Sunday, May 1, 2011

Jenks: 9 ER in 4.2 innings over last 7 Outings

I was sitting here this beautiful May Day ready for my first blog post, and was thinking damn coming up with a good topic is harder than I thought! Then my good friend Bobby Jenks took the hill against  the M's. So my thought was how bad has Bobby Jenks been for the Red Sox early this year?  He just blew a 2-0 lead in the 8th inning with a wild pitch and walk forcing in a run. When he was signed to help bridge the gap between starters and the Bard/Paps lights out part of the pen, I like most fans was ecstatic about the possibility of a Jenks/Bard/Papelbon back end. However, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe wrote on twitter Jenks's last 7 outings have looked like 4.2 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 9 ER 7 BB, 138 pitches, 77 Strikes. While Ozzie Guillen must love this line, I as a Red Sox fan do not. By the end of the year Jenks will probably be fine, but I am very concerned if Jenks is not pitching well that Bard and Papelbon will be worked harder then they need to be. This will make them tired for any eventual playoff push (see last seasons team). I am not ready to write him off, but if he continues to pitch like this we will need another guy via a trade or from the PawSox to bridge the gap. So what do you think... should we be concerned with Jenks or is this just a bump in a long season?

EDIT: Papelbon, Ichiro, and Crawford got Jenks off the hook with a 3-2 walk-off win for the Sox today! Crawford RBI walk-off single! Welcome to the Red Sox Carl Crawford!

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