Where’s The Small Ball Tito?
Monday, July 18, 2011
It didn’t have to be this way.
The Boston Red Sox probably could have arrived in Baltimore a lot sooner than 6 o’clock Monday morning and we Red Sox fans probably could have gone to be much earlier than we did Sunday night/Monday morning.
The reason those two things didn’t happen was due to the Red Sox inability or flat out refusal to play “small ball.”
It is somewhat ironic that it was a sacrifice bunt by captain Jason Varitek which advanced Josh Reddick into scoring position so that Dustin Pedroia could drive him in with a base hit in the top of the 16th. But Boston had many chances to end the game long before 2 a.m. when the game actually ended.
Let me state for the record that I understand that playing “small ball” goes against the philosophy of this organization under GM Theo Epstein. To some extent, the Sox view sacrifices as wasted outs and, therefore, do not make it a regular practice of asking their players to bunt.
But sometimes, like last night’s scoreless marathon in Tampa, the situation screams for a sacrifice bunt here or there and it can be pretty darn frustrating when the Red Sox decide to go against conventional wisdom.
The two most glaring examples of Boston’s inability/refusal to play “small ball” last night were in the 9th and 11th innings.
In the top of the 9th, Dustin Pedroia doubled off of Rays’ closer Kyle Farnsworth to lead off the inning. That brought A.L. MVP candidate Alex Gonzalez to the plate. Given the type of hitter Gonzalez is, you can understand why Terry Francona may hesitate to ask him to lay down a bunt.
In this particular case, Gonzalez HAS TO get Pedroia to third in his at bat and there would have been a number of ways to accomplish that.
A sacrifice bunt would have been one way to get the job done. But, so too would a ground ball to the right side of the infield or pulling a fly ball to right. Not to mention a base hit. But Gonzalez failed to do any of those, instead flying out to left field leaving Pedroia on second base with 1 out.
In that particular case, I will not blame Francona because he had every right to have faith that Gonzalez both understood the situation and would get the job done. Chalk that one up to Gonzo’s inability to play “small ball.”
Then, in the top of the 11th, both Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz walked to lead off the inning putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon went to his bullpen to replace one lefty (JP Howell) for another (J McGee) with JD Drew scheduled to bat. Francona countered by pinch-hitting Darnell McDonald.
This seemed curious on so many levels. First, why waste McDonald of your bench if you are simply going to have him bunt the players over to second and third? Surely even the struggling JD Drew could accomplish that even if it was against a left-handed pitcher.
But McDonald not only wasn’t asked to sacrifice the runners over, Boston didn’t even try to make Tampa think that it was a possibility by not giving him any signals from the third base coach Tim Bogar. Absolutely baffling!
As it turned out, McDonald walked to load the bases with 0 out and the Sox proceeded to strand all 3 runners with consecutive strikeouts by Josh Reddick and Jason Varitek followed by a Marco Scutaro pop out to the catcher.
The fact that Boston left the sacs full with 0 out proves that even when you do play “small ball,” that there is no guarantee that you will plate the desired run. Still, it is the prudent thing to do in a scoreless game where just a single run will make the difference.
Had Francona asked either Drew or McDonald to sacrifice the runners to second and third with 1 out, then a sac fly, a base hit or dare I even mention it, a suicide squeeze could have plated the run sending the Sox off to Baltimore an hour or two earlier than they eventually left.
In the grand scheme of things, it was just 1 of 162 regular season games and a win or a loss was not critical for Boston. But what if it was game 7 of the World Series and Francona was faced with the same type of situation?
I don’t know about you, but I would want him to try to manufacture that run which could mean the difference between a third World Championship in 7 years or a “close but no cigar” ending to the season.
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