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Baseball Today: Thursday, July 19 »
July 18, 2007
BOSTON -- It’s no secret Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez and pitcher Julian Tavarez are buenos amigos. The pair’s on-field and off-field antics are regularly televised, laughed about and talked about.
Since Tavarez was turned into a starting pitcher this season and placed into the club’s fifth spot in the rotation, it just seems like Ramirez gives a little more of an effort every fifth day when his friend toes the rubber. That was quite evident in the first inning last night against the Kansas City Royals when the Sox’ left fielder made a tremendous catch on the first play of the game, robbing the Royals’ David DeJesus of a hit and possibly extra bases.
What makes Ramirez’s play interesting is he has been recently criticized for playing too shallow, but last night he was playing a little deeper and gave more of an effort. On Tuesday with Tim Wakefield on the mound, Ramirez was too shallow on a ball hit in the fourth inning and allowed two runs to score.
Call it a conspiracy theory, but the naked eye sees Ramirez in a different light when Tavarez pitches.
Despite the Sox’ 6-5 loss to the Royals at Fenway Park last night, Ramirez went 2-for-3, including a solo home run. In fact, he’s hitting .323 (20-for-62) with 17 RBI and six homers in Tavarez’s 18 starts this season. After the pitcher dropped his record to 5-8 he placed the blame on himself and not what Ramirez or the rest of the order did offensively.
“Manny makes a lot of nice catches out there and he’s been helping the team with the bat, too,” said Tavarez. “Manny is one of the best players in the second half of the season and proves what type of player he is. He makes good plays, hits home runs and RBI; he’s been doing everything. If I can go out and pitch six or seven innings with two or three runs, I should be able to win some games because my team is scoring runs for me.”
Tavarez cruised through the first three innings of the game, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced.
“The first time through the order he was very good,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He was Julian we’ve seen for the majority of the year. The second time through the order his location, it seemed like it abandoned him. He was living on one side of the plate and all of a sudden they were getting hits in a hurry.”
Tavarez allowed two runs in the top of the fourth inning, but the Red Sox responded with four in the bottom half for a 4-2 advantage. Then the wheels came off in the top of the fifth for Tavarez as the Royals scored four runs.
“I changed my game plan,” he said. “I wasn’t attacking hitters . . . it’s hard to figure out what happened because it happened so quickly.”
Tavarez isn’t the only one to blame here.
The Red Sox have been too inconsistent at the plate of late, especially with runners in scoring position. Even Francona said as much during his pregame scrum with the local media yesterday. Boston has failed to come up with the big hit in crucial spots and last night was no different.
With the Sox trailing by a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, Coco Crisp provided a two-out triple and was left stranded 90 feet away when Julio Lugo popped out to center field.
“No one cares about one loss,” said Crisp. “We’re in first place by a lot and overall we still have the best winning percentage. If you start pressing when you’re in first place with the best record in baseball it makes no sense.”
The Yankees beat Toronto again last night and now the Sox’ lead is down to seven games.
“If we keep winning one and losing one anything’s possible,” added Crisp. “But if we were 10 games behind them, we could catch them, too. We’re that good.”
Ramirez didn’t only have a chance to help out his friend last night he also had a chance to make things interesting for the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, he popped out to shallow right field
Tavarez has struggled in his last few outings and has not lasted more than six innings in his last five starts. Because of his recent sub-par performances, it’ll make things interesting when Curt Schilling (shoulder tendinitis) returns to the rotation. Because rookie Kason Gabbard has been successful in his two brief stints with Boston this season, including his current one, it’s possible Tavarez could be shifted to the bullpen and replaced with the young southpaw in that fifth spot when Schilling returns.
Pawtucket pitcher Jon Lester could also be an option as he worked seven innings for the PawSox last night against Ottawa, allowing just three runs on seven hits to improve to 4-5 in his comeback from cancer.
--JOE McDONALD
Posted by Chris Venditto 
at 11:13 PM | Permalink
Paul Bishop | July 19, 2007 2:29 AM link
Time for the Sox to look for another starting pitcher. Without Schilling, only Beckett and Dice-K give them a chance of winning. Could it be Lester, Delcarmen, or do they have to make a trade? The Giants are going to have a fire sale, so how about Matt Morris? How about Jon Garland from Chicago, another club that's going nowhere?