Hot two Trot

While Red Sox Nation continues to beat on Wily Mo Pena like a human piñata, chew on this. Trot Nixon is batting .500 with two outs.

Granted, Trot missed a little time earlier, but his.500 average spans 10 at-bats. Given he’s hitting behind Manny in the five hole and not coming up with two outs all that often, that kind of clutch hitting is rather impressive. Especially when you consider Trot’s batting .333 when behind in the count.

As for Wily Mo, this project remains just that, batting.182 when behind in the count and .182 with two outs.

Red Sox are 2-4

As of Sunday, the Boston Red Sox own a 7-4 overall record. Yet the one Red Sox Nation will follow more closely this year is how the Sox do in games not pitched by Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett. As of April 15, that record holds at 2-4.

Now, before folks go running for the proverbial Tobin Bridge, remember a few things. Matt Clement has always been a very good first half pitcher. Sure, he threw up a stinker last week against the Jays. Even last year when he didn’t lose any games for the first month or so, there were more than a few shaky starts. The Red Sox bats bailed him out.

Tim Wakefield, as Coach Bill Belichick would say, “is what he is.” In his career, he’s 145-124 and hasn’t had a sub-.500 record since 2001.

As for the number 5 hole, that’s another Stat Man column for another day. Yet it could define the entire season as the Red Sox have to ask: are we a better overall team with Jonathan Papelbon as the fifth starter and Keith Foulke as the closer or with young Papi in the pen and a to-be-determined starter. Stay tuned…