Projo Sox Blog

BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Tomorrow night could be the last in a Red Sox uniform for catcher and team captain Jason Varitek, who has been a fixture with the team since 1997.

Varitek's three-year contract expires at the end of this year, and after a season where he hit .220 with 13 home runs, it is unclear whether the Red Sox will want him back for another year.

Varitek took several rounds of batting practice yesterday at the team's optional workout, but he brushed off questions about his future.

"That's totally irrelevant right now to what this team is facing," Varitek said.

The team is focused, Varitek said, on the game ahead, and they are ready to take another shot at Tampa Bay.

"Guys came out, got their work in, and went about their business like we normally do. There's a sense of excitement," Varitek said.

No one is more conscious of Varitek's value than Game Four pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Every pitcher and catcher pair needs an adjustment period, and with Matsuzaka, the language barrier makes that doubly difficult. The two began to gel this year, Matsuzaka said, and he is loathe to disrupt that relationship.

"Unfortunately the language barrier is still there, and it will always be there," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "But as more time goes by and the more we work together, things are only going to get better . . . compared to last year, we've made a lot of progress," Matsuzaka said.

Now that he and Varitek have become an effective team, Matsuzaka doesn't want to see his catcher go.

Any time a pitcher pairs up with a new catcher, there's some adjustments that need to be made, and it's not an easy process. So I just hope I get to be paired up with the same catcher for as long as possible," Matsuzaka said.

 Tags  Daisuke Matsuzaka Dan Barbarisi Jason Varitek Red Sox

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