[Insert Bull Durham One-Liner Here]
Yea, I know. Tonight's loss hurt. Pauley pitched a gem a day after we get blown out of the water and Francona has to go and ruin it. Still, at least there was some sort of silver lining.
What gets me most about tonight's loss isn't that we lost, it's that we witnessed another example of Tito sticking with his "trusty veterans" and losing the game. We saw it last year with Embree for half a season and Millar until October, and now we're seeing it with Tavarez and Seanez. With 2 out and nobody on in the bottom of the 7th, Pauley missed a ball that he should've collected and Miguel Cairo got on base by chance. Followed by a Damon single. Followed by a Cabrera walk. At this point in the game, every Sox fan watching knows that Rudy Seanez is warming in the bullpen and that Francona is about to make the slow walk to pull the determined rookie. I prayed it wasn't going to happen, I yelled, begged and pleaded to the point where I irritated everyone in the room. But like such faithful clockwork, Seanez trotted in from the bullpen and prepared to face Jason Giambi.
This is the same Rudy Seanez who has a fly ball percentage of somewhere near 55%, who has a WHIP somewhere just barely south of 2.00, whose OBA is close to .300, whose HR/9 is north of 1.5, and who is averaging 4.5 walks per 9 innings.
Get the picture?
Seanez has been struggling all year. His signing in the offseason really raised a few eyebrows because of 1) his age and 2) the fact that his league-adjusted ERA was closer to 4. His career numbers should really suggest a better fit in the DH-less National League.
Anyways, the point is he's been awful and that maybe, just maybe, a bases loaded, low-scoring situation is not the best place to bring him in. It's not like Pauley was doing terrible. In my opinion there was such a good chance at least one run was going to score with Seanez that there was far more to gain by letting Pauley pitch to Giambi and try and get himself out of his own mess than let Seanez bail him out. Either way the runs are charged to the rookie. Let him win or lose the game on his own merits, don't let some two-bit, over-the-hill middle reliever lose it for him.
That's what steams me about this game. Hats off to both clubs, they played and pitched their tails off. I was embarassed by last night, but tonight is just a loss you have to move on from. We had the chance to make Pauley's silver lining that much brighter, but Rudy Seanez tarnished that chance on just 6 pitches.
What gets me most about tonight's loss isn't that we lost, it's that we witnessed another example of Tito sticking with his "trusty veterans" and losing the game. We saw it last year with Embree for half a season and Millar until October, and now we're seeing it with Tavarez and Seanez. With 2 out and nobody on in the bottom of the 7th, Pauley missed a ball that he should've collected and Miguel Cairo got on base by chance. Followed by a Damon single. Followed by a Cabrera walk. At this point in the game, every Sox fan watching knows that Rudy Seanez is warming in the bullpen and that Francona is about to make the slow walk to pull the determined rookie. I prayed it wasn't going to happen, I yelled, begged and pleaded to the point where I irritated everyone in the room. But like such faithful clockwork, Seanez trotted in from the bullpen and prepared to face Jason Giambi.
This is the same Rudy Seanez who has a fly ball percentage of somewhere near 55%, who has a WHIP somewhere just barely south of 2.00, whose OBA is close to .300, whose HR/9 is north of 1.5, and who is averaging 4.5 walks per 9 innings.
Get the picture?
Seanez has been struggling all year. His signing in the offseason really raised a few eyebrows because of 1) his age and 2) the fact that his league-adjusted ERA was closer to 4. His career numbers should really suggest a better fit in the DH-less National League.
Anyways, the point is he's been awful and that maybe, just maybe, a bases loaded, low-scoring situation is not the best place to bring him in. It's not like Pauley was doing terrible. In my opinion there was such a good chance at least one run was going to score with Seanez that there was far more to gain by letting Pauley pitch to Giambi and try and get himself out of his own mess than let Seanez bail him out. Either way the runs are charged to the rookie. Let him win or lose the game on his own merits, don't let some two-bit, over-the-hill middle reliever lose it for him.
That's what steams me about this game. Hats off to both clubs, they played and pitched their tails off. I was embarassed by last night, but tonight is just a loss you have to move on from. We had the chance to make Pauley's silver lining that much brighter, but Rudy Seanez tarnished that chance on just 6 pitches.
Labels: 2006 Season
Ryan Brodeur at 10:53 PM
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