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Projo SoxTalk: Alvarez pitching for his future

Today's guest on Projo SoxTalk is Kevin McNamara, who has been at Fenway the past two nights, and is now at McCoy Stadium to watch the Pawtucket Red Sox. Click here to listen to the full audio file. McNamara discusses the Red Sox-Tigers series and looks ahead to today's PawSox matinee with the Durham Bulls, which you can follow on this blog.

Here's what he had to say about the topics of the day.

On today's Pawtucket starter, Abe Alvarez (above, Journal photo by Gretchen Ertl): "He has really struggled for the last year and a half -- most of the heat of the summer last year he struggled as well. I think three years ago he had made that spot start, as I'm sure you remember, up at Fenway, and it hasn't really clicked for Abe. I can see this as a really important year for him. I don't know if he has many more years in Triple A, with this organization anyway, if he doesn't start to turn things around."

On last night's Verlander-Wakefield matchup: "[Verlander] had everything working. He was easily above 95 with the majority of his fastballs. He even hit 100 on the Fenway gun a few times, and you don't see that every day. Wakefield -- you know, I think it was a typical Tim Wakefield performance. It's not usual that he's going to go 7-8 innings without one choppy spot, and he did have that last night. And when Brendan Donnelly came in, he didn't help him at all. He certainly could have limited the damage a little bit, but that didnt happen."

On Josh Beckett: "I'd be surprised if they don't say something tonight, only because you can only keep these things hidden for so long. Either Beckett is going to continue his preparation to make his start, which I think is doubtful -- it doesn't make much sense to me for him not to miss at least one start, I mean, what's the big deal. Obviously things are going very well for the ballclub, and they play a team they're very unfamiliar with in the Atlanta Braves, so what's the hurry. And it's funny, Kyle Snyder came in and pitched last night, looked good, and if they're not going to make a move, he certainly looms as the chief candidate to make that start [on Friday]."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:45 AM to Martone | Permalink