Projo Sox Blog

There are no smiles to be found in the visitors' clubhouse at The Trop, however, not after a 3-1 loss that, Sean McAdam reports, shined the spotlight on some troubling Red Sox weaknesses: namely, an offense that stranded eight runners, five in scoring position, and a bullpen that once again sprung leaks at an inopportune time. Jerry Remy put forth the opinion on the broadcast last night that the loss of David Ortiz is finally catching up with the Sox -- "They can score runs against mediocre pitching, but they have trouble when they face quality starters" -- and Terry Francona agreed in his postgame comments. "I think there are times over the course of the season where you need a three-run homer," he said. "Some nights, maybe you're sluggish or you make a mistake, but someone hits a three-run homer and you win. We've had to play a little bit differently because we've had the big bat missing."

None of which bodes well for tonight's series finale. The Rays will send their best pitcher, Scott Kazmir, to the mound.

HELP WANTED: A team slump is a combination of individual slumps, and two of the Sox' quietest bats recently have belonged to Jacoby Ellsbury and Jason Varitek. McAdam reports Francona has no intention of removing Ellsbury from the leadoff spot and he was rewarded last night when Ellsbury reached base three times and scored the only Boston run. Varitek, though, looks absolutely helpless. Francona -- for reasons unknown -- sent him up as a pinch-hitter to lead off the eighth inning and, as the game progressed, he also wound up coming to the plate as the tying run with two outs in the ninth. He struck out both times, on a total of six pitches, and is now 3-for-his-last-44 (not to mention that he's swinging and missing at about 25 percent of all pitches he sees). He's working on the problem with hitting coach Dave Magadan, but, if last night is any indication, they're nowhere near a solution. (Boston Heradl)

THE GOOD NEWS . . . is that Ortiz played soft toss for the first time as he continues to recover from his wrist injury. (Boston Herald)

THE BAD NEWS . . . is that police are still looking for the individual who sent threatening letters to the Sox. (Boston Herald)

MUSIC MAN: The Herald tells us what's on Francona's iPod.

CHANGES COMING? With the bloom seemingly off Justin Masterson's rose, it looks as if the Sox may bring up Clay Buchholz to take his place in the rotation. (Boston Globe) Buchholz' first start could come Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

WE'RE STILL NUMBER ONE: At least one Red Sox fan at The Trop thinks so . . . or did that single digit raised to the sky mean something else? Whatever it was, NESN caught it in full view -- rendering Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy speechless, though I thought I heard Remy's uncontrollable laughter in the background despite his hitting the cough button on his microphone -- and so did old friend Dan Lamothe on his Red Sox Monster site, both screen shot and video. (His heading: "We really need to work on this 'grace in defeat' thing")

HOW ABOUT 'GRACE IN VICTORY'? All this talk about how insufferable Red Sox Nation has become is nonsense, because virtually every fan base reacts the same way to success. As a case in point may we present Rays Nation, which is acting this way after three good months following 10 utterly wretched seasons:

COLLATERAL DAMAGE: The Rays' success is causing financial hardship to Dunkin' Donuts. (Sports Frog) Beware some mild, NSFW language at the end.

ROLE MODELS: Another sign that the Rays have arrived: Weak franchises want to emulate them. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

REMEMBER WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT WHAT'S GOOD FOR GENERAL MOTORS BEING GOOD FOR AMERICA? The blog DRays Bay's Jacob Larsen takes offense at the notion -- put forth on ESPN's First Take by Rob Parker -- that the Rays' success actually hurts baseball because the sport thrives when Boston and New York are winning. Funny, I seem to recall baseball thriving best in the 1980s when different teams (and only one of them, the 1986 Mets, was from either Boston or New York) won every year.

NOT YET: The Denver Post reports that, despite Hideki Okajima's ineffectiveness, the Red Sox have not stepped up their pursuit of Brian Fuentes.

MORE ON MANNY: An anti-Manny Ramirez backlash seems to be developing as we get father and farther away from the shoving-Jack-McCormick story. The Globe's Bob Ryan says this is another case of a star getting away with something that would spell doom for a marginal player ("If, for example, Brandon Moss had shoved Jack McCormick to the floor in a silly tiff over tickets, or over anything, you think he'd still be a member of the Boston Red Sox?"), and says there's no excuse for the Red Sox not suspending Ramirez for at least a game. FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal wonders if, in the light of the incident, the Sox will have second thoughts about picking up Ramirez' 2009 option, especially since his production "no longer is otherworldly."

THE DEBATE CONTINUES: Some 'no' votes are beginning to surface in the Curt Schilling-for-the-Hall-of-Fame argument. This one is from Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: The New York Sun's Tim Marchman warns Yankee fans that this Red Sox-Rays series pits the real powers of the A.L. East, and that may be true for some years to come.

BRONX PACIFISTS: The silent movies, as the great Ned Martin used to call those occasional offensive snoozes, continue for the Yankees as they were shut down once again by Texas pitching -- yes, that same staff which sits 14th in the 14-team American League with a 5.57 ERA, 78 points behind 13th-place Detroit and almost exactly a run worse than the league average -- in a 3-2 loss. (New York Post) One of the biggest culprits in the collective team slump is Melky Cabrera (New York Daily News), which leaves Peter Abraham wondering a) why he was allowed to bat in the ninth inning with the Yanks trailing by a run and b) why he wasn't called upon to bunt with a runner on first and no out. (LoHud Yankees Blog) Instead, he swung away . . . and grounded into an all-but-game-ending double play. It all took attention away from what was a pretty mediocre start from Joba Chamberlain (New York Daily News), though he professes not to be worried about his four-inning, 91-pitch struggle.

A-LIGHTNING-ROD: The feel-good news of Alex Rodriguez spending the day with an 18-year-old cancer patient was trampled by the gossip headlines linking him with Madonna. (Both stories New York Daily News) Just, writes the Daily News' Bill Madden, what the Yankees don't need at the moment.

WE HAVE A DEAL: After a day of reports that Barry Bonds' 756th home-run ball would not be going to the Hall of Fame because its owner was unable to reach agreement with the Cooperstown folks, it was announced at 7:45 p.m. that the ball was on its way to the Hall. (New York Times) Still in dispute, however, is whether or not the owner donated it or just loaned it.

I'M GOOD: At a time when most teams are assessing their needs and trying to figure out what to seek in the trade market, Ozzie Guillen says he likes the White Sox just the way they are. (Chicago Tribune)

SURPRISE! People expected the Phillies to lift Brett Myers out of the starting rotation. They didn't expect them to send him to the minors. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

NO ORDINARY JOE: That the Indians continue to use Joe Borowski as their closer is a testament to . . . something. His record in save situations fell to 1-3 with a 12.46 ERA -- with the opposition hitting .395 with an on-base average of .469 against him -- after last night's 3-2, 10-inning loss to the White Sox in which Borowski blew a 2-1 lead. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

ALMOST ACCURATE: The blog Paleo-Future found an article from Aug. 20, 1967, in which the writer attempted to tell what it would be like for sports fans in the year 2000. He got a lot of it right -- saying corporate interests would gobble up the good tickets and the real fans would be pushed to the outer limits of the ballpark if they could get in at all -- but, boy, did he get the ticket prices wrong. (He talked about $20 box seats and $8 bleacher seats, then explained why they would be so high despite how "far-fetched" it seemed.)

SILENT BUT BUSY: USA Today reports Mark McGwire still won't talk publicly -- and hasn't since his disgraceful performance in front of Congress in 2005 -- but that he's working giving hitting lessons to a small group of major leaguers, minor leaguers and college players. His friends think his love of baseball is so strong that he'll be back in uniform, somewhere, very soon.

Q AND A WITH . . . Ex-Mets, Reds and Orioles manager Davey Johnson, who's currently managing the U.S. Olympic baseball team. (Big League Stew)

WHISPERS: The Marlins won't say whether or not they're interested in reacquring Paul LoDuca (Miami Herald) . . . Scouts from at least three teams are checking out the Reds' David Weathers (Cincinnati Enquirer) . . . The Reds asked the Mariners if they wanted to bring back Ken Griffey Jr. and were told no, thanks (the News-Tribune) . . . The Mets are still interested in Vicente Padilla. (metsfever.blogspot.com)

HERE AND THERE: It's looking more and more like a case of Steve Blass Disease for Rich Hill after a disastrous rookie-league outing (Chicago Tribune) . . . The Tigers say surgery to fix Jeremy Bonderman's circulation problems went well (Detroit Free Press) . . . Harold Reynolds, who resurrected his broadcast career on mlb.com, is going to work for TBS. (USA Today)

OLD FRIENDS: Tony Armas Jr. won his season debut as the Mets beat the Cardinals (New York Daily News) . . . Hanley Ramirez had a five-RBI game in the Marlins' loss to the Nationals (Palm Beach Post) . . . With Rafael Furcal suffering a setback in his rehab, it looks more and more like a stint as the Dodgers' shortstop is in Nomar Garciaparra's future (mlb.com) . . . Shea Hillenbrand has signed with the independent league York Revolution. (York Daily Record)

AND FINALLY . . . The last word in the Shawn Chacon case goes to Baseball Think Factory's Jamey Carroll Wojtyla (Dan Lee), who says he needs to find a "job where I can sign a multi-million dollar contract, suck at what I do, attack my boss, and be able to claim I was fired unlawfully."

-- ART MARTONE