I'd Like to Have That One Back

Yesterday was one of those days during the season where I wish I'd never woken up. It all started with scanning the headlines to read about Manny and the tantrum he threw when he couldn't get all the tickets he wanted to the game, and the traveling secretary who took the brunt of this the slugger's second fit (the first being when he exchanged words with Kevin Youkilis during the last Tampa Bay series. Dan Shaughnessy brought up a decent point regarding the aftermath of this incident (nothing tangible, as of yet).

Sorry, that just doesn't cut it this time. The Sox promote themselves as a public entity. They sell memberships in Red Sox Nation. When an episode like this goes public, they have some obligation to tell us that it's not OK for a 36-year-old athlete to put his hands on a 64-year-old club executive. On the street, that gets you arrested. In most workplaces, it gets you a suspension at the very least. Not at Fenway Park. Not if you can hit .300 with 35 homers and 120 RBIs. Not if you make $20 million per year.

The whole club is spinning the "in-house" line, but this is an incident that is, at least on the very surface, an example of the entitled against the ordinary. As the purveyors of the Red Sox Nation garbage, the management at least needs to state that it's wrong. It just rubs me the wrong way, is all.

To top off this unfortunate incident, the Sox dropped 1.5 games behind the first place Rays last night after a 5-4 loss that was closer than it should've been. The long and the short of it is this: Justin Masterson, while very talented, is still a rookie with bouts of wildness. Five walks over six innings isn't good enough; it gives too many free swings to any team let alone the red-hot Rays. After that, just about the entire team is picking a really bad time to start slumping. With Ortiz still weeks away (my bet is you see him a week or so after the All-Star Break), Manny uninspired since his 500 HR hot streak some weeks ago, Coco serving his suspension, Coco, Lugo and Varitek being...well...Coco, Lugo, and Varitek, and the bullpen band unable to overcome the fact that the bullpen pitchers have been sucking lately, this just can't be the time the rookie gives up five walks. Now, I'm not mad at Masterson or anything, just saying, that's what was the nail in the coffin.

There's one bone I want to pick with Tito from last night, and that was the decision to leave Lugo in to hit against J.P. Howell after Troy Percival left with his injury. As far as I can tell, there were two thoughts behind this move. First, Howell is a lefty and Lugo a righty, so in a very poor use of "Standard Baseball Logic" this move makes sense. Second, Lugo has had his share of terrible ABs and caught a lot of flack for his uninspired performance here in Boston; leaving him in for that situation last night could set him up for a warmer reception next time around. Fortunately for him, Julio hit a decent ball right at the shortstop. It wasn't the screamer Joe Castiglione described, but at least it wasn't a weak grounder or popup to the right side. Unfortunately for fans, none of the above reasons were good enough to keep him in the game. Both righties and lefties are hitting about .200 against Howell this season, and even though lefties are a hair worse, it's certainly a negligible difference. Given that fact, Sean Casey has made his career being a contact hitter. That's the reason he was signed, that's the reason the Sox were able to maintain momentum when Lowell went down, that's the reason he's still around. Quite simply, Julio Lugo is not. Leaving in a guy with a BABIP, a BABIP of .330 and a 20% strikeout rate to face a guy with a WHIP just north of 1.00 is not giving the team the best chance to win.

OK, I'm done.