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Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: Defending their home turf

Click here to listen to today's edition of projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam. The topics: dominating bullpen performances by Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon; Mike Lowell's heads-up base-running; Ubaldo Jimenez's "effective wildness"; the weather forecast for Denver; the Ortiz-Youkilis-Lowell debate; and the National League's home-field advantage in interleague games.

Following are some excerpts from Sean's comments.

On Okajima and Papelbon: "Three and two-thirds innings from their two best relievers, the guys who have led the bullpen all season, to shut down a pretty good lineup like that is impressive indeed. And last night seemed to be an indication, if any more is needed, that Okajima has benefitted from that 12-day hiatus at the end of September, when the Red Sox sensed he was getting fatigued and thought it best to shut him down in anticipation of just such an appearance as last night."

Lowell going from first to third on J.D. Drew's single to right: "When he hit second base, it didn't seem as if there was any way that he'd be trying to go to third on Brad Hawpe, but I think he noticed that Hawpe was taking kind of a side-saddle angle to the ball and decided to maybe surprise people. And the ironic thing there is, during the afternoon, when they brought a player from each team in to speak at the press conference, Lowell was ... jokingly asked whether in the thin air he felt any faster on the basepaths at Coors Field. And he said, 'No, I never feel fast.' But certainly last night, smart base-running made up for that speed he may have lacked."

The starting lineup in Colorado: "I think a lot is going to depend on how Ortiz feels, and specifically how that right knee feels. I was a litle surprised yesterday to hear Francona say that if Ortiz can handle it, and that's by no means assured, that he would like to have him play all three games. Obvioulsy it's no surprise that you would want Ortiz's bat in there as much as possible ... but the practice has been, in road interleague games in National League cities, to rotate those three where everyone plays two games. And everyone sort of naturally assumed that [Francona] would follow that. But I think, given what's at stake here, he wants to if he can have Ortiz in there for all three. ... It looks like the decision comes down to what you do with Youkilis and Lowell, and my guess is because of Lowell's edge defensively, I would imagine that he would play two games there and Youkilis one if indeed Ortiz is OK to play all three at first."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 10:07 AM to McAdam | Permalink

Comments

Don Maloney | October 26, 2007 12:08 PM link