What, Me Worry?

You can't blame him. He did his job, allowing only two earned runs in eight innings. That ought to be enough to get your team a win, but in the surreal world of Tim Wakefield, it doesn't work that way.

In four starts so far this season, Wakefield has only one win to three losses. We all remember that first loss, the 7-run shellacking in four innings against Texas on that opening road trip. But his earned run average in the other two losses is 2.12. Let me say that again. In his two most recent losses, Tim Wakefield's ERA is 2.12. There are currently eight starters in the major leagues with ERAs lower than that, and they have a combined two losses in 28 starts.

Meanwhile, guess how many earned runs Wakefield had to hold the opponent to in order to get his one lousy win? I'll give you a hint: it's less than 1 and rhymes with "hero". And how many runs did his teammates score in each of his his starts? Four, one, zero, and one. It's hard to win games with that kind of offense, no matter how good the pitching is.

On the other, it's three weeks into the season and we have the best record in the American League. There is plenty of time for players to hit their stride, for the front office to fill the holes, for the coaches to work on areas of concern, for the team to learn to pick each other up. I keep reminding myself that a couple years ago when the team didn't get its act together until August, they ended up winning the World Series.

All I'm asking is that the team treat Timmy a little better. He deserves more than they've been giving him, and if they don't start picking him up, they'll have no reason to complain when the time comes when he can't pick them up anymore.