Ninth Inning Win For The Twins...Twins 7 Red Sox 6
Jonathon Papelbon is human. Julio Lugo has been commiting far too many errors. Jon Lester is too unpredictable to count on consistantly, if at all. All of the preceding facts combined Friday night for a ninth inning comeback win for the Minnesota Twins. Jonathon Papelbon surrendered two bottom of the ninth inning runs to take the blown save and the loss. Here is part of what he had to say, taken from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, with my thanks...
"It's frustrating as hell right now, just because the simple fact is I'm throwing good pitches, I'm just not finishing them right now and executing them all the way through the strike zone," Papelbon said. "I'm sitting there in a comfortable position, where I want to be, with one out to get, and I don't finish a split-finger and he bloops it over the third baseman. Simple. The last outing that I had there were three bloop hits and a broken-bat hit,” he said. “You can’t do nothing about that. Tonight I could do something about that. Tonight was a totally different story. This has no correlation with the last outing, none whatsoever. It was just a simple fact that tonight I didn’t execute a pitch when I had two strikes and one out to get. It’s frustrating as hell,” he said. “Right now it’s a simple fact that I’m throwing good pitches, I’m just not executing through the strike zone.”
Peter here. I hope these last two in two days ninth inning misadventures will make Paps a better pitcher in the long run, if that's possible. And there are three more contests left to go in the "Ugly Dome," so we'll get 'em eventually (that means tonight). Daisuke Matsuzaka will face Glen Perkins, who will be making his major league debut. The Red Sox hitters can only go from the scouting reports assembled by their experts, but they will find a way to win. And Daisuke Matsuzaka has to come out with fire in his eyes and finesse and pinpoint control in his pitches. We ALL know he can do it, and I'm sure that eight walk wild and crazy night night five days ago is fresh in his memory bank.
Thank you for stopping in yet again, and I'd love to answer/respond to all of your comments. And click on the title of this post for more about a tough night for the Boston Red Sox and Jonathon Papelbon. But as THE WHO said and sang more than forty years ago (gulp!)..."The kids are alright."
posted by Peter N @ 5:07 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
It was tough, no doubt about it. Let's see if we can turn it around tonight. I say we can.
It's hard thinking of Papelbon as human, but you're right. We all have off days. In fact, as I watched Lester pitch the game last night, I thought about this. Some days I drop everything I pick up. I bend over to pick the things up and hit my forehead on a table, and drop the thing again. No clue why days like that happen, but they do. I wondered how awful it must be when this happens and you're a major league pitcher!! Lord! But I guess it happens. What a nightmare that must be for the guy on the mound.
It was odd to see him blow a second game in a row. I did some analysis and as he was not putting guys away with the fastball, he began going to the split and was not throwing it effectively. Should have stayed with the fastball maybe. Wish his change up was consistent enough to use more often. If he had a Pedro-like changeup, he would be pure lights-out!
Daisuke pitched great! Hey Keith. Rooster, he'll develop that someday. I hope this makes him a better pitcher.
Thanks guys.
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