Cursed To First - Sox and Pats forever.

Sunrise, Sunset: Trade deadline claims its victims while the Sox keep coming back

Photo by Kelly O'Connor

Imagine being Jeremy Hermida today. You've just recently come off the DL after suffering a rib injury and a down season, and the next thing you know, you're driving away from the park on deadline day, with your name still penciled in on the lineup cards in the clubhouse behind you.

Here's where the usual platitudes are summoned: it's a business, not personal, etc. And I'm excited for the potential Ryan Kalish brings after tearing up the minor leagues this year. It's always a treat to see a young player's first big-league hit, especially when it comes in his first at bat. Kalish will clearly have to get used to playing the Monster, but that will come with time, and he could certainly have done worse than to get his first Major League RBI and score his first Major League run a few innings later.

I don't think it's arguing against the move to DFA Hermida and call up Kalish, though, to say I feel badly for Hermida on a personal level. He did his best for the Sox and behaved himself. I hope he finds a landing place soon. 

Meanwhile, the only person I feel worse for? Mikey Lowell.

Otherwise, the moves by the Red Sox at the trade deadline today were distinctly nuts and bolts -- trading Ramon Ramirez to the Giants for right-handed relieving prospect Daniel Turpen and dealing prospects plus cash to the Rangers for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was immediately optioned to Pawtucket.

The question was raised about what this move might signal about VMart, but if it's a signal about anything, in my opinion it's about the likelihood of old, tired, broken Jason Varitek retaining a spot on our roster for many more seasons. I think Salty is meant to hold down / back up the catching position at Pawtucket while the more promising prospects are called up to the big club, but that's just my armchair theory.

For better or for worse, there were no big moves on a day the Sox looked like they were about to drop their second of as many games against the Tigers, after Friday night's big letdown following the seeming resurgence in Anaheim. As it turns out, they didn't -- slowly but surely they chipped away at Detroit's bullpen until finally, on his second at-bat with the bases loaded, David Ortiz delivered a bases-clearing double to walk off with the win.

A lot of people seemed to see Friday night's game as a microcosm of 2010, with a rally falling just short. I don't know how you can know what the 2010 season in microcosm looks like until you see the end of the 2010 season, but maybe that's just me. I'm not a naturally optimistic person by any means, but I am nowhere near ready to quit on this team. Until they are mathematically eliminated, I don't think you can count out the heart that's seen them remain players during this injury-riddled period.

The microcosm is the eye of the beholder, too: for me, both of these games, though each had a different outcome, were good examples of the attitude that has me keeping the faith about this year's team -- they may be beaten, but they hardly ever seem to be mentally out of it. They keep grinding, keep coming at you, keep making opponents work no matter how far behind they get. Between the talent they have waiting in the wings and the fact that they never stop fighting, I don't see how people can be so sure they'll ultimately fall short.

With reinforcements like Kalish, and bullpen help from lefty minor league callup Dustin Richardson (who also made an appearance today in the 7th inning), as well as Felix Doubront, who will be heading to the 'pen from his spot starter's role, not to mention Jacoby Ellsbury playing in Pawtucket and Dustin Pedroia chomping at the bit to get back, it's still way too early to make predictions for this season. And if they don't end up making it in the end, it's because too many people got hurt (including the Sox' reported trade target, David DeJesus), and couldn't get back in time--not because of the moves the team made or didn't make in an obviously tepid market at the deadline.

A few innings through failing eyelids

NESN made kind of a big deal last night about how John Lackey was received, but I didn't hear much beyond the kind of mixed reception I'd heard for Manny at Fenway. Apparently Chone Figgins was well-received when he returned, and he went to another team in their division, so it's not as if they boo indiscriminately there. It's pretty obvious this is something of a Johnny Damon equivalent for Orange County. And Boston fans booed the hell outta Damon the first time he came back, regardless of his World Series contributions in the past.

It makes sense. They hate the Red Sox. I can deal. I can even understand why. (Though I draw the line at the whole "East Coast bias" thing, and I disavow any and all conspiracy theories.)

***

Jeremy Hermida! Mike Cameron!  And V-Mart, glorious V-Mart!  It's like Christmas!

***

I saw Jacoby interviewed by Heidi on Red Sox Report before the game got started. He seems to be rehabbing down in the Gulf Coast League. There is, I hate to say, something vaguely A-Rod-ish about Ellsbury when he talks. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's just a similar speech pattern.

But then they showed him running the bases, and that uncomfortable thought was easily swept back under the rug. He obviously wasn't even going 100%, but Jesus, that kid can just fly.

***

Yay, they won, and stuff (I'm convinced it's because my dad is at the games right now on his annual baseball trip, and is acting as a good luck charm). Great to see Jed Lowrie contributing, too. He really does seem to be the sweetest person -- I remember him being so touchingly excited when people recognized him at Fan Appreciation Day, and last night he made sure to politely greet both home plate umpire and catcher before digging in for his first at-bat. He's the kind of person I want to see do well.

***

Right now, I really just miss the Red Sox. I miss the hell out of Dustin Pedroia. I miss Ellsbury's speed on the field. I miss seeing Varitek every so often. And most of all, I miss coming home from work and getting dinner started while the pregame show is on. I miss sitting down and filling those primetime hours with the Red Sox. They need to come home, already.

It Was a Mighty Duel

It's been an especially intense day around here. The water was finally safe to drink again, meaning millions of coffee addicts were finally able to get their Starbucks or Dunkies fix, and could finally stop getting into punchouts with each other at the grocery store over cases of Poland Spring. As if that wasn't enough, tonight, the baseball addicts in Red Sox Nation also got a wallop of beautiful baseball.

It began with a taut eight-inning pitchers' duel between Jon Lester and Ervin Santana. Both lineups resorted to the kind of small-ball scrapping that tells you they are under siege from a true monster on the mound, just hunkering down and trying to take advantage of mistakes until the bullpen comes around. Jon Lester continued the rampage he began in Toronto, clenching his jaw through 8 innings on 120 economical pitches tonight while surrendering just one run.

On top of that, at long last we saw Run Prevention in action this evening, with a breathtaking play from Dustin Pedroia to end a bases-loaded, one-out eighth. I have seen some dispute over whether Pedroia tagged the runner, but I have to believe that if there was really a case to be made for that, Mike Scioscia would've been out there flipping out about it before any of the rest of us noticed it. And in any event, Pedroia's diving, scrambling, flipping masterpiece was the most thrilling play I'd seen since Marco Scutaro's incredible ranging throw from the hole in the fourth.

There was ugliness, hideousness, even, as David Ortiz twice came to the plate with runners on, and both times grounded into a double play. The best I can do right now is allow him the dignity of not discussing it or the boo-birds much further.*

Because no sooner had Papi trudged off the field, head bowed, than young Jeremy Hermida strode to the plate, and finally delivered the killing blow the park had been jonesing for the whole night, and I'll tell you, no matter how obnoxious some of our fellow frequenters of Fenway Park can sometimes be, for all the nasty GIDPs and defensive lapses of this season, there really is nothing like the moment some crucial, timely hit goes rocketing off toward the outfield, and that place just explodes.

Kevin Youkilis was jumping up and down like a little boy in the on-deck area, waving his arms in great semicircles around his head to signal to his teammates whether they should stand up or slide coming into home. Jon Lester, in the dugout, asked of those around him, "Is that fair or foul? Is it fair? Yes?" and then he, too, was subsumed in the wave of hysteria, pumping his fist and yelling like any one of the fans who were rattling the grandstand. "YEAH!!"

I think it's safe to say every one of us really needed that. Without a doubt, the best game of the season so far.

* Except to say: I don't care how bad he is, that shit ain't right. If I could ban you from Fenway Park forever, I would. If I could take tonight's joy away from you somehow, I would. But like I said on Twitter, I also became pretty jaded to this when I saw a "fan" heckle Keith Foulke to the point of a verbal altercation, a year after the guy left his knees on the field winning a World Series for which he should have been MVP, but wasn't. (Not that I'm, um, bitter or anything.) I figured it was pretty much only a matter of time before even Papi was turned on by the Fenway crowd. And to be honest, virtually any other player would've been turned on long before this point. 

Red Sox / Royals Games 2 & 3: Back to .500

(photo by Sam)

Now this is more like it...

Josh Beckett vs. Zack Greinke for Appointment Television on Saturday. Greinke had been showered with gifts during Friday's pregame ceremonies for the Cy Young award he won last year, but Beckett was the better pitcher 24 hours later, surrendering three runs over seven innings, his longest career start in Kansas City (previous high water mark, per NESN, was 6 and 2/3).

That completed seventh inning almost came at too dear a price, though. He gave up four hits and two runs in that inning alone, one shy of the number of hits he'd surrendered for the whole game (5) and tripling his run total for the game. Prior to that seventh inning, I had thought Beckett might be able to spare us the bullpen; that one inning took care of that idea.

He still got the win, but the best news was, literally, that he survived the inning.

David DeJesus hit a line drive that scored Chris Getz, and just grazed the back of Beckett's head on its way to center field. A millimeter left or right, a nanosecond slower in reaction time, and we're looking at a Matt Clement situation, or even worse.

The ball still glanced off Beckett, and he grabbed at the back of his head with a grimace (as the Globe's Peter Abraham put it, "swatted at the back of his head like a man annoyed by a mosquito"), but nobody in the dugout noticed. (It took two or three replays on NESN before they saw definitively that the ball changed direction.)

It was clear Beckett was fine, thankfully, when he finally walked off the field after that long inning, almost tripping over a ball on his way off, calling himself an "f'in idiot" and heading back to the dugout to curse for another few minutes. There but for the grace of God. 

***

Beckett's first start, with Victor Martinez behind the plate:

IP 4.2

H 8

R

5

ER 5 BB 3

SO 1

HR 2

Beckett's start Saturday, with Tek catching:

IP 7.0

H 9

R 3

ER 3

BB 1

SO 4

HR 0

It would be easy to imagine Tek becoming Beckett's caddy, the way Dougie used to be for Wake, but what happens once you get to the playoffs, Beckett has grown used to Tek as a security blanket, and you need V-Mart's bat in the lineup? Then again, Tek did hit two homers yesterday; maybe coming off the bench will suit him hitting-wise.

As with everything else, too soon to tell, of course.

***

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Clay Buchholz also made a pretty decent case for keeping his spot in the rotation when / if Daisuke is reactivated. I hear the Diceman made a nice rehab start the other day, but Buchholz started the season when he was supposed to, and I like the way he seems to be developing, despite his rough spots (like giving up a leadoff hit in every inning he pitched today). I would hate to see Buchholz denied playing / learning time because we're still trying to squeeze blood from the Daisuke stone. 
• Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon were set up with a hold / save 8th and 9th and went scoreless. Bard was hitting 98-99 on the gun and Papelbon threw the split fairly well. Papelbon looks a little funny, like he's throwing across his body a little too much (A little too much like a merry go round rather than a Ferris wheel, which is the opposite of how he once described his ideal motion). But whatever, he got the save, and here's hoping this is the beginning of the bullpen permanently getting its shit together this season.
• Big Papi had four strikeouts today. Jeremy Hermida hit a homer yesterday and had an RBI today. Yeah.
• Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Jacoby Ellsbury, who was kneed accidentally in the chest by Adrian Beltre while both were going for a foul popup. This followed a previous miscue between left field and left infield that resulted in a dropped ball. Now that we know Ellsbury's ribs aren't broken (which had seemed a possibility), hopefully they'll work out the communication over on that side of the field.