| 21 April 2010
Lost in the excitement of last night's walk off victory was the first "benching" of David Ortiz.
After watching Ortiz strike out two more times in three at-bats last night, Terry Francona chose to sit Ortiz in the 9th and go with the right-handed Mike Lowell, with the lefty Oliver on mound. Ortiz was 2 for 10 in his career against Oliver and Lowell was 3 for 8 with 2 ding dongs, but this move was about more than simply playing the matchups.
"You know what, if you ask me if I enjoy doing something like that, of course not," Francona said. "He's very prideful. I understand that. Again, we're trying to win games. I think players understand that. It's certainly our responsibility to communicate that to players, but we need to try to win games. On the flip side of that, Mikey Lowell is a very prideful guy, too. I think sometimes that's getting lost in the shuffle, because he's been so professional about things. We just need to try to put our best guys out on the field."
Ortiz had snapped a 6-game streak with at least 2 strikeouts by avoiding the K in his last two games, but after last night, he is now the proud owner of 17 Ks in 41 at-bats. I'll admit he saw some junk last night and the umpiring was pretty rough at times, but Ortiz also continued to miss pitches that came right over the plate.
Yes, J.D. is worse with 19 Ks in 45 at-bats and a .133 BA, but with Ellsbury and Cameron on the DL, Francona can't afford to sit Drew.. although Jeremy Hermida, Josh Reddick, Darnell MacDonald all look like better offensive options right now.
With two lefty starters expected tonight (Harrison) and tomorrow (Wilson), and Ortiz snapping bats over his knee in frustration, Mike Lowell will likely get the call at DH and maybe even on Friday. As you may recall, the Sox gave Ortiz a few days off to clear his head during last season's funk, and he certainly looks like he could use a vacation right now.
For the record, Ortiz is 1 for 3 with a strikeout against Harrison, while Lowell is 2 for 3 with a double. And Ortiz is 1 for 7 with 2 Ks against Wilson, while Lowell is 2 for 6 with 2 Ks.
With Beckett on the mound tonight, we might even see Tek at catcher and V-Mart at DH. Martinez had 3 hits in last night game and is hitting lefties better than he hits righties right now: 4 for 12 (.333), .833 OPS. Also, Jason Varitek is hitting .429 on the season, had a key double and walk in last night's win, and hit lefties at a .260 BA/.824 OPS clip since the start of 2007, while hovering around .200 vs RHP.
Bottom Line: All signs point to Big Papi sitting this one out tonight.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
