Ode to a Troubled Starter

With apologies to Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Julie Andrews...

How do you solve a problem like Daisuke?

How does he get the ball and keep it down?

We’d better find an answer to Daisuke

Before he gets his ass run out of town!

Many’s the thing you think you’d like to tell him

Like, those fastballs shouldn’t end up in the stands!

It’s time to earn your pay

To sink or swim, Dice-K

Before you're amongst the highest-paid farmhands!

I admit, I'm flummoxed about what the Sox should do next here.  He clearly is not this bad-MVP of the WBC just a few months ago-but it's like waving a white flag eveytime he goes out there these days (or worse, waving a red flag in front of the opposition's bull). The Sox are in a tight race, and they just can't afford to concede every fifth game-or sixth, depending on what month it is.

I somehow doubt that he sucks out of spite, however, which is what I've seen floated on a few mesage boards. Too stubborn to pound the strike zone, which is what the Red Sox management passionately and obsessively desires of him. Too tentative to go really after guys, and rebeling because that's what the brass demands of him. Well, Jesus, who can blame him? He was throwing fastballs last night that were getting absolutely crushed, that got more of the plate than a fat guy at the Olde Country Buffet. I'm well aware that the organization has gotten on his case about the number of pitches and baserunners and short innings, but it may be that the 2008 Dice-K is the best of what we're going to get, despite the desire to have him be something different.

In other words, stop messing with his head, Red Sox. He's not Pedro, never will be Pedro. So let's stop trying to make him Pedro, and find some other approach that works before he ends up in Bellevue, or worse, the instructional league.

Oh, and a few timely hits and runs would help, too, oh-so-vaunted line up. Just sayin'.

Derek Lowe is in the house today. Is this the first time DLowe has pitched at Fenway since '04? (Yes, I guess so.) Wow. Time goes by fast...Although he often drove me crazy the seven years he was here, I have very fond memories of him (20-game winner, no-hitter, ALCS for sure) and would never wish anything ill on him. Well, except for this evening, of course. I hope the Fenway crowd cheers him and then he gets chased for an early shower. 7pm sharp. Be there.