Filed under: Boston Red Sox
After blowing out the Mariners in the first game of a three game series 9-4 in a game that included 5 Sox home runs off Seattle starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, the Sox went on to lose the next two games by scores of 5-2 and 9-8. Although both losses were certainly team efforts complete with bad relief pitching and a couple of defensive blunders, I point my inconsequential finger to two people off the top of my head. Firstly, as much as I love Manny, even when he’s “Manny being Manny”(sometimes especially when he’s “Manny being Manny”), his shoddy defense reared its ugly head in the Seattle series practically handing Seattle a couple extra runs, including a defensive error that resulted in a Mariner inside the park home run. Now we can’t get too upset at Manny, because A)he has never been known for his defense and we can even come to expect this a few times a year and 2)he will more than likely make up for it in his bat at some point causing us to conveniently forget his shakey defense. However, I do need to point out that after witnessing his debauchery in left field this past series its safe to say Manny will not be hanging up a Gold Glove at the end of this season.
I think I was more upset at Terry Francona though. In the 9-4 shellacking of Seattle in the first game, Tito pitched Craig Hansen, Manny Delcarmen, and Mike Timlin in relief for a combined 4 innings. Then with a 3-2 game in the sixth inning of the second game he proceeds to bring in designated mop-up men Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez to finish the game, which quikcly became a 5-2 Seattle lead turned victory. Does this make sense to anyone? I understand pitchers need their work but it almost seemed as if Francona had mapped out his pitching schedule before the games started. Not only that but it completely ruined a great start from newly promoted Kason Gabbard, who pitched a ballsy five innings. You would think that with Kabbard and Lester going in the second and third games of the series, Francona would want to save our real relief pitchers for those games. If Beckett was going against Seattle’s number 5 guy in the second game, I might understand the logic, but Tito lost me on this one. Its not like Francona needed to rest guys like Hansen and Timlin for a day either. That clearly didn’t work as Timlin gave up the game winning run in the ninth anyways. And as the perrenial league leader in appearances a year with like a 185 appearance average, its not like Timlin can’t handle back to back games. He shouldn’t have pitched in the first game period. And as far as I am concerned the second game was very winnable up until the point Tavarez entered the game. Good one Terry.
Also I really hate to say anything bad about Jon Lester because he has been absolutely outstanding for us this year. His accomplishments are magnified even greater when you think of how badly the Sox needed a starting pitcher to step in and anchor the back end of the rotation. However, Lester pitched in his home state for the first time in his major league career in the third game of the series and showed his youth also for the first time by letting up 5 runs in as many innings. You would think that Lester would consider the start a big game since it was in front of many of his friends and family. This would suggest that Lester didn’t succeed as much as we would expect of him in a big game. Perhaps I am being too harsh or reading too much into it, but it did remind me of how young and inexperienced Lester actually is. With such a phenomenal beginning to his career, its easy to forget that his major league starts are in the single digits. I am not really worried about Lester but it will be interesting to see how he rebounds after his first unsuccessful outing. He may not have a choice but to do well because with Matt Clement still on the roster, there is only room for one head case starting pitcher. Oh and for the record, David Wells is not a head case, he’s just a nut.
theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com
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