I hope Terry Francona skips the champagne celebration tonight, sits down at his desk, and writes two thank you notes.
The first thank you note should go to Jed Lowrie for his game-winning single, and the second thank you note should go to Mike Scioscia for deciding to take the bat off Erick Aybar's shoulders and try a ill-fated squeeze play.
Those two plays saved Terry Francona from what would have been veritable firestorm of second guessing and criticism for his interesting decisions with regards to his pitching changes.
First, he decided to yank Jon Lester after just 109 pitches, despite the fact that Lester had just cruised through the seventh inning, getting three harmless outs in a row. Then he decided to show little faith in Hideki Okajima by yanking him after he walked Mark Teixeira and replacing him with rookie Justin Masterson, who promptly surrendered the lead on a two-run single by Torii Hunter and gave up the leadoff double to Juan Rivera in the top half of the ninth.
- B/R Ticket Guide
You have to win the series before you start planning your rotation for the ALCS. That's why it was absurd to pull Lester while he was dominating because (and I am assuming) Francona didn't want to over work him.
Francona even said that Jonathan Papelbon would have been available for Game Four, if they needed him. I think it's safe to say we needed him the minute Masterson walked.
Why did Francona show such little faith in Okajima? Okajima has been better all season than Masterson has, yet one walk later and decide to bring in a kid with a bright future, but zero postseason experience.
Masterson is the fifth-best pitcher in that situation behind Lester, Papelbon, Okajima, or Delcarmen. All of the aforementioned pitchers have postseason experience and better numbers than Masterson.
But, regardless of the quirky decision-making by Francona, the Angels are ultimately at fault for blowing a very winnable game and a very winnable series.
They were buried under a small mountain of baserunning blunders, costly defensive mistakes, and poor clutch hitting. The Angels left 43 runners on base during that series. No team will ever be able to win when they miss that many golden opportunities.
If you count all the plays the Angels defense should have made, the Angels could have held the Red Sox scoreless in Game Four and held them to just one run in Game Three. Last night, it was Howie Kendrick failing to communicate with Torii Hunter on a pop fly, tonight it was Kendrick showing everyone in attendance how not to turn a double play.
The Red Sox have a lot of questions to answer before they face the Tampa Rays in the ALCS, most specifically: Where the heck did the offense go? Also, can Mark Kotsay play first base the rest of the series?
But for now, let that Champagne run on your lips Jon Lester...You earned it.
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about 1 month ago
Red Sox will face a tough opponent in the Rays!
Should be a great series!
Go Rays!
Go Joe Maddon!
Go Troy Percival!
about 1 month ago
Great article Michael..I love your point of view, and that you're not totally celebrating..The Angels gift wrapped the series for you..Theres no way around it...I wouldn't second guess Francona's pitching decisions as much as I would Scioscia's decision to squeeze in that situation..You can't trust Aybar to just slap at something and make some sort of contact? I guess thats why they call it suicide, it looks brilliant if it works, but OH SO BAD if it doesn't...I agree the Sox need to figure something out before they battle this hot Rays team..
Lookin forward to your coverage.
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