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September 26, 2007
Click here to listen to today's edition of projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam. Today's topics: the team feeling better about itself; the plan for Manny the rest of the week; Youkilis still hurting; going to Papelbon in the eighth; Gagne struggles again; and the reason for today's unusual 5 o'clock start time.
Following are some excerpts from Sean's comments.
On Ramirez: "I think, certainly, this afternoon the plan is to have him do the exact same thing: bat high in the order, probably second, to give him as many at-bats early in the game as possible, and then get him out of there. It's all about getting his timing down without exposing him too much, too soon."
On Youkilis: "He admitted that he is not 100 percent ... He said there's still some soreness, a little swelling there [in his wrist] ... I don't think there's going to be 100-percent strength to the wrist for a little while. And it will be interesting to see how that affects his ability to drive the ball. Youkilis is not a home-run hitter, obviously, but he is capable of hitting a lot of doubles, and in the next few days it will be interesting to see how well he seems to be able to hit the ball in the gap, whether he can drive the ball off the wall and really put strong swings on pitches. He indicated that what he was looking for over the next few days was just some steady progression, to the point where he is close to 100 percent by the time the playoffs get going."
Gagne: "He certainly didn't have the kind of problems commanding last night that he did against the Blue Jays [a week ago] ... It kind of looked like he got squeezed a little bit on that walk ... Certainly [he was] not all over the place like he was up in Toronto, but ultimately its results, and 25 pitches to get two outs is not what they're looking for in the eighth inning of close games."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 10:26 AM to McAdam
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Bill | September 26, 2007 1:45 PM link
Matt Clement: If the Sox clinch before the weekend, does he get a start before the end of the season? And, if so, might this be a chance to see if there's some upside to attempting to sign him on speculation that he IS all the way back for, say, a one-year (with an option) contract for next year? If he IS all the way back, might this be (along with the possibility of re-signing Schilling for a final victory lap year) the best the Sox could do to fortify their starting pitching during the off-season? Bill