Projo Sox Blog

How about with the hitters? They were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, left 10 men on base and squandered a runner-at-third, one-out chance in the seventh.

Baserunners? Julio Lugo took a run off the board when he was called for that rarest of baseball infractions -- interference -- in attempting to break up a double play.

Managerial decisions? Plenty of chew on here, particularly the call for a hit-and-run -- with one out in the ninth and the Sox trailing by a run -- despite the dual facts that a) the baserunner (Mike Lowell) is just about the slowest guy on the team and b) the hitter (Jason Varitek) is at a stage right now where his challenge is not so much to get a hit, but to simply put his bat on the ball. (Think I'm kidding? He's struck out in 6 of last 9, and 9 of his last 16 at-bats.) And that's not even considering why Varitek was sent to the plate in that crucial spot to begin with, since he's 3-for-his-last-48 and is hitting .118 (12-for-102, with 34 strikeouts) in his last 27 games.

Starting pitching? Daisuke Matsuzaka continues to approach the job as if he's getting paid by the pitch, throwing so many of them that he had to be lifted after five innings even though he had stifled the Rays on two hits.

And, ah, the bullpen. Authors of that 31-minute, 54-pitch, 5-hit, 3-walk, 6-run masterpiece of an inning -- the seventh -- which turned a 4-1 Boston lead into a 7-4 Tampa Bay edge.

Little wonder, then, that Sean McAdam described last night's 7-6 loss at the hands of the Rays, completing the three-game sweep, as a case of the Sox being "outplayed and outclassed . . . and [saving] their worst for last."

And little wonder that, even though last night was only July 2, Orel Hershiser has declared a winner in the A.L. East race:

RAYS NATION IS . . . happy (Tampa Tribune), boastful (Bugs and Cranks) and speechless. (DRays Bay)

RAYS PLAYERS ARE . . . starting to believe (St. Petersburg Times). The Times' John Romano -- noting that David Ortiz said history is not on the Rays' side, that young and inexperienced teams inevitably falter in their first swipe at the apple -- asks the question, "So, Rays, what are you prepared to do now?"

THESE DIAPER DANDIES ARE AWESOME, BAY-BEE! The Rays' biggest celebrity fan is taking all this about like you'd expect. (Tampa Tribune)

THE REAL REASON: Alex Cora thinks jettisoning the "Devil" out of their nickname was a divine blessing for the Rays. (St. Petersburg Times)

MEANWHILE, AT THE OTHER END OF THE JOY SPECTRUM . . . The Red Sox now trail the Rays by 3 1/2 games -- their biggest deficit since the 2006 season -- and five in the loss column, and have some problems to address. The biggest, long-term, is the bullpen; at the moment, Terry Francona has no one to count on out there other than Jonathan Papelbon. (McAdam reports that there'll be a new arm in the 'pen tonight: Mike Timlin will be activated, and Chris Smith sent back to Pawtucket. It's the top item in a small notes column.) The Globe's Amalie Benjamin details last night's meltdown, which was exacerbated by Manny Delcarmen's inexcusable delay in covering first base on a grounder to the right side by the second batter he faced, Akinori Iwamura; had he done so, the Rays would have a run in, no runners on and one out. Instead they had a run in, a man on first and no outs, and the inning snowballed from there.

Delcarmen, at least, faced the media music afterwards. Not so Craig Hansen, who had that never-encouraging deer-in-the-headlights look as he gave up two walks and a hit to the three batters he faced, throwing only 4 of his 13 pitches for strikes. And the reason they had to pitch in the seventh is because Francona needed to summon Hideki Okajima in the sixth, after the exasperating Matsuzaka had run his pitch count into triple digits in getting through the first five.

"After a game like tonight," Francona told Benjamin, "things don't look very rosy."

The great thing about baseball is, there's always a game tomorrow to wipe out the bad taste from today. But this taste may linger a while.

REMEMBER WHEN? The next four of those games are in New York, which is normally Armageddon around here; these last three, however, kind of took the shine off the next four. But David Ortiz tells McAdam that neither the Sox nor the Yanks will be down for too much longer.

IMPORTANT, NOT CRITICAL: That's how the Yankees are approaching this series (New York Post), since, as Johnny Damon points out, this isn't a two-horse race anymore.

I SAY IT HERE, IT COMES OUT THERE: Hank Steinbrenner went off on the somnolent Yankee offense yesterday afternoon, so -- of course -- last night the Yanks went out and got 15 runs, needing every one of them to overcome a Sidney Ponson start in a defeat of the Rangers. (New York Post) The Post's Kevin Kernan likes the notion that the Baby Boss holds the players accountable, so as long as there appears to be a cause-and-effect thing going on, expect Hank to mouth off on a somewhat regular schedule. We can only imagine what he'd be saying today if he owned the Red Sox; the Sox players are delighted he doesn't. (Boston Herald)

FALLEN EMPIRE: Some more news that doesn't figure to go down too well at the Steinbrenner breakfast table: The Red Sox are now more popular in Connecticut than the Yankees. (Boston Herald)

CAN'T BE SOON ENOUGH: Speaking of Ortiz, McAdam reports he's ahead of schedule in his comeback.

TIME FOR ACTION? There's no questioning Jason Varitek's leadership skills, the respect he engenders from his teammates, the talent he brings to handling the pitching staff and the important role he holds in the clubhouse. All that said, his slump is now to the point where you wonder if it really is a slump or the signs of something far more ominous . . . like an erosion of his skills. The Herald details a miserable night for the Captain, in which the Rays not once, but twice intentionally walked Kevin Youkilis -- once with a man on third and two outs, not exactly your prototypical intentional-walk situation -- to get to Varitek (and it worked both times; 'Tek grounded out to end the fifth and struck out to end the seventh).

So the question, naturally, is why Varitek was allowed to hit in the ninth inning with the tying run at first base with one out. Jerry Remy, on the television broadcast the other night, dismissed out of hand the notion that Francona would pinch-hit for Varitek -- the implication being that the Sox had too much respect for Varitek to embarrass him that way -- but Dennis Eckersley, after last night's game, raised the issue of why Francona didn't turn to Sean Casey in the ninth inning. Again, with full acknowledgment of Varitek's importance to the Red Sox, this is something Francona will have to readdress. As proof, let me point to none other than Earl Weaver in Weaver On Strategy:

What a manager must concern himself with is winning. If you don't make the move and pinch-hit, what are the other twenty-four players going to think? If you pinch-hit, one guy is upset. If you don't pinch-hit, many of the other players, who know what should be done, are upset.

Virtually everybody watching last night's game, at Tropicana Field and on television, knew Sean Casey had a (much) better chance of getting a hit in the ninth inning last night than Jason Varitek. And if we spectators knew it, you can be sure the players knew it.

Chad Finn knows it:

"I realize one of Francona's many strengths as a manager is his faith in his players, and more often than not that faith is rewarded down the road. But this has gone beyond the point of ridiculousness. If Sean Casey is available to hit and Kevin Cash hasn't entered the ballgame yet, he has to hit for Varitek in crucial situations. He has to."

We shall see if Tito is listening. If not to Chad and me (and thousands others, I'm sure), than to Earl Weaver.

LATER RATHER THAN SOONER . . . BUT NOT MUCH LATER: As we reported on this blog last night, reports that Clay Buchholz would be summoned to the big leagues to start for the Red Sox Saturday in New York were incorrect. But that doesn't mean he'll never get the call. Joe McDonald talked to Sox pitching consultant (and ex-star left-hander) Bruce Hurst and PawSox pitching coach Rich Sauveur about Buchholz last night and they both continued to rave about Buchholz' future.

SOONER RATHER THAN LATER: That's the time frame for the Sox' No. 1 draft choice, Sarasota, Fla., high school shortstop/pitcher Casey Kelly, to decide whether to sign with Boston or play football at the University of Tennessee; he has to make the call before football practice starts next week. He was at The Trop last night and McAdam reports he thinks it's a tough choice.

LOCAL BOYS: McAdam caught up with Rocco Baldelli last night and found the Rhode Island native 'encouraged' by his progress during this latest comeback.

(VERY) QUICKLY: Baseball Musings' David Pinto wonders if Randy Johnson has reached the end of the trail . . . Scott Kazmir is delighted with the trade that sent him from the Mets to the Rays (New York Daily News) . . . Andy Pettitte may be headed to court as a witness in Roger Clemens' defamation lawsuit against Brian McNamee (New York Daily News) . . . The New York Post reports that Alex Rodriguez' marriage is on the rocks . . . Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of Dave Righetti's no-hitter against the Red Sox. (New York Daily News)

AND FINALLY . . . Happy holiday weekend, everyone! See you back here on Monday.

-- ART MARTONE