Game 35: Sox lose in extras

I mean, the memories… [hates when the media ruins stuff]

Its our last west coast series of the year. Which is awesome.

Win as a team, lose as a team. The Sox had many opportunities to win that game.

Here are some of the missed chances yesterday (that didn’t include Papi):

Top of 2nd:
(After Lugo’s RBI single and stolen base) Ellsbury lines out, stranding runners on second and third.
Top of 5th:
Lead-off double by Bay
M Lowell fouled out to catcher.
Drew flied out to left.
Bailey walked.
Varitek flied out to center.
Top of 9th:
With one out and two on
Bailey struck out looking.
Varitek fouled out to first.
Top of 10th:
Ellsbury’s inability to get Lugo to third base after a lead-off double was a big missed opportunity.

Buzzy already mentioned Pedroia’s failure with 1 out and the bases loaded in the top of the 12th. Sure, Papi is struggling. But this is a team loss.

I’ll see your team failures and raise you:

Top of 4th:
D Ortiz struck out swinging – bases loaded.

Top of 6th:
D Ortiz struck out looking – Pedroia on second.

Top of the 8th:
D Ortiz flied out to left – Ellsbury on third, Pedroia on first.

Top of the 12th:
D Ortiz grounded out to catcher – bases loaded.

Even ignoring the other three situations where Ortiz failed to produce, that’s four inning-ending failures with runners in scoring position – three with the go-ahead run 90 feet away, two where a walk would have scored that run. So, if our DH could have gotten on base with at least a quarter of the time, we could have won (or at least not lost) that game. On average, we were 57% less likely to win that game after every time The Artist formerly known as Big Papi stepped to the plate. His WPA is also negative on the year (slightly).

Certainly, it’s a team loss, but if we’re privileging the team above the individual (and we must be, since we don’t play our home games in New York), then we concern ourselves with the Boston Red Sox W-L. Given that the ultimate winning strategy is to score more runs than the bad guys, I propose that the W-L would be improved by placing a player in the RBI spot who can actually, y’know, bat runs in. Ortiz may be better than Jeff Bailey or Varitek at doing that, but he’s less effective than Jason Bay, Lowell, even Drew or even Lugo at this point (small sample, of course).

Obviously, there’s a huge mental problem here. Ortiz is pressing, and there’s a popular movement amongst the (bitter and jealous) non-Boston fans to have him deemed to have taken PEDs by association – which can’t be helping. This is a justification for not removing him from the line-up (particularly with Silva, Olsen and Jackovasaurus on the slate in Seattle), since HR 1 will be more helpful than anything else at this point. However, it’s not a justification for not moving him down. He’s simply not producing at the plate in a way which justifies the at bats the 3-spot gets, and we have other players who are. Moving him down allows him to get his hacks in and allows us to win games at the same time.

Terry Francona and Ortiz (to a very small extent) are both paid to deal with situations like this. if I recall correctly Francona’s ability to manage a clubhouse of personalities is something which has been consistently praised, and Ortiz (in addition to being a run-producer) has always been described as being a good clubhouse guy. Time to earn those millions…

I hope (and I think) that Ortiz will start to produce enough to justify the 3 (or at least 5) spot at some point. Until then, we have to balance his individual concerns (meaning those particular to his ability to play baseball) with our team concerns (the tyranny of the W-L). In that light, I think a demotion in the order was appropriate before yesterday, and begins to creep towards necessity now.

IF you’re suggesting that, I think I might ban you.

Juuust kidding.

Or am I?

You’re a… wait… I am a genious!