Time to swing into action
It’s not about the manager.
Maybe Terry Francona did leave Josh Beckett in a batter or two too long Friday night, when the Red Sox let Game 2 of the American League Division Series get away, thus leaving them requiring a three-game winning streak just for the privilege of renewing postseason acquaintances with the Yankees, who I’m fairly sure received a bye to the AL Championship Series.
Maybe walking Vladimir Guerrero, who has been known to start hacking before the catcher even puts down the signs, was a harbinger of bad things to come for the Sox in the seventh inning, and maybe Tito should have been on red alert right then.
But c’mon — it was Josh Beckett on the mound, one of the premier postseason pitchers of all time, and he was pitching economically and efficiently, having thrown just 75 pitches through six innings of one-run ball. If you’re not going to give the benefit of the doubt to Beckett under those circumstances, then no pitcher ever is worthy of it. The worst decision Francona made this week remains hitting the drive-thru at Del Taco.
It’s not about the umpiring.
C.B. Bucknor long ago sealed his reputation as a man in desperate need of a gifted optometrist — it is suspected that C.B. stands for Completely Blind. He has twice been named the worst ump in baseball in a poll of major league players by Sports Illustrated, and I imagine he’d win in a landslide if the question was posed again tomorrow. But botched calls really haven’t cost the Red Sox more than a few extra pitches from Lester and Beckett. Championship-caliber teams don’t blame even the lousiest of umps. They overcome them.
It’s not about an absence of passion . . .
. . . or heart, or swagger, or grit, guts, determination, the burden of history, karma or any other cliched, vaguely-related-to-sports concepts that act as an easy crutch when a fan doesn’t want to concede that the other side might be superior on a given night, in a given series, in a given season.
It’s not about anything but the bats, folks. The Sox haven’t hit, and that’s why they haven’t won.
The numbers are grotesque. In two games and 18 innings, the Red Sox have scored one run. One. They have eight hits. They are eagerly awaiting their first home run of the series. Their team batting average is .131. Their team slugging percentage is .180, their OBP is .185. Their team OPS, .365, is .124 points lower than Jason Varitek’s during his depressing second half of the season. It’s been so bad, Mario Mendoza might consider using them as a punchline.
We’ll spare you the individual disasters, save for saying that it’s always sad to see Big Papi this way, and we’ve never seen Dustin Pedroia lunge for so many pitcher’s pitches. Perhaps coming back to the comforts of Fenway — where they’ve been considerably, inexplicably better this season — will bring some life back to that deadwood they toted to the West Coast. But hey, it’s just two games. It’s nothing a first-inning three-run homer today couldn’t solve. Whaddaya say, Victor?
The Red Sox’ and Angels’ offenses looked relatively even on paper entering this series — the Angels had the higher team batting average, the Sox the higher OBP and OPS — but while the Red Sox have looked like a Craig Grebeck tribute band against John Lackey and Jered Weaver, the Angels, despite a collective .228 batting average in the series, have flashed their power and their speed at the most opportune times. And I’m pretty sure the maddening, admirable Bobby Abreu has never has seen fewer than 15 pitches in an at-bat.
We’re all asking ourselves the same question this morning: Can the Sox make this a series? I probably don’t need to remind you that they done this before — you’ve got the memories and the memorabilia from Cleveland ’99, Oakland ’03, and the Bronx ’04 as proof. Nor do I need to tell you that it will be no easy feat. Today, the Sox will face lefthander Scott Kazmir, an established nemesis who has a 3.59 ERA and 138 strikouts in 130.1 innings in his career against Boston, and who has been rejuvenated since being dealt from Tampa Bay to Anaheim in August (a Guidry-like 1.74 ERA in six starts).
With the season hanging in the balance, the Sox will counter with the gifted and wide-eyed Clay Buchholz. The 25-year-old righthander had a marvelous six-week run in late summer, and it seemed his vast promise was in the early stages of fulfillment. Then he went out and gave up six homers and 13 earned runs in eight innings in his final two starts. Wouldn’t you know it, there he was associating with that word “enigma” again.
Buchholz could pitch brilliantly, or he could be blinded by the October spotlight. Nothing will come as a surprise. But the Sox could go a long way toward easing his nerves with a pitcher’s favorite gift: A heaping helping of runs, the earlier, the better.
Should they somehow find a way, against Kazmir and these determined Angels, to keep the crowd on its feet and the scoreboard operator busy, the reaction of Red Sox players and fans will be one and the same:
It’s about time.
* * *
As for today’s Completely Random Baseball Card:
Well, it’s worth a try.
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