« UPDATED: Complete Curt Schilling transcript
Main
PREGAME: Tonight's lineups »
October 14, 2007
Here are a few tidbits from today's off-day:
**With Red Sox manager Terry Francona on the national stage, he’s been very jovial during his daily press conferences the last couple of week, and yesterday was no different. Now that the series has switched to Cleveland, the site of the nasty bug plague during the Indians’ ALDS against the Yankees, the Red Sox manager was asked about the possibility of the gnats returning.
“Anytime there’ve been bugs on my body, I’m not sure I felt real comfortable about talking about it,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. I guess it’s kind of like rain. If it rains, you handle it. If it snows, you handle it. If it’s cold, you handle it. I guess if there are bugs, you get bug spray.”
Good advice.
Monday's starter for the Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka, was also asked about the situation if it should occur, the Japanese import said he also brought along some spray.
**For all the talk about the Red Sox offense in the postseason, the club’s defense has been solid, too. Manny Ramirez made two spectacular plays in left field in Game One of this series, as did J.D. Drew. Those highlight-reel plays are not always the best.
“We have been playing good crisp defense,” said Francona. “Making the extreme plays are good, but just making the plays you’re supposed to is probably more important.”
The scouting report the Red Sox have on the Indians is pretty impressive, because Boston’s defense has been in the right place most of the time to make plays seem routine, especially in the infield.
Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell has been positioned perfectly for every Indians batter, as is shortstop Julio Lugo and second baseman Dustin Pedroia. In Game Two on Saturday, Lowell recorded three put-outs and assisted on four others.
Posted by Joe McDonald 
at 7:17 PM | Permalink
