Saturday marked the spring debuts of Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon for the Red Sox as they took on Ryan Howard and the Phillies at City of Palms Park. The Red Sox ended up losing the game 12-9 in 10 innings. But that wasn’t the main story on Saturday.
The main story was the return of the Papelbon to the mound after injuring his shoulder last season on September 1st. I was very impressed with the way that he pitched. He showcased mainly his fastball, which he was throwing consistently around 92 mph with good location. He threw a total of 26 pitches, 18 of which were strikes. He did mix in one curveball. He struck out 4 in 2 innings of work, including a 93 MPH fastball to strike out last season’s NL MVP, Ryan Howard in the 3rd inning.
“I love pitching to Ryan,” said Papelbon. “He’s a great guy. We’ve become friends over the last couple of years, and what he’s done for baseball and for the Phillies has been outstanding. It’s always fun. It makes the game fun when you get matchups like that. I know he’s a great hitter, so hopefully most of the time, I’ll get on the good side of those.”
Wakefield was just ok today, allowing 3 hits and 3 runs over 2 innings. Joel Piñero didn’t help his cause in his bid to become the closer for the Sox as he gave up 4 runs, 4 hits and 2 walks in 1.1 innings on Saturday. Honestly, I think it is a little too early to be handicapping the race for the closer as they really aren’t being used in that situation yet. That being said, Manny Delcarmen didn’t help his chances much either. He gave up 3 hits, 3 runs, and 2 walks in 2/3’s of an inning pitched.
Like I said above, it’s too early to be worrying about the closer’s race. As it gets closer to the season and none of these guys are performing like expected, then it is time to worry. We all know Theo will pull the strings on a deal to help the club because I don’t think he’d like to head into this season without a closer. Maybe just maybe, Jon Lester will pitch above his and the Sox’s expectations and he will be the 5th starter moving Papelbon back into the ‘pen. Think about it for a second, it could happen.
Other notes from around the Fort.
The Red Sox pitchers on Saturday received flashcards with Japanese sayings on them while Matsuzaka and Okajima received ones with English sayings on them. Most of them were baseball related, greetings and other generic sayings.
Julian Tavarez got his hands on one set of flashcards and playfully yelled “Hotteke!”– which roughly translates to “Leave me alone” — to the six photographers who followed Matsuzaka’s game of catch with Hideki Okajima.
Terry Francona said that the Red Sox have not determined who the closer is.
“I’d like to have [a closer] today, [but] it’s not happening,” said Francona. “Some of it is going to depend on health. A guy like Timlin, we don’t want to force the issue and make him go out and pitch, because that would be dumb. We’ll just use common sense.
It’s important to give guys roles. Nobody believes in that more than me. At the same time, you can’t make the roles artificial or it doesn’t do any good. The reason guys have roles is because there’s a dependability there, that’s why you have them. We have to get to that point.”
The Sox head across town on Sunday for game 2 of the Mayor’s Cup against the Twins. Curt Schilling will take the hill for the Sox and Johan Santana will take the ball for the Twinkees.
