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Too Little, Too Late
July 6, 2008
Bases loaded, two outs, down by one, one of the greatest closers to ever wear a baseball uniform on the mound, game on the line, who do you want up at bat? There’s a good chance you didn’t say “Julio Lugo”. Well that was the situation in the top of the ninth inning at the very end of Saturday’s dramatic match up between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The scapegoat in this one should not be labeled as Julio Lugo just because he struck out to end the game. The simple fact is that it never should have came down to a bases loaded situation with the game on the line. Mike Mussina is a great pitcher, there is no getting around that statement, but he is very “far along” we’ll say in his potential Hall of Fame career to the point where he is very hittable.
Those of you that want to debate whether he is a Hall of Fame pitcher or not, I will throw my two cents in. It’s very possible that he could be with a total of 261 career wins but he has never won 20 games in a season. He won 19 games in back to back seasons with the Orioles and has won 18 games in a season on three occasions but does not have a Cy Young award and does not have 300 career wins. Every pitcher in the Hall of Fame has won 20 games in a season at least once, which leads me to believe the Moose may have a hard time getting through. With that being said, he is still a great pitcher but is he great enough to have blanked the Red Sox for six shutout innings of four hit baseball?
As we have seen earlier this season, he is not the same old Moose we have seen in past seasons and the Boston offense failed to expose that on Saturday. With a mixture of a solid start from Mussina and the middle relievers throwing two scoreless and hitless innings in the seventh and eighth, it was up to Mariano Rivera to shut the door in the ninth. We have grown accustomed to seeing a ninth inning with Mariano Rivera on the mound to close out a close game get interesting whether it be at Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium.
This ninth inning started off just the way we needed it to with JD Drew sending a liner back up the middle for a base hit. Next up was among the unluckiest of Red Sox players in recent memory, Manny Ramirez. Manny got plunked by Rivera to account for his third time being hit by a pitch on the evening to put men on first and second with no outs. With Manny not being the fastest of runners due to his hamstring, Brandon Moss replaced Ramirez on the base paths. Mike Lowell strolled to the plate and on the second pitch of his at bat drove an inside fastball to the opposite field to bring JD Drew around from second to make this a one run game with still nobody out.
A quick visit to the mound by the Yankees pitching coach did not prove to do much of anything when on the fourth pitch of the at bat to Kevin Youkilis, Mariano Rivera hit Youkilis with a 92 MPH fastball to load the bases for Coco Crisp. Rivera regained his form at the right time when he struck out Crisp on three pitches to record the first out of the inning. Next to the plate was our captain, Jason Varitek. Although he had been recently showing signs that this slump may be coming to an end, this at bat was certainly no proof to back up that statement. On the third consecutive fastball of the at bat, Varitek popped up ever so weakly to first to record the second out of the inning.
All the Red Sox needed was a fly ball, we weren’t asking for a grand slam, we didn’t need a gap shot, just a lazy fly ball that would be deep enough to score Moss from third. Turns out that a fly ball was too much to ask for. Julio Lugo made his way to the plate to face Mariano Rivera and Lugo was simply overmatched by the great closer in Rivera. Five pitches, all fastballs, mixed with some poor umpiring behind home plate and there’s your ball game. Lugo went down swinging on a 93 MPH fastball right down the pipe.
With the Rays taking their second straight game over the Royals and their sixth straight overall, the Red Sox fall another game back in the standings to four games behind the first place Rays. Boston can still take three out of four from the Bombers tomorrow night when they send Tim Wakefield to the mound. With the exception of Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield has quietly been one of the most consistent and top performing pitchers in the Red Sox rotation this season. His opponent will be none other than Joba Chamberlain who will be making his first start against the Boston Red Sox. Wish me luck, I’ll be in Yankee Stadium tomorrow night for this one.
-Jared Carrabis
-CARRABIS 13
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