« Red Sox Pregame Notes: Youkilis will play
Main
Boston 7, New York 5 »
April 17, 2008
By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer
NEW YORK _ It’s no secret the Red Sox and Yankees play long games.
When the storied rivalry takes place there’s a pretty good chance the game will take close to four hours or more to play. The Red Sox players laugh and roll their eyes when asked about the marathon games that take place at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, but you won’t hear anyone complain.
Entering Thursday's game the teams have played four games this season with each one lasting 2:59, 2:49, 3:55 and 4:08 respectively. That’s a lot of baseball. Wednesday’s game at Yankee Stadium, a 15-9 victory in favor of New York, was tiring.
“I looked up Wednesday night in the fourth inning and it was 10 minutes of 10,” said Francona. “I was hungry and I was tired.”
Francona explained one of the reasons is due to the fact the Red Sox play so many nationally televised games, especially with the Yankees.
“I don’t want to exaggerate, but I know you have to add on 45 seconds to a minute in between half innings,” he said. “That’s a lot. You’re looking at 20 minutes and that’s significant. We beat the heck out of each other. Both teams work the count and grind out at-bats. There are numerous pitching changes. They run enough where we’re throwing over to first all game. I don’t think anybody is complaining about the quality of baseball. There are just long games. We’ve had some long ones, but it’s not like everybody is playing in slow motion.”
Plus the fact both lineups are so good and patient at the plate, which equals long innings and high pitch-counts.
“Anytime you have 18 hitters going up there with good approaches it’s going to be a long game,” said Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. “The pitchers have to have a plan for each guy and try to find a way to get them out. It takes a long time.”
Last night concluded the brief two-game set between New York and Boston and earlier in the day the players in the Sox’ clubhouse appeared tired and banged up.
“These games are draining,” added Pedroia. “After you play the Yankees you’re sorer than if you played someone else. The games are a lot longer. The atmosphere is a lot different than just a normal game. Maybe they can try to speed it up, but I don’t know how they would.”
When Sean Casey signed with the Red Sox during the offseason, he was told by some of his new teammates wait until a Yankees series. The veteran first baseman was told the games were long and he said yesterday he now knows exactly what his teammates were talking about.
“It’s living up to its expectation so far,” he joked. “That just the way it is because you have two good teams with good-hitting lineups that get on base. . . I looked up Wednesday night at 10:15 it we weren’t even through six innings. It’s crazy.”
It doesn’t matter how long the games last, the players don’t want anything to change. No gimmicks. No time clocks. No keeping the hitters in the batter’s box. As an experiment, minor-league baseball instituted a rule a few seasons ago that hitters had to keep at least one foot in the box. The hitters didn’t like it and the umpires don’t enforce it.
Baseball “can’t do that,” said Pedroia, who was in the minors at the time. “Everybody has their own way of getting ready to hit. That’s ridiculous. They can’t try to take control over a guy’s at-bat. When a guy goes up to hit, it’s his time and nobody else’s. That whole rule is kind of stupid.”
Red Sox rookie Jed Lowrie has spent a total of seven days in the big leagues and five of the seven games he’s been a part of since his recall from Pawtucket have been against the Yankees. He said yesterday he’s used to playing long games when he was playing in Single-A Wilmington and Double-A Portland.
“You get so programmed as a player to never look at the time, you’re always looking at the innings,” said Lowrie. “There are times with four-hour games you think ‘man, this is dragging on’ but you just need to pay attention to the situation and the innings.”
Just because the minutes turn to hours during these games doesn’t mean the product is bad because there’s nothing boring about a New York and Boston series.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing,” Lowrie said of the long hours. “I think it’s better baseball. You get up there and it’s more of a skill to take a tough pitch rather than swing at anything. I think the real fans would appreciate it. The real fans of baseball would be able to distinguish between a good hitter and a good at-bat. That’s why these games take so long because there are so many good players on these two teams. I don’t think it’s bad for the game at all.”
There could be worse things to do than watch the Great American Pastime for four hours.
Posted by Joe McDonald 
at 5:09 PM | Permalink
