Time to Regroup

The Sox can't shake off the West Coast Syndrome, and they go 1-2 in the Oakland series by losing a close game Wednesday afternoon by the score of 2-1. They are now 16-6.
I suppose it is somewhat of a comfort that the Sox kept it this close with all the injured players in the infield.
Chris Widger played Third, while Joe Crede and Jermaine Dye spelled shortstop. Pretty bizarre, and I'm actually quite surprised that there was only one error committed.
The Tigers series is at home, starting on Friday. Contreras, El Duque and Jon Garland are scheduled to face off against Nate Robertson, Jason Johnson and Wilfredo Ledezman. Sox could use a good series at home to rebound and finish the month strong.

Noteworthy
A. Freddy Garcia had another strong outing, going 7 innings and giving up one earned run on 4 hits, two walks and four strikeouts. But there is a fairly big problem about the way he is pitching, which I will get to in a little bit.

B. Jose Contreras looks like he's going to be ready to go Friday night, recovering from a strained lower right hamstring. Herm Schneider knows what he's doing, so he should be ready to go.

C. Willie Harris is swinging the bat pretty well so far, going 2-for-4 while spelling Tadahiro Iguchi at 2B. Harris is 9-for-24 this season.

Concerns
A. Freddy Garcia's strikeouts are down. A lot.
So far, he has 19 strikeouts in 35 innings - which translates to 4.89 strikeouts per 9 innings. The lowest K/9 IP ratio he has sported prior to this season was 5.72 in 2000, when he was pitching for Seattle.
His K to BB ratio is not bad at 2.11, as opposed to 1.23 in 2000. Having said this, Garcia is mainly a strikeout pitcher. The fact that he's not getting strikeouts has to be a point of concern, at any time in his career.
However, hitters are only hitting .210 against Garcia with a .582 OPS. These stats are far better than any of his season totals, as well (.241 in 2000, .625 in 2001 are his best season totals so far). And he has only given up 7 extra-base hits, including 3 home runs. Perhaps he's pitching effectively, with hitters hitting balls into outs.

B. Tadahiro Iguchi, Juan Uribe and Pablo Ozuna are all nursing injuries from the strange night that was Tuesday, when the Sox lost 9-7. Hopefully Schneider can get them ready for the Tigers series, because the Sox don't have the organizational depth to supplant these players. Hence the reason why Widger played Third and Crede and Dye played Short.

C. The Jermaine Dye watch contiunes. He went 0-for-4, striking out once and leaving 3 men on base. He's hitting an unhealthy .171, and he has struck out 16 times while only walking thrice so far this season. His OPS is at .505.
That's just not going to get it done.