As frustrating as it was to see the Blue Jays score 4 runs in the 9th inning, 'Sox need to bounce back from this one. Lackey had a good outing and the bats are good now. Petey comes back next week. 'Tek may be back soon, too. Some positives to build on.
However, I cannot help but 2nd guess Tito today. He did not have to use Pap but ended up using him and Bard. He had fresh, reliable arms in the pen. Sometimes, managers go to the well too often when it comes to relief pitchers. In the late 70's, 'Sox had a super closer named Bill Campbell. In short, they wore him out and after 2 seasons, Don Zimmer overworked the guy to the point that he hurt his arm and was never the same pitcher again. In the 80's, same case can be made for Bob Stanley.
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I'm not totally disappointed with today's loss. I hate the fact that we lost, but it was not because the Sox played bad baseball. Since Monday's win over the Yankees, they've had some very good games. What makes today's loss particularly hard to take was that it was completely preventable. Awesome O'Clock, alias John Lackey, pitched a very good game. By the bottom of 7, we was at a very economical 79 pitches, which for him was a miracle!! Yep, you knew Lackey had reached his point when he gave up the home run. Naturally, as a manager, you would turn to your closer to come in and save your lead. Why wouldn't you give your guy the chance to notch another save?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the closer had been used in every single game this week. The Sox used to have a "Kid Glove" rule with Pap. If he was used one night, they generally wouldn't call on him the next. That rule has totally been trashed. He's getting a lot of work these days. "Rubber Arm" Bard is maxed out. We'll be lucky if his shoulder doesn't fall off before September. When you have other guys you can call on (Atchison, Delcarmen, Felix, Wake, Dusty) and you bring in the overworked crew, don't be too surprised that the game goes south.
Atchison, in the parlance of the Mikey Lowell situation, is the bull pen's nonentity. He's out there, but has dry hump after dry hump and rarely gets into any games. Why don't the Sox just let him go if they're not going to use him? I totally believe that if Atchison would've been brought in to pitch today, we wouldn't have lost the game. I've said it all season: management will get you beat.
Don't feel too badly about the loss. The time to move on is now. Texas is a very good team and the boys have to do well in this series. We can't get hung up on what happened today. I only hope that in late innings tomorrow night, Pap and Bard are nowhere to be found!