Papi and Lowrie Power Sox Past Mariners

by Ben Buchanan on Sep 15, 2010 12:30 PM EDT in Game Stories

It's hard to doubt Jed Lowrie anymore.

Coming into Tuesday's game, Lowrie sported a .791 OPS. A very good number for a shortstop already.

Coming out of Tuesday's game, Lowrie sported a .847 OPS, courtesy of two long balls off of Mariners starter Luke French.

Still, despite Lowrie's bombs, the Sox found themselves on the wrong side of a 5-4 score thanks to a mediocre Daisuke Matsuzaka, who allowed the Mariners to score five runs in just six innings thanks to four walks and eight hits. This to a team that hadn't scored four at home in about a month.

But if Lowrie had the most big flies, it was David Ortiz who had the biggest. Stepping into the role of "Mr. Clutch" he knows so well, Ortiz jacked a three-run shot to right-center with two outs, putting the Red Sox on top by a pair.

The rest of the Red Sox chipped in too, with Adrain Beltre picking up three hits, Victor Martinez a pair, and Josh Reddick putting an insurance run on the board with an RBI single in the 9th. Daniel Bard bridged the gap to Jonathan Papelbon, who gave up a pair of hits before baring down and striking out the last three batters.

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Comments

You would think people would recognize that Lowrie is legitimate

But just this morning I saw a poster on another blog swear that Lowrie had “no range, no bat, and no guts.” I think that ranks among the dozen or so most uninformed comments I’ve seen on a sports blog.

Just to check—are there any other MLB middle infielders out there that combine a .750+ OPS with decent defense at more than one IF position? I can’t imagine that they’re a dime a dozen.

Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell

by lone1c on Sep 15, 2010 2:20 PM EDT reply actions

I could understand someone who only watched the second half of 2008 thinking he has no bat

but no range? wtf? Has this person seen him play? He always looks a decent step above average to me at short at the very least (which is the only position I’ve really watched him play enough to feel like I have a fair judgement… since he’s just learning second). And obviously his hitting is and will be more like it is now or was before the broken wrist.
Guts, I don’t know. Never seen his insides, but I assume that to walk, never mind baseball, he has some kind of innards. Jeez, the guy played a half season with a broken wrist cuz he was asked to.

by wolf9309 on Sep 15, 2010 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Broken wrist, on top of everything else

He was a rookie being thrown around three different positions, sometimes having to switch in the middle of a game, and then being batted second or somewhere sixth through ninth in the lineup. The Sox basically threw him into the deep end of the pool without a life vest.

Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell

by lone1c on Sep 15, 2010 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions