For those keeping score:
HEROES:
David "Big Papi" Ortiz. Jonathan "Big Pap" Papelbon.GOAT:
Terry "Maybe Grady Had Some Good Ideas After All" Francona.Thank the maker that
The Greatest Clutch Hitter in the History of the Boston Red Sox came through again in the 11th. If he hadn't, it's safe to say that Sox Blog's apartment would be a heap of smoldering ruins right now.
We were cruising. A 5-0 lead in the seventh against a team that's given us fits. A game we needed to win, a game were gonna win.
But Bronson Arroyo, who'd pitched a great game so far, motoring through six innings while giving up just four hits, ran out of gas fast in the seventh. A walk ... a long single ... another walk. And just like that, the bases were loaded with no outs.
I suppose a case can be made that the bullpen shouldn't have started warming with the first walk. One can almost argue that the single wasn't enough incentive to start thinking about pulling him. Almost. But not really. As it was, it wasn't until the there were three men on that Arroyo finally skulked off the mound.
At this point, one would think about getting a strikeout guy in there. A power pitcher. Try to get a guy down swinging, then maybe hope for a double play. But no.
Keith Foulke. A guy who wasn't seen fit to bring in fresh to nail down a 9-2 blowout on Saturday. A guy who's just coming off knee surgery and some
none-too-impressive rehab stints (even if he's been scoreless in three innings since his return from the DL). A guy who relies on pinpoint positioning of his mid-80s stuff, who depends heavily on getting fly ball outs. He's brought into the most pressure-packed situation imaginable, and asked to go to work.
So he does. And immediately gives up a run-scoring single. He gets an out on the next batter -- but on a sac fly to right that scores another run. He probably would have been fine brought into a bases-empty situation. But here he is, getting one out at the expense of two runs.
And when he finally gets another, on a swinging K? Tito rewards him by pulling him for Mike Timlin. A real confidence-booster.
Why? Because Vernon Wells is just 2 for 14 against Timlin. But he's also just 1 for 9 against Foulke.
No matter, Timlin (for now at least) is our "closer." And our best pitcher.
Sabermetricians might agree, but Sox Blog, in this instance at least, does not. Timlin is infamous for allowing inherited runners to score. Little old ladies know that. And one of Wells's two hits off Timlin was a home run. In Toronto.
So there he was, standing on the mound in disgust as Wells hammered a three-run job on the third pitch to evaporate the lead. Just. Like. That. We'd screwed with Foulke's confidence, and brought Timlin early in a game that might well go into extra innings. Brilliant.
He returned for a one-hit eighth. Fine. Then young Papelbon took the reigns for the ninth (foul-out, strikeout, ground-out).
And the tenth (line-out, fly-out, walk, pop-out).
And the eleventh (ground-out, ground-out, pop-out).
It was just before that final frame that
David Ortiz took it upon himself to launch Pete Walker's pitch deep to right. It was his second homer run of the night (his first was a 427-footer off Ted Lilly in the fourth). What else can be said? He is truly a monster, and we're lucky to have him.
Papelbon too. He dominated for three no-hit innings, barely batting an eye. But he didn't have to. A quicker hook with Arroyo and/or some smarter insertions in the seventh may well have prevented the kid from having to go three. "The Sox are leery of putting a greater workload on Papelbon, who already has 130 innings this season,"
Gordon Edes wrote on August 29. He's one hell of a pitcher and we may need him later. We shouldn't have to burn him up against the Blue Jays.
Water under the bridge. A win is a win. But please.
Closer by committee is so
2003.
Etc.GOOD: David Ortiz became only the second player in Red Sox history to record two 40-homer seasons in a row. (
This guy is the other one, back in 1969/1970.) And, with eight, Big Papi's second only to
Jimmy Foxx in multi-homer games on a season. (Double X had 10 in 1938.)
BAD: Johnny Damon
plays through a lot, but might not be able to
play through this.
Please, please, please let me be wrong.
GOOD: Manny homered again for the second time in three games, a no-doubt 440-foot rocket. (A
straight-up trade for Beltran? Uh, no thanks.)
BAD: The exchange rate on Mannys could be better when it comes to
getting past the velvet ropes north of the border.
Meanwhile, north of
our border...
Go Sea Dogs! Just let us have
this guy when you're done.