Airing of Grievances
A quick check-in after game 2. Terry Francona has been a wonderful coach and certainly his body of work with the Red Sox speaks for itself. But last night was clearly an off-night for the Red Sox manager.
First off, Josh Beckett is broken right now. He is firing on only 5 of 6 cylinders right now (using my car as an example, 1 of 2 cylinders). While I can't fault Francona for running Beckett out there last night, I can fault him for keeping him out there. It was fairly evident that he didn't have his fastball (topping out at 92-93, a good 2-4 off the norm) and general game presence.
Why then did he insist on keeping Beckett on the mound? The Red Sox fought back twice to retake the lead only to have Beckett give it up again. By the 3rd inning, Francona should have had enough. Paul Byrd was sitting in the bullpen just ready to be asked to come in and help. But no call came. Why is he on the team? This would have been the best opportunity to use him.
Byrd wouldn't have provided any guarantees, but he would have been a change of pace and perhaps a better option. But Francona pushed the issue until the Red Sox again were behind.
Ok, on to the last inning of the game. Mike Timlin in for the Red Sox. Wait, why? Why Timlin? He has been bad all year and is not a MLB caliber pitcher anymore. In fact, his last season has been a nightmare. You always want players you respect and pulled for to go gracefully into the night, well, Timlin isn't doing that. He has been a disaster and lost 2 big games at the hands of the Rays this year, last night's being the bigger of the two.
But Timlin is a pitcher and he wants to pitch, it is Francona who needed to tell Timlin that he wasn't going to be a part of the post-season. Instead, for whatever reason, he not only put Timlin on the roster, he gave him the ball in extra-innings. Disaster.
I know Francona to be good and I expect he'll continue to be good, but he needs to know that last night's handling of the pitching staff was dreadful.
Back to Boston for game 3, 4 & 5.
Comments
andy - did you hear me screaming at my tv? The had chances to win despite Tito last night. I will give him a pass as you seem to have also. Better not make it two nights in a row with that decision making.
Maybe Wheeler has used up his usefulness with the big innings he put up.
I feel good, Lester going, then Wake and DiceK. Should win 2 of 3 at Fenway, right?
Posted by: blmeanie![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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October 12, 2008 09:05 PM
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blmeanie, yup, I give Tito a pass. He's a good manager, but I hope Brad Mills had his ear b/c those were some bad moves.
Beckett maintained today that he is fine despite an injection for the oblique injury, but I don't buy it. A power pitcher doesn't drop 4 mph and just chalk it up to nothing.
I do feel good about this series. They needed to take one in TB and they did. At Fenway, with Lester, things should be good.
Posted by: andy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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October 13, 2008 12:00 AM
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lifeless...that is how I would describe the effort tonight. I guess they thought with Lester that it would be easy to win.
Ortiz hasn't taken an offensive swing in a long time, everything he is doing is reacting to the pitchers instead of forcing mistakes.
lazy fly balls are what they are collectively hitting lately, no juice
Posted by: blmeanie![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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October 13, 2008 08:42 PM
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