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May 10, 2008
By STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS -- Jonathan Papelbon sat slumped in his chair in front of his locker, his head in his hands.
That, of course, is not how the Boston Red Sox and their fans are used to seeing their supposedly dominant, invincible closer. They're used to seeing him pump his fist, raise his hands in the air and slaps fives with his teammates on the field after closing out another win.
Unfortunately, Papelbon has been less dominant lately. Indeed, the right-hander has blown his last two saves, including one last night as Boston suffered a stunning 7-6 setback to the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.
Only two nights earlier, Papelbon was stung for a checked-swing single, an error on a soft roller, a bunt, a groundout and finally a two-out broken-bat RBI single by Placido Polanco, coughing up two runs in the ninth in a 10-9 loss to the Tigers.
Last night the culprit was veteran Mike Lamb, who dunked a two-out, two-run opposite-field single over third and inside the line that turned a come-from-behind Boston win into a depressing defeat. The hit for Lamb, who entered the game in the sixth inning because Brendan Harris had to leave (tight hamstring), scored Delmon Young from third and speedster Carlos Gomez from second.
"The last one was one of those things. This one tonight was a totally different story. There was no correlation at all to the other one," said Papelbon after sorting out his thoughts and talking to the media about 20 minutes after Lamb's hit dropped softly onto the turf.
"Tonight I didn't execute a pitch when I had one out to get. It's that simple," said Papelbon, who had successfully racked up saves in each of his first 10 chances before faltering on this road trip.
"It's frustrating as hell right now. The simple fact is I'm making good pitches but I'm not finishing them off all the way through the strike zone. I was in a comfortable position with one out to get. I didn't get a split-finger where I wanted it. I don't have the sharpness I usually have," said Papelbon.
Of course, it's not that simple. Papelbon has been a flame-thrower, a strikeout machine in his career. Over his first seven appearances of this season, for instance, Papelbon punched out 16 batters in only 8 innings.
But of the last 25 batters he has faced, Papelbon has only one strikeout. That's right, just one.
Papelbon wasn't as clear in his description of what "finishing his pitches" means, but pitching coach John Farrell shed some light on the issue.
"He went through a stretch early where he was so dominant with such good command of his fastball and great location," said Farrell. "Right now, I'm not going to say he's off, but he's not in that same groove. He's not as dominant as he was during that stretch."
And that is a mechanical problem, suggested Farrell.
"He's a little spread out with the lower half of his body at times just a hair," said Farrell. "That doesn't give him a downhill plane for his split so it doesn't have the bottoming out action. It's not every pitch, but it happened (on the pitch to Lamb) and it cost him two runs."
So now Papelbon has blown saves in back-to-back chances for only the second time in his career. The other time was Aug. 6 (at Tampa Bay) and Aug. 9 (at Kansas City), 2006. It also marks the first time in his career he has been tagged with losses in back-to-back relief outings.
That doesn't mean Farrell or Papelbon feel there is a crisis of confidence brewing.
"Pap has always been pretty good about when things don't go the way he or we planned to be able to go out the next time he pitches and forget about the time before," said Farrell.
"I just have to go back on the mound and get back my confidence. I mean, it's not an issue of confidence, but I have to go back out there the next time and approach hitters the way I get hitters out and finish my pitches the way I can," said Papelbon.
The finish of the game was in many was in keeping with how most of the rest of it was played. There was some ugly baseball on both sides from throws to the wrong bases, errors, plays not being made that should have been made.
But the Sox did have a 6-5 lead into the ninth, thanks to a four-run fifth-inning surge that overcame a 5-2 deficit and put Jon Lester (5 1/3 innings, 8 hits, 5 earned runs) in position for a win. Mike Lowell ripped a two-run double off starter Boof Bonser, Kevin Youkilis chased home the tying run with a groundout and the go-ahead run scored on a wild pitch from reliever Juan Rincon.
The Sox, though, wasted some chances to pad their lead, ultimately stranding 11 baserunners.
Still, thanks to two great innings from Hideki Okajima, the win was three outs away. They only got two.
Young opened the inning with a ground-ball single of the middle, went to second on a bunt and stole third after Adam Everett fouled out. Gomez drew a walk (his 4th in 131 plate appearances) and then was allowed to steal second without a throw, his 15th steal of the season, putting the winning run in scoring position.
Why not hold him closer?
"There were three different reasons -- who's running, who's pitching, giving up a hole (in the infield defense)," said Boston manager Terry Francona.
Francona said the only chance to throw out Gomez would have been for Papelbon to use the slide-step, and he didn't want Papelbon doing that for fear it would hinder his stuff and location.
"You're never happy giving up the lead run but considering everything, the biggest thing was we didn't want to vacate a position," said Francona.
Instead, Papelbon was left with a vacant look in his eyes, having blown the save on Lamb's hit.
"You can't defense that hit," sighed Francona. "He's a professional hitter and he got enough of the bat on the ball and hit it where nobody was."
Posted by Steven Krasner 
at 1:24 AM | Permalink
