Filed under: Boston Red Sox
Well the good news is that we won. David Pauley got a slice of humble pie in his major league debut as Toronto ate him up for 6 runs on 11 hits. Pauley only lasted 4 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays, causing Francona to have to dip into the recently promoted youth in the bullpen.
The strange thing about last nights 8-6 win is out of the five pitchers the Red Sox used, only one of them, Keith Foulke, has had more than one year of major league experience. Pauley was relieved in the fifth by Jermaine Van Buren, who pitched a full inning and recorded the win. He was followed by Manny Delcarmen and then Keith Foulke, who combined to pitch the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings respectively. With an 8-6 lead Jonathan Papelbon entered the came to record his 19th save in as many chances.
So only a few hours after I ripped into the Sox pitching for their recent troubles, the Sox bullpen throw 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Although Pauley didn’t exactly have Cy Young material, allowing 16 baserunners in just 4 1/3 innings. He was half way decent for his first four innings, holding Jays hitters to 2 runs on 6 hits. In the fifth though, he collapsed, getting knocked around for four runs while recording just one out.
For reasons unbeknownst to the public, Terry Francona decided not to give up on his fifth starter before the game even began. This time he issued his more potent lineup(with the exception of Mirabelli subbing for Varitek) and the hitters delivered. The Sox had eight of ten batters record hits and nine of ten reach base. Five of the eight Sox who had hits also had RBIs. Ortiz, Loretta, Ramirez, and Nixon all homered in the game as well.
The real story of the game was the defense though. The Red Sox ended four of Toronto’s innings by executing double plays, with few of them falling under the ‘routine’ category. The spectacular defense became the x-factor in a game that easily could have gotten out of control. Alex Gonzalez was the star of the defensive show, getting involved in three of the four double plays and making some impressive plays at short. In the lineup, Gonzalez sticks out worse than Charles Barkley at a MENSA convention, but on the field he’s been worth his weight in gold.
So “Double A” David Pauley escapes his first major league start with a no decision. He’ll be vying for the job as starter in five days when the Sox head to New York to face the Yankees. However, Pauley will have to pitch a lot better if he wants to contain the Bronx Bombers. And we certainly don’t want to dip into our bullpen as much as we did this past series. We were more dependent on our ‘pen than Dwight Gooden is on his dealer. So the pitching still needs to be cleaned up a bit. But at least we know its possible.
theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>