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August 20, 2007
Sean McAdam joins us as usual for today's edition of projo SoxTalk. Click here to listen to the full audio file. The topics today: troubling signs from a weekend series split; sticking with Eric Gagne; Kevin Youkilis slumping down the stretch again; one last chance to build some distance with the Yankees; and Johan Santana leaving after eight with 17 strikeouts.
Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:
On the Sox' weekend performance: "They do seem to be showing a little bit more of that ability to come back late in the game. We saw them do it Saturday night -- not terribly late, in the sixth inning -- and score 10 unanswered runs against the Angels; and of course the second game of the day-night doubleheader on Friday, when they came back and took the lead for the first time late in the eighth inning only to have Eric Gagne blow up and lose it in the ninth. It seems like for every one posititive that you can take out of this weekend you could find some disturbing signs as well."
On Gagne: "There seems to be pretty good velocity on the fastball ... but [hitters] do seem to be laying off that. And even in his heyday with the Dodgers, it was the change-up that proved to be his out pitch coming out of the bullpen. Some people thought he threw more yesterday in striking out three in a scoreless inning that did include a couple of hits, although neither of them were hit hard. He was working on the side on some mechanical adjustments, whether that had something to do with the change-up grip or something that was making his off-speed pitches not as effective. But perhaps he found something yesterday and maybe started to turn a corner."
On Youkilis: "Maybe he's showing himself to be a guy who tapers off, or perhaps even runs out of gas, in the second half. I think that because he is so emotional, that he is a guy you have to watch pretty carefuly in terms of his energy level, because he leaves so much out on the field. We saw him taper off pretty badly in the second half of last year, his first full season, and a lot of people -- myself included -- thought that maybe that was attributable to a number of injuries. ... This year he's seemingly healthy, other than some bumps and bruises, and the same pattern is emerging, where in August he just seems to hit the wall."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 11:24 AM to McAdam
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ken | August 20, 2007 1:06 PM link
There are two problems with the Red Sox this year. The umpires and plate dicipline. And they go hand in hand. It's tough to be patient at the plate when a bad call changes the outlook of an at bat. Balls in one at bat are strikes in the next. But despite the terrible umpiring across the league this year, the Sox are an impatient team. They swing at far too many first pitches when runners are in scoring position. Until they learn not to swing at the first pitch or expand the strike zone, they will continue to struggle. It's time for the Sox to pull a page out of the Yankee playbook and complain to major league baseball about the umpires and not to the umpires on the field.