| 28 August 2009
Okay... Ozzie didn't really say that. He actually said that about Daniel Bard yesterday, but Ozzie was impressed with our new relief picther... you know our old short stop... Nick Green.
Here's the quote in typical Ozzie broken-english.
"I think they're going to make a change," Guillen said of Green and the Red Sox. "They might starting having (Tazawa) back in the bullpen. You know, he impressed (me). That was pretty good. I think Francona has found another guy who can help him in the bullpen."
When Junichi Tazawa completly imploded last night for 9 runs on 10 hits through 4 innings, Francona had to get creative with his reliever options. He went to Manny Delcarmen for two innings and Ramon Ramirez (who threw threw 21 pitches yesterday) for one.
Then things got interesting.
Rather than turn to Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima or Takashi Saito (who last pitched on 8/23)... Tito called on Nick Green. Like me, I'm sure many of you expected this to go as well as Tito's brilliant idea to have Clay Buchholz pinch-run a few weeks back... but Green surprised us all and threw two score less innings, despite only finding the strike zone 13 times in 35 tries.
"(Manager Terry Francona) told me pretty early that I might (pitch)," said Green, who said he hadn't pitched since roughly 1998. "At first I didn't want to pitch, but we didn't have a choice. I told (pitching coach John Farrell) that I was going to pitch the eighth, and then asked him who was going to pitch the ninth. I didn't know what to expect because I haven't thrown to a catcher in 11 years.
Bottom Line: The Sox won 3 for 4 and I can't really blame Tito for his creative approach with six big games against Tampa Bay in early September. You may think the Green thing was crazy now... but we'll need every bullet in every arm in September.
ps. JD Drew has 5 ding dongs in his last 10 games, including two 2-homer games. All five of those homers have come while hitting 8th, where he is hitting .538... maybe that's a good spot for him?
And, in case you missed it... Gonzo is hitting .274 since coming to Boston with 4 homers and 10 RBI... he has 31 RBI on the season... Think we should sign him for 2010?
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