Red Sox Report: Ortiz or Papelbon? How About Both?
Monday, August 15, 2011
Falling behind by multiple runs early isn’t exactly a formula for success in Major League Baseball. The Boston Red Sox learned that lesson the hard way this weekend.
After rallying from a 4-1 deficit on Friday night to win the series opener in Seattle, the Sox could not finish off rallies on Saturday and Sunday and lost 2 out of 3 to the lowly Mariners.
Saturday night’s game got off to a horrific start as the M’s scored 5 runs against Boston ace Josh Beckett in the bottom of the first. A 4-run 6th got Boston back into the game but their rally came up one run short.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSunday afternoon, Boston fell behind 3-0 after three innings and 5-1 after six. A Kevin Youkilis 2-run homer (17th) pulled the Sox to within two but, again, it wasn’t enough.
Tim Wakefield (6-5, 4.90 ERA)got the start Sunday and went 8 innings allowing 9 hits and 5 runs. On many days that would be more than enough to get a win with the run support of the Boston offense. However, they could not solve Seattle starter Charlie Furbush who held them to just 4 hits and 1 run in 7 innings of work. As a result, the Sox lost a series to one of the worst teams in all of baseball.
It was Wakefield’s fourth attempt at picking up career win #200. In all four of those starts he pitched well enough to win and the frustration of not being able to pick up that milestone victory appears to be wearing on him a bit.
“I don’t care about it,” Wakefield said of not picking up his 200th win. “The first couple, yeah, but I’m just trying to pitch quality starts and quality innings to get us wins.”
How could say that he was bothered by his first two failed attempts at picking up his 200th career win but not the last couple? If you didn’t know any better, you might think that there is some level of frustration on the pitcher’s part for his teammates who haven’t provided him the greatest run support in those four starts.
Wakefield’s next bid for win #200 will come Friday night in Kansas City against the Royals.
-In the apparent need to fill hours of air time on sports radio in Boston, hosts from both WEEI and The Sports Hub have debated the wisdom of re-signing David Ortiz or Jonathan Papelbon. Hosts from both stations have presented it as an “either/or” scenario forcing Red Sox fans to choose one over the other. That may be fine and dandy for the purposes of driving calls to their shows, but a quick check of reality clearly indicates that it does not have to be an “either/or” scenario.
Despite the money both will command as potential free agents, the Red Sox can afford to sign both to new contracts and, quite frankly, they should!
While many people believed that Big Papi’s best days were well behind him coming into this season, he has clearly proven that this is not the case. In fact, because of his success, the idea of him accepting only a 1-year contract from the team seems ludicrous. Ortiz should demand and will likely get 2-3 years minimum from whoever may want to sign him. And given what he has done for this franchise, you would like to think that they would work hard at getting a deal done.
The same goes for Papelbon who is back to his old dominant self this year. Shut down closers aren’t easy to come by in this game and should not be let go under most circumstances. While the organization may look at Daniel Bard as their “closer of the future,” who would replace him as that dominant set-up man if her were thrust into that role? And what’s to say that he would flourish as a closer as he has a set-up man?
It would be a big roll of the dice if the Sox were to let either one of these guys walk come season’s end. However, to play the game of the Boston sports radio hosts, you would have to say that Papelbon is a higher priority to re-sign given his age (30) as opposed to Ortiz (35). Most believe that Ortiz has a maxumim of 1-3 good years left in him whereas Papelbon may have another 5+ years of great productivity still ahead.
-Whether it’s a credit to Jarrod Saltalamacchia or a knock on Jason Varitek, no one seems to be talking about how difficult it is to catch Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball these days. It wasn’t too long ago that Doug Mirabelli was employed by Boston to be Wakefield’s personal catcher having been back to town more than once to do so.
Now, Saltalamacchia seems to be doing a fine job of handling the unpredictable pitch. Is that a credit to Saltalamacchia or a knock on Varitek for being unable to handle the pitch consistently throughout the course of his career? Whatever the case may be, it’s nice knowing that the team doesn’t have to use one of its 25 roster spots on a guy who is only going to play every fifth day.
-With the Yankees and Rays getting rained out on Sunday, Boston’s lead over New York is just a half game in the American League East. The two teams are even in the loss column. Tampa comes to Boston Monday 9 games behind the Sox in the division race and 8 ½ behind the Yankees in the Wild Card race.
-Here are your pitching match-up’s for the Sox-Rays series which begins tonight at Fenway:
Tuesday (game 1): James Shields (11-9, 2.80 ERA) vs. Jon Lester (11-6, 3.32 ERA) 1:05pm
Tuesday (game 2): Jeff Niemann (7-4, 3.43 ERA) vs. Erik Bedard (0-0, 4.50 ERA with Boston) 7:10pm
Wednesday: David Price (10-10, 3.76 ERA) vs. John Lackey (11-8, 6.13 ERA) 1:35pm
