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MVPedroia
September 2, 2008
As we fast forward to 2006, we all caught our first glimpse of the little shortstop from Arizona State University. In a small sampling of just 31 games, Red Sox Nation set their eyes on the future second baseman of the Boston Red Sox. The 5’9’’ dirt dog from Woodland, California took the baseball world by storm shutting the mouth of every critic who ever doubted that he wouldn’t make it in the big leagues. Pedroia hit .317 in his rookie season with 8 home runs and 50 RBI. Dustin Pedroia’s rookie campaign helped launch the Red Sox to their second World Series title in four years and led to Rookie of the Year honors in 2007.
Just a year later, he’s back and he’s better than we ever had imagined. Some speculated maybe Pedroia had a fluke rookie season and maybe he was bound for a “sophomore slump”. When asked about that during Spring Training, Pedroia responded by saying “Sophomore slump? No way, sophomore year was my best year in college.” Well, so far it’s his best year in the Major Leagues as well. Pedroia has eclipsed all of his numbers from last season.
With 24 games left in the season, the Red Sox have entered the most crucial month of the season now 2-0 and 4-1 on their current home stand. Red Sox lead the Wild Card race over the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox but they have their eyes set on winning the AL East for the second straight year with their crosshairs set on the Tampa Bay Rays. A 20-hit attack was unleashed on the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night led by who else but Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia went 3-for-5 including his sixteenth home run of the season to go along with his five runs batted in as the Fenway Faithful showered him with chants of “MVP! MVP! MVP!” every single at bat.
With the Rookie of the Year award under his belt already, in comparison to Fred Lynn’s 1975 MVP season, Dustin Pedroia currently sits atop the American League with a .330 batting average just one point shy of where Fred Lynn finished. He is third in doubles in the American League with 42, just four doubles behind Brian Roberts who leads the Majors with 46. In his current 7-game hit streak, Pedroia is hitting .600 with 3 doubles, 2 home runs and 11 RBI. His defense is Gold Glove worthy and that would only be the icing of the cake for Pedroia.
Is he an MVP caliber player? Is that a serious question?
If the Red Sox keep winning and Dustin Pedroia keeps hitting the way he has been, Carlos Quentin may have to put his MVP celebration on hold. Especially if the Red Sox bury the White Sox and allow the Minnesota Twins to sneak into the postseason over the White Sox. Either way you look at it, the with the Rays losing tonight and the Red Sox winning big, Boston now trails Tampa Bay by four games. The Red Sox have 24 games to pass the Rays and hold whatever lead they can scrounge together while Dustin Pedroia continues to force baseball analysts jaws to the ground.
Jon Lester turned in a quality start Tuesday night going five strong innings giving up one earned run on six hits throwing 99 pitches (58 for strikes). His five innings of work and a 20-hit/14-run night by the Boston offense earned Lester his thirteenth win of the season. Daisuke Matsuzaka gets the ball in the series finale looking to sweep the O’s out of Boston and keep the winning going. Matsuzaka is coming off one of his best outings of the season in an eight inning, two-hit shutout against the Chicago White Sox to earn his sixteenth win of the season.
-Jared Carrabis
-Jared Carrabis
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