Crushed

Well, the Red sox 2006 season was fun. Too bad it's over.

There is simply no excuse for the way the team played the last few days. It speaks to a failure on the part of the pitching staff (for being awful), the front office (for doing nothing at the trade deadline, and going back to 2004, making bad move after bad move) and most importantly, last night, the manager.

Last night's game was winnable. Very much so. And the Red Sox needed to win it more than any game this year. The Yankees' suspect defense gave them a few extra runs, and they failed to hold their lead. And Terry Francona didn't help them hold it.

Now, it's easy to blame a team's failings on the manager. It happens all the time; a team disappoints, and the press and fans call for the manager to be fired. Dusty Baker is probably on his way out in Chicago. Alan Trammell was fired and replaced with Jim Leyland, who is getting too much credit for being in the right place at the right time. Do managers deserve all the dirt when a team fails? Not usually, just as they don't deserve the credit when the team wins. The front office and the performance of the players on the field are far more important to a team's success. But the manager is hired for his baseball "smarts" and has a direct, tangible effect on certain parts of the game. Last night, Francona failed in every way that we as fans could tell.

First, the lineup. Coco Crisp is not playing well enough to be the team's leadoff hitter right now. He may be still feeling effects from his hand injury, he may be simply having an off year, or he may be a crappy hitter. But no matter the reason, he shouldn't be getting the most at-bats of any member of the team. In the series against New York he has 1 hit and 1 walk in 15 at-bats. Why is he getting the most at-bats on the team?

Let's skip to the 8th inning. The Red Sox are up 5-3. The Yankees are coming up, and they have the top of their lineup set to bat, including John Damon and Bob Abreu, who have destroyed the Sox in the three games previous. Jonathan Papelbon is the Red Sox' only reliable reliever at this point, and he hasn't pitched in four days. Yet, Francona puts in Mike Timlin to face Damon.

There's simply no good reason for this. Papelbon is the Sox' best pitcher and should be in the game to face the best hitters of the opposing team. He's a former starter and can surely go two innings. Even if you wanted to save him for tomorrow, it would be a better idea to put Papelbon in for the top of the Yank's lineup and then take him out for the ninth, when lesser hitters were likely to bat (though then he wouldn't get the precious save).

As it is, Timlin gives up a tough hit that glances off Mark Loretta's glove, and then hits Jeter with a pitch. Two on, no out. Francona comes to the mound and puts in...Javier Lopez? Who? Why? Again, there is no defense of this move. Abreu is leading the world in walks and obviously draws one. Then Papelbon comes on.

The media may talk about how Papelbon has been shaky or has somehow lost his magic. He hasn't. They're wrong. In all bases-loaded, no-out situations, teams go on to score an average of about 2.4 runs in that inning. Papelbon gives up a fly ball to Giambi, but he doesn't get all of it and it's a sacrifice fly. Then A-Rod walks, but Papelbon strikes out Cano and Posada to get out of the inning. In case you're scoring at home, he allowed just one run to score, when an average pitcher or set of pitchers would allow 2.4. In the ninth, he gives up a hard-hit double to Cabrera, who goes to third on a pitch Mirabelli should have caught, and then scores on a dinky bloop hit by Jeter. Then he strikes out everyone.

In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied, Francona makes his second big mistake. After the Yankee D gives the Sox another baserunner and Manny is walked intentionally, Kevin Youkilis comes to the plate. Youkilis has been the Sox' third-best hitter all year. He has consistently gotten on base, and is great at working the count. Mariano Rivera looks like he might not have his slider working. Joe Morgan in his eminent wisdom starts yapping about how the Red Sox "have to" bunt with Youkilis up, even though he himself says that Youkilis hasn't bunted since he was in AAA (which he also dismisses as not counting because "this is the big leagues"). Francona apparently is watching the telecast instead of the game on the field, because Youkilis promptly bunts to Rivera, who throws the lumbering Ortiz out at third.

Bunting is nearly always a bad idea, even if it's succcessful. But in this case, there are many more reasons not to bunt:

-Youkilis is not an experienced bunter.
-Rivera is a good-fielding pitcher and throws pitches with a lot of movement, which makes bunting against him difficult.
-David Ortiz is slower than a sack of potatoes, and probably hasn't caught his breath after running out his "double." (Note: Francona made a good decision by not pinch-running for Ortiz in this situation as Ortiz' bat was likely to be valuable in the later innings with the score tied)
-Most importantly: due up next were Lowell, Kapler and Mirabelli. Even if Youk was successful, Lowell would almost certainly have been walked, leaving Kapler (or Eric Hinske as it turned out) and Mirabelli as the Sox' only chances to score against the best closer ever. Letting Youkilis and Lowell bat in that situation is the best chance the team has of scoring a run.

We know what happened next. Game, set and match, New York. Very awful managing by Terry Francona.

Not putting Papelbon in to start the 8th inning is endemic of the entire Red Sox organization's inflexibility and steadfast support of their "long-term plan." The Sox have refused, except in the case of Jason Varitek, to overpay to extend the contracts of their stars, just as Francona tried to squeeze and inning out of his lesser pitchers in the hopes of having a fresher Papelbon today. But the fact of the matter is that were Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon on this team in place of Josh Beckett or Matt Clement or David Wells (take your pick) and Coco Crisp, they would be in first place. Last year Pedro surely would have made the one-game difference that would have kept the Red Sox from facing the White Sox in the first round. They have a golden opportunity to go on a run of World Series appearances, as Schilling, Ortiz and Ramirez don't come around very often. They have the money to contend every year. Why not do it instead of waiting for some future that might never come?