Don’t panic.
Summer had to officially come to an end.
Today is the first full day of fall.
The Red Sox are preparing for the playoffs and, hopefully, manager Terry Francona is going to use these last 12 games to set up his team for a post-season run.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he realizes…….
Manny Delcarmen has become the new Eric Gagne. In his last six appearances, Delcarmen has allowed eight hits, eight earned runs and six walks in 3¤ innings.
That works out to a 21.62 earned-run average.
Delcarmen should only be used in games in which the Red Sox are trailing by seven or more runs.
Daniel Bard, their setup man from the right side, has surrendered five hits and three earned runs in his last three outings and has also walked two over 2¤ innings.
Bard is simply not ready to handle clutch, close-game situations in the playoffs.
People are enamored with his 99-100 mile-an-hour fastball, but good major league hitters can catch up to it.
The bullpen, in general, is shaky and that could turn out to be the major stumbling block in Boston’s quest for a third World Series championship in six years.
With the exception of Jonathan Papelbon and, to a lesser degree, Billy Wagner, everybody else is an adventure.
It will be critical for Francona and pitching coach John Farrell to make smart decisions and to read whether or not a particular reliever has good stuff and the potential to be effective.
If they bring on a reliever whose name isn’t Papelbon, they should have another reliever warming up at all times before a game gets out of hand like it did in the 12-9 loss to Kansas City on Monday night.
They used to call former Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson ‘Captain Hook’ because he was quick to remove a pitcher he didn’t think was effective.
Francona could use a little more ‘Sparky’ in him.
I’ve also thought if you have an ace like Papelbon and a crucial situation occurs before the ninth inning, bring him on to get out of that inning and hope to piecemeal the rest of the game with Wagner or whoever else might be pitching well at the time.
If you’re leading by three runs in the seventh and the other team loads the bases with one out, bring on Papelbon.
The other way the Red Sox can avoid their bullpen woes is to have the starters go at least seven innings.
That seems to be a realistic option.
Josh Beckett seems to have bounced back from his slump; Jon Lester has been consistently sharp and Clay Buchholz has been a pleasant surprise with his string of consecutive strong outings.
You just need three good starters in the first round of the playoffs, which is a best-of-five.
It should be a best-of-seven like the league championship series and the World Series.
Daisuke Matsuzaka’s two recent outings are cause for cautious optimism in the number four spot if they advance to the AL championship series.
Tim Wakefield is another possibility.
I don’t see any reason to put Jason Varitek behind the plate because he can’t hit or throw out basestealers and, of late, he has allowed a pair of costly passed balls. One was called a wild pitch, but he should have kept it in front of him.
A lineup with Victor Martinez behind the plate, Kevin Youkilis at first and Mike Lowell at third is their most potent one.