July 22, 2007
...
The 8-5 win over the White Sox today, the one Jonathan Papelbon saved
after loading the bases with none out in the ninth, was only the most
obvious incentive for the conga line of Sox high-fives that followed
the game. It was their third straight win over the White Sox and one
that allowed them to finish this 11-game homestand, their longest of
the season, with a winning (6-5) record.
Manager
Terry Francona started the day by announcing that Jon Lester, cancer survivor,
once again will be Jon Lester, big league pitcher, when he takes Tavarez's place
in Cleveland. Curt Schilling walked through the clubhouse, the old swagger back
after a terrific rehab outing the night before, with a smile doubled in wattage
because of Lester's return.
Francona
flip-flopped Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis in the batting order, one day
after hitting Manny in the 3-hole pretty much because Manny felt like it, and
Ramirez hit a three-run home run. "Great managing there," Francona dryly noted
of his deployment of Ramirez, who hit .385 on the homestand with four home runs,
knocking in 13.
Tim
Wakefield, who pitched in a game for the 500th time in his career and at this
rate may be good for 500 more, won his 11th game, limiting the White Sox to a
run through the first six innings before he was charged with three in the
seventh. A blessing is what Francona called Hideki Okajima, who struck out A.J.
Pierzynski with the bases loaded to end the seventh after an uncharacteristic
stumble by Manny Delcarmen in relief of Wakefield.
And the Red
Sox offense, the one castigated for its inability to hit with runners in scoring
position, generated another three-run homer, this one by Mike Lowell, and
amassed 29 runs in three days against White Sox pitching, which couldn't break
the habit of walking batters for Boston hitters to knock in.
Ortiz sat
out his second straight game with a strained left shoulder, and told reporters
before the game that it might be Wednesday before he plays again. But even
without their hurting Big Papi, who already had an aching knee, the Sox
maintained their 7 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the Yankees, who did not go
unnoticed here when the left field scoreboard operator placed a "21" next to
NYY. But the Sox did some damage of their own, with considerable assistance from
a Chicago staff that walked eight more batters yesterday after walking nine the
day before. Of the 19 runs the Red Sox scored in the last two days, 13 could be
traced directly to walks.
The tone was
set in the first inning, when the first three batters in the Sox lineup, Julio
Lugo, Alex Cora, and Youkilis, pressed Jon Garland into throwing 25 pitches.
Both Lugo and Youkilis wangled walks after starting out 0-and-2, while Cora
fouled off a half-dozen pitches before grounding into a fielder's choice.
Papelbon
kept everyone on edge in the ninth. Pitching for the first time in four days, he
gave up singles to Juan Uribe and Jerry Owens, walked Alex Cintron, and fell
behind Chicago strongman Jim Thome, 2 and 0. No one felt better than Papelbon
when he blew away Thome with a 96-mile-an-hour fastball, then induced Paul
Konerko to ground to Lowell for a game-ending double play. He did so,
beautifully, giving catcher Doug Mirabelli an assist for steering him out of
harm's way.
So now it's
on to Cleveland, and the start of a seven-game trip that also takes them to
Tampa Bay. How good should the Sox feel on their way out of town?
When he
pitches tonight in Cleveland, 23-year-old lefthander Jon Lester will be
returning to the Red Sox exactly a year after he pitched for the Sox for the
first time in his home state of Washington. It was on the team's second trip to
Seattle, a month later, that Lester went to see an uncle who was a doctor,
setting in motion the events that led to him being diagnosed with a rare form of
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Of all the
moves Theo Epstein made to assemble a bullpen last winter, Hideki Okajima has
been an unqualified success. But yesterday, Joel Pineiro became the second
bullpen piece to be designated for assignment, joining J.C. Romero, who is now
with the Phillies after signing a minor league contract there. A third piece,
Brendan Donnelly, is on the disabled list with a strained forearm, hoping for a
mid-August return.
Julian
Tavarez, of course, had been signed as a reliever when the Sox inked him to a
two-year deal before the 2006 season. Last year, he went 2-4 with one save and a
4.71 ERA out of the pen but had an up-and-down year. It started with a 10-game
suspension because of his spring training fight with Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright,
and by the time he came back, Francona was not inclined to use him in the
late-inning role first projected for him. He finished on the upswing (1-1, 2.19
ERA in his last 11 relief appearances) before he was inserted in the rotation.
