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April 13, 2008
The Red Sox need innings by Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight, even more than usual.
Sox manager Terry Francona, who normally does not like to discuss the availability of his pitchers before games, decided not to be coy for tonight’s contest against the Yankees, at least not in the case of Jonathan Papelbon.
``He’s not going to pitch tonight, that’s just the way it is,’’ Franconca responded when asked about Papelbon in his usual pre-game meeting with reporters. ``I don’t think it’s any big secret. You can run over and tell the Yankees.’’
Papelbon threw 26 pitches (19 for strikes) in recording the last four outs to get the save Saturday against New York. More than that, he got up to warm up four different times, split by a more than two-hour rain delay. Some were surprised that Papelbon came out for the ninth after striking out Alex Rodriguez with two on in the eighth.
``We kind of made a determination yesterday that we had played a pretty good game. we’re committed to winning this game,’’ Francona said. ``We have to live with our decisions. . . I’m just glad we won.’’
Of the last 14 outs he has recorded, Papelbon has retired 11 on strikeouts. He simply will not add to that total tonight.
What’s more, Hideki Okajima is not likely to be pitch tonight, either. He has appeared in three straight games. Francona was a bit more coy on that situation.
``Probably not,’’ he responded when asked whether the lefty was available. ``But let's hold off on that. We don’t want to give the Yankees too much.’’
Posted by Paul Kenyon 
at 5:32 PM to Projo Sox Crawl
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