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Delcarmen closes it out for Sox »

Delcarmen closes it out for Sox

BOSTON _ Officially, Manny Delcarmen will not be credited with a save for the work he turned in last night in preserving an 8-5 Red Sox victory over the Yankees. In his mind, though, it was a special night, save or no save.

``I’ve got the ball right here,’’ he said pointing to his locker. ``I got one last year and now I’ve got this one, too. It’s pretty cool.’’

In one way, Delcarmen was the victim of the quirky save rule. The rule dictates that if a pitcher begins the final inning with a three-run lead and the game ends with his team still ahead, the pitcher gets the save. However, if he enters after one batter has been retired without a runner reaching base, he does not get the save.

Last night, the Sox kept Javier Lopez in the game to begin the ninth. He had come on in the eighth with Boston ahead, 7-5, and with runners on first and second with no outs for the Yankees. New York had three lefties coming up.

Lopez got Johnny Damon to ground into a double play to Dustin Pedrioa at second and then Robinson Cano on another grounder to second to end the inning.

The Sox added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-5. With the third New York lefty coming up to begin the ninth, Boston manager Terry Franconca kept Lopez in the game. He retired Bobby Abreu on another grounder.

That’s when Delcarmen came on. He fell behind Alex Rodriquez 3-0 then fired three straight strikes, the third a 95 mile per hour fastball that got Rodriguez swinging.

``Being born and raised in Boston it’s always special to be able to beat the Yankees,’’ Delcarmen said. ``Being able to punch out A-Rod was pretty cool.’’

Delcarmen then ended it by retiring Hideki Matsui for the final out. He showed a little Jonathan Papelbon-type emotion with a fist pump, save or not save.

``It doesn’t matter to me,’’ he said of not being being given a save. ``I got the job done.’’

Delcarmen said pitching the ninth really is different than working earlier in the game. The emotion is heightened.

``I can see why (Papelbon) gets as emotional as he does,’’ he said. ``I get nervous every time before I walk out the (bullpen) gate. Being able to get the ball in that situation shows the confidence Tito (Francona) has in me. It’s an unbelievable feeling being able to end the game and help is the get the win.’’

Delcarmen was the closer for the night because neither Papelbon nor Hideki Okajima was available. The Sox said during spring training that they expected there would be times when Delcarmen would close this season and last night was the perfect chance. Delcarmen looked like a closer, throwing 14 pitches, nine for strikes, to end the game.

``All fastballs,’’ he said.

Papelbon was not available because he threw 26 pitches in getting the save in Saturday’s 4-3 victory over New York. Because of rain, he actually worked harder than that. He got up to warm up times, spread around a more than two-hour rain delay.

``He’s not going to pitch tonight, that’s just the way it is,’’ Franconca responded when asked about Papelbon before the game. ``I don’t think it’s any big secret. You can run over and tell the Yankees.’’

Okajima had pitched in three games in a row. He needed the night off, as well.

The Sox were hoping to get as many innings as possible from Daisuke Matsuzaka, the starter. But Matsuzaka struggled and needed 116 pitches just to get through five innings.

David Aarsdama came through with two scoreless innings. Mike Timlin continued to struggled, goving up hits to all three hitters he faced, including a home run to Jason Giambi. But Lopez bailed him out and then Delcarmen came on and did a very nice Papelbon imitation to close it out.

Posted by Paul Kenyon  at 12:55 AM to Projo Sox Crawl | Permalink