Frustration Nation by Jared Carrabis
Picking apart every detail of Friday's failure


If I had to put all of my emotions into one word following Friday night’s loss, I wouldn’t be able to do it.

I honestly don’t know where to start my attempt to vent all of my frustrations to whomever chooses to read this. It’s literally to the point where I could write everything down on paper that pissed me off tonight, put them in a hat, and select in draft lottery fashion which topics to blog about here.

Jon Lester’s outing: I don’t know what was on Jon Lester’s mind on Friday night, but it couldn’t have been baseball. The guy is just flat out too good to give up a career-high eleven hits to a team that’s one game over .500, who just so happen to have a ridiculous amount of injured position players as well. It just doesn’t happen. So my frustrations start there.

Jhonny Peralta? Really?: Brandon Inge and Carlos Guillen hit the disabled list for Detroit, which forced their hand to minor league pitcher Giovanni Soto to the Indians, in exchange for Jhonny Peralta and cash. Peralta shows up with the Tigers, batting .246, with seven homers and a weak .308 on-base percentage. The guy switches to a Tigers uniform, and now all of a sudden he turns into Al Kaline, hitting two homers off of Jon Lester, one of the top left-handers in the game, when Peralta is hitting .239 against lefties this season.

Running out of innings: After walking to lead-off the bottom of the seventh, Eric Patterson gets gunned down trying to steal second base with no outs, and the top of the order coming up. He’s been with the Red Sox for 20 games now, and hasn’t attempted to steal a base. Why now? Especially against a catcher who has thrown out 40% or more base stealers in five of his eight big league seasons, that was not the time to get greedy.

Not being able to deliver the big hit: This is a very vague topic that could be directed at many names, so let’s just blame everyone. As a team, the Red Sox hit .200 with runners in scoring position on Friday. You ready for this number? They left twenty men on base. Twenty. You mean to tell me that the team with the most doubles in all of baseball, and the second most homers, can’t come up with one measly single when there are runners in scoring position? Not one?

Tim Wakefield’s relief appearance: First, a tip of the cap to Tim Wakefield, who at 43 years and 362 days became the oldest Red Sox pitcher to appear in a game. Getting work for the first time in ten days, Wakefield allowed the first two batters in the eighth to reach base, as a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch charged to Wakefield got a run across. A 5-3 putout of Austin Jackson plated another run, as Wakefield allowed two runs in his lone inning of work, ultimately costing the Red Sox the game.

The Fenway “Faithful”: Okay, it’s a Friday night. I understand some of these people have places to go, beers to drink. That’s fine. But when a five-run deficit empties Fenway Park to the point that it looks like it’s 1996 in there, I have an issue with that. If you’re not there to watch baseball, don’t come. There are plenty of baseball fans out there who would give their left arm to be sitting in the seat that you just vacated. This isn’t L.A. If you’ve got somewhere you’d rather be, make sure the tickets fall in the hands of someone who doesn’t take going to Fenway Park for granted.



The David Ortiz grand slam: As soon as Papi came to the plate, I knew the ball was as good as gone. Ortiz was due, and for some reason, Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland was letting Jose Valverde’s pitch count creep up around a thousand. A tired and overworked reliever plus an overdue Big Papi equals smash town. Even after the grand slam, Valverde remained in the game despite his pitch count, and his ineffective pitching.

The ninth inning, post-Ortiz grand slam: After Ortiz roped a grand slam into the first row out in right, Victor Martinez, who had doubled twice in the game already, struck out after seeing nothing but six splitters. Adrian Beltre then battled Valverde for seven pitches, before lining a double down the left field line to put the tying run in scoring position with two away. With Darnell McDonald scheduled to bat next, manager Terry Francona called the outfielder back in favor of pinch hitter JD Drew, who was scratched from Friday night’s lineup with discomfort in his hamstring.

The Tigers elected to walk Drew intentionally, putting the winning run aboard. This brought Mike Cameron to the plate. With Drew on at first, the Red Sox decided to pinch run Bill Hall for Drew. In my opinion, and I said this even before the final result, the Red Sox should have pinch hit Cameron for Hall, as Cameron had been 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and had grounded into a double play. The concern then becomes Drew’s bummed hamstring at first base, but if he told the skipper that he was OK to pinch hit, then he must have felt OK to run the bases.

Instead of sending Hall to the plate, who had homered in three of his last five games, it was Cameron with his bat on his shoulder, watching strike three cruise right down the plate to end the game. The way I saw it, there was no need to worry about the winning run (Drew), when the game still needed to be tied first. In that situation, you take your chances with Hall at the plate.

"I guess I’ll be the goat for today, if that's the situation,” said Cameron after the game. Man, listen. This loss is not your fault, and anyone who blames it on you was clearly not watching the entire game. In all honesty, it never should have came down to you.

Everyone getting better, while Red Sox stay the same: If you are as tapped into the baseball world as much as I am, you were discouraged and pissed off even before Friday night’s devastating loss. Between reading tweets, browsing MLBTradeRumors.com, and listening to WEEI, it’s not an encouraging feeling when the best teams are getting better, and the Red Sox are not even being mentioned in any trade talk.

The Yankees have acquired one of the best switch hitters of all-time in Lance Berkman, and they’ve added outfield depth by dealing for Austin Kearns. If you caught the highlights of that Rays/Yankees game in Tampa, you’d think you were watching Game 7 of the ALCS. Two 60-plus-win teams going at it in a low-scoring affair had the feel of October, while the end result of Boston’s loss felt more like a funeral.

Final thought: So now the question remains, are the Red Sox going to buy or sell come Saturday’s 4pm ET trade deadline? Is the glass half empty, or half full? Sure, the Red Sox’ situation right now isn’t ideal, but is it insurmountable? The race for the division crown has become a two-team race, but in turn, does that count the Red Sox out for the Wild Card? With the Rays just a game back of the Yankees for the division lead, the Red Sox fall to 6.5 games behind the Rays in the Wild Card.

There are 59 games remaining in 2010. To say that 6.5 games in the standings can’t be made up in 59 games is foolish. But you do have to ask yourself, they may have the time to make up that ground, but do they have the talent to do it? Is this 2010 team worth adding payroll, worth subtracting young talent, and worth keeping together to make a run in August and September?

Tick tock, Theo. Tick tock.

-Jared Carrabis

Published on July 31, 2010

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