Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
When I get tickets to a Boston Red Sox game, the first thing I generally think is, “please don’t let this be an Aceves or Doubront game.”
Buying tickets to this week’s three-game series between the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays probably seemed like a good idea in early April. You probably thought you’d be getting to see some of MLB‘s best pitchers competing for the AL East lead.
Unfortunately, you took a gamble when you bought in advance and you’re going to see a bunch of pitchers that have no business anywhere near a MLB roster. With Rays’ ace David Price on the DL and Clay Buchholz potentially joining him there, both teams are forced to rely on unreliable options.
Tuesday’s doubleheader starts with the train wreck known as Alfredo Aceves going against the upstart Chris Archer. Aceves is a nutjob. He’s the definition of a wild card, because you have no clue what you’ll get from him on any given night. Maybe he’ll allow 13 runs and blame the offense for not supporting him. Maybe he’ll pitch a seven-inning shutout.
One thing we do know for sure is that until the Red Sox figure out what to do with Buchholz, Aceves is going to avoid another demotion to Pawtucket.
The second game of the doubleheader might be the least attractive ticket I’ve ever seen, as Felix Doubront goes up against Jake Odorizzi. What an epic pitching match up that is! Never heard of of Odorizzi? Me neither. I do know Doubront all too well though, and I know that this is likely going to be a very high-scoring game.
The finale is the only game that you could even remotely consider worth seeing. Unfortunately, it will be on the same night as Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Boston, so no one’s going to watch it. Ryan Dempster, who has shown signs of both brilliance and mediocrity, will pitch against the once highly-touted Jeremy Hellickson. The two have a combined 8-10 record.
So my advice, if you have a ticket to one of these games, is find some poor sucker who hasn’t looked at the pitching matchups, sell it to them, and run.
Aidan Kearney also writes for his own blog aidanfromworcester.com. Follow him on Facebook @Aidan FromWorcester and on Twitter @aidanfromworc.
