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Tavarez will work as long as possible

The Red Sox maintain a tight hold on many of their pitchers as far as pitch-counts are concerned. Julian Tavarez is not in that category.

The veteran makes his first start in 18 days today, his second in 32 days. He has not gone more than five innings since June 20th. But it would be fine with the Sox if he spends as much time as possible on the hill today. Terry Francona was asked this morning if Tavarez will be given much leeway.

``It could be all over the map,’’ the manager responded. ``If he’s struggling, it could be not very high. If he’s good, he’s probably one of the guys that I think you could throw that (pitch count) out the window, if not completely at least a little bit. He has the rare ability to go and again, if he’s locating, to stay out there for a while, which would be great.’’

On another front, Francona spoke about how happy he is with Mike Timlin. Timlin has been scored on in just one of his last 18 appearances and has his ERA down to 3.15.

``When he gets it going, it’s fun to watch,’’ Francona said. ``I think the work he’s pout in has really paid off. He’s worked hard. He has to. When you get to be that age you have o work hard to maintain your level of excellence, there’s no getting around it. And he has really excelled at that. We’re proud of him.’’

Posted by Paul Kenyon  at 1:20 PM | Permalink