boston brought in Brandon Lyon, who’s been struggling, and he let one of those inherited runners score, and even loaded up the bases, but managed to get out of it. Now instead of going into the top of the ninth down by two runs, you’re down by three. Garciaparra led off with a double, so had Boston not given up that last run, they would have been a home run away from tying the game.

Why not bring in your best reliever, Kim, in that situation? He mowed down Tigers in the first two games, and I’m sure pitching to two batters with the All Star break coming wouldn’t have taxed his arm. He was the best man to keep the Red Sox in the game. Instead, they save him for games when they’re up by three and in a “save” situation.

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