Growing up a Red Sox fan, I always had those players that I held close to my heart. When I was a kid, I named players like Rick Burleson, Jerry Remy and Carl Yastrzemski as my favorites. But as an adult, I hesitated to deem one particular player my favorite. Well… there was that one time, back in my early 20‘s when I was obsessed with Phil Plantier, but that was purely a physical attraction, definitely not for his mad baseball skills. [Insert sarcasm here.] Seems these days guys just don’t stick around long enough with one team to be worthy of that title.

David Ortiz (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

There has always been something about David Ortiz that makes me want to hug him and buy him a beer. He’s always smiling, always patting a teammate on the back (or helmet), and rarely does something that makes me cringe. When the Sox signed the 37-year-old DH to a two year contract during this past off season, I was happy that he wouldn’t be going to another team. I had hoped the Sox could keep him through the end of his career— even with his bum heel.

Speaking about a bum heel… the achilles strain Ortiz suffered nearly eight months ago is still giving him fits. An achilles strain tends to linger more than a rupture since there isn’t anything surgical doctors can do for just a pesky strain. So he continues to work out and attempt to run bases, but it hasn’t been working out too well for him. At least his hitting doesn’t appear to be suffering.

Peter Abraham from the Boston Globe wrote this about David Ortiz today—pretty much sums it up as far as I’m concerned. The Sox need Ortiz and his big bat.

The Red Sox were working on learning signals Friday afternoon, a drill that involved players taking swings at balls thrown by a pitching machine while their teammates were on the bases.

When David Ortiz came to the plate, he defeated the purpose of the exercise by belting a ball high over the wall in center field.

Jeez.  I think I’m literally out of things to say about the Red Sox this year.  So, let it suffice to say that the Sox had the Yankees on the ropes last night, and let what would have been the most satisfying win in a while slip away because of tepid pitching and a failure to execute.

Daisuke Matsuzaka (firebrandal, c/o flickr.com)

The Red Sox were winning, 3-1, in the ninth inning, in a game that would have sent the Yankees into a tie with the Orioles for the crucial division lead with one game to play.  But wait!  Pinch hitter Raul Ibanez hit a two-run home run to tie the game, brought the game into extra innings, and put the Yankee Stadium crowd into a tailspin.  Then, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Ibanez stepped up big again, lacing a single to left to score Francisco Cervelli and win the game.

I mean, Raul Ibanez is a decent hitter, so you can’t really get too upset objectively that he had the two crucial hits of the night.  Here’s the thing though: Cervelli shouldn’t have been on base.  Peter Abraham at the Boston Globe breaks down Cervelli’s at-bat really well: the short version of his piece is that Cervelli is a terrible hitter who had no real chance of hitting his way on, but Andrew Miller walked Cervelli on four straight pitches instead of challenging him, and Cervelli came around to score the winning run.

I think that Cervelli at-bat is indicative of a lot of the Red Sox’ problems this year: they don’t capitalize on situations that they should capitalize on.  When they’re the better team, they play down to the other team’s level.  When they’re facing a bad hitter, they don’t have the gumption to let him get himself out.  When they’re facing bad pitching, their own pitchers can’t seem to get ahead.  It’s frustrating, and it’s something that has to be dealt with.

Tonight, the last game of the season pits Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-6, 7.68 ERA) in what, hopefully and probably, is his last start for Boston, against Hiroki Kuroda 15-11, 3.34).  The Red Sox have no skin in the game, but it might be fun to watch anyway.  The Yankees’ magic number is one: If the Yankees win, they’ll lock up the AL East.  If the Yankees lose, then all eyes will turn towards Baltimore to figure out the postseason picture.

Is it just me, or are the Red Sox just limping into the sunset this year?  Watching the games (I think I’m probably one of maybe a dozen people who are even still paying attention to the Sox this season), it seems like the players have been replaced by a field of zombies.  They lurch around the field, stare vacantly into space, grunt and moan at reporters, and then stagger off only to return again the next day.

Will Middlebrooks probably wishes he could just click his heels together three times and be whisked away home (photo courtesy of the Boston Red Sox).

With two more losses against Baltimore, this year’s Red Sox have hit 90 losses on the season – a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in Boston since 1966 (and think for a moment about how many terrible teams the Red Sox have fielded since then).  Truly depressing.  I think the only positive thing we can say about the Red Sox at this point is that the season’s tantalizingly, mercifully, close to over.  There are only three games left before we can finally hang up the phone on this lost season.  Sure, those three games are against the Yankees, which will make them sort of interesting on the rivalry backstory alone – but did anyone think that a season-finale series between two traditional AL East powers would be so meaningless?

The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham made an interesting observation about this year’s Red Sox.  He reported that this year’s rookie hazing – an affair that usually sees elaborate costumes, drawn-out dance routines, and general hoopla – consisted of just some cheap Halloween costumes thrown together at the last minute.  Abraham writes, and I agree, that this year’s listless team can’t even seem to get it together to care enough about a ritual that’s supposed to be a fun, bonding experience.

Anyway, the series with the Yankees – the beginning of the end of the Red Sox campaign – starts tonight in New York.  I’ll watch, but at this point?  I’m more interested in whether the Yankees can hold off the Orioles than I am in whether the Sox can pick up a few meaningless wins against a team that’s already clinched a playoff spot.

Before I delve into recapping last night’s game, I just want to throw out a big Get Well Soon to Jerry Remy who has been noticeable absent from the broadcast booth these past few games. Not that Don Orsillo doesn’t do a fabulous job, and the replacements (Nick Cafardo, Peter Abraham and Peter Gammons) have done fine providing lots of great stats and info, but I miss Jerry. It makes me nervous when he’s out — I hate the thought of him missing the majority of the season like he did a few years ago. Those were dark days… So come back soon, Remdawg!

Ok… let’s get down to business. The Red Sox beat the Oakland A’s last night 11-6, once again unleashing an offensive onslaught that bailed out some less than impressive pitching. Mike Aviles, Darnell McDonald and David Ortiz all bashed home runs (Ortiz hit two) to power the team to the win and back to .500. The Sox had two big innings – the second and the fifth.

I bet Big Papi feels like he's batting with a tennis racket!

Ortiz lead off the second inning with a solo home run. After Kelly Shoppach struck out, McDonald hit a double to right field. Marlon Byrd, Aviles and Pedroia all had singles and Adrian Gonzalez reached on a throwing error. In the end, the Sox pushed four runs over the plate in the second, and took the lead for good at 4-1. Ortiz and Aviles both homered in the fifth to finish off the scoring and giving the Red Sox a commanding 11-1 lead. Safe, right?

Well, that’s where Clay Buccholz comes in. Through the first six innings, he looked… not bad. He allowed one run on four hits while striking out five and walking three. Not horrible. But then the seventh inning rolled around and the wheels fell off the bus in a hurry. I can’t stomach reliving the mess that ensued so I’m just going to giving you the results — he gave up five runs to bring the A’s to within striking distance. Are you kidding me? According to Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, Monday night Clay Buchholz became the first Red Sox pitcher to give up five or more earned runs in five consecutive starts in 72 years. Not a good stat to be known for and his ERA is now at 8.69.

Junichi Tazawa and Vicente Padilla finished off the seventh without further damage. Scott Atchison and Franklin Morales combined for a scoreless eight and Alredo Aceves closed out the ninth, striking out two of the three batters he faced. This entire pitching staff baffles me.

Here’s the link to the box, courtesy of the Red Sox. Felix Doubront takes on the A’s tonight, going for his second win. First pitch is at 7:10pm. Here’s hoping May kicks off a little better than April did!

In other news…

On Sunday, the Red Sox six-game winning streak came to an end in the final game of their series with the Chicago White Sox. The bats never got going enough to get Josh Beckett the run support he needed and they lost 4-1. It was a tough loss for Beckett, but again, it’s not like he’s pitching lights out either… Here’s the link to the box for this game, courtesy of the Red Sox.

Also, today is the deadline for the Red Sox to make a decision on what to do with Aaron Cook who, after five games with AAA Pawtucket, is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA. If they don’t promote him to the big leagues, he could opt-out of his contract and go elsewhere. At this point in the season, the Red Sox can’t afford to lose a promising arm and could be used in the bullpen or as a spot starter when needed.

UPDATE: Alfredo Aceves is your new Red Sox closer, the Globe reports.  Bard will stay in the rotation and Melancon will set up Aceves.

First, the good: Josh Beckett, who put a scare into Red Sox Nation when it was announced earlier this week that he was secretly spiriting off to San Antonio to get a mysterious thumb issue checked out, appears to be ok.  After Beckett got a second opinion in Cleveland, Bobby Valentine announced that Beckett does, in fact, intend to start the second game of the season in Detroit on Saturday.  So, the rotation is back on track – Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Doubront, Bard.  We’re rolling.  And, Buchholz pitched well in his last tuneup before the regular season, leading the Red Sox to an 8-7 win over the Nationals.

This is a problem. c/o http://www.chanorthopaedics.com.

Second, the bad: newly-minted Red Sox closer Andrew Bailey will need surgery on his thumb.  The pitcher, who has a history of injury problems not related to his thumb, needs reconstructive surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament.  According to the team, Bailey will be out between three and four months – maybe even five months, which would put his return sometime in August.  The injury was confirmed yesterday, also in Cleveland.  The doctor that’s performing the surgery today also operated on Kevin Youkilis’s thumb and Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s thumb, and both recovered well.  Salty recovered early, but his surgery was on his non-throwing hand.

When asked about Bailey, Clay Buchholz said what you’d expect a professional athlete with media training to say in this situation:

“He’s going to play a big role on our team as soon as he’s back, but it’s tough. There’s going to have to be a couple of guys on this team step up and fill some shoes. It’s going to be big shoes to fill, but I think we have enough guys and we’re deep enough out there that we can do it for sure.’’

Third, the ugly: so, Red Sox, whose going to close until Bailey gets back?  The top two candidates appear to be Mark Melancon and weary traveler Alfredo Aceves (who will be available and won’t be starting any games in the near future now that Beckett’s healthy – strangely, Aceves didn’t seem to have any commentary on this new situation).  Billy Beane, the sabermetrics master general manager of the Oakland A’s, says that closers exist on every team, and the manager just needs to find them.

Melancon and Aceves both have the numbers and the history to show that they can close out games.  It’s just… that doesn’t seem to sit well with a lot of Sox fans, who are used to big-name, dynamic closers like Jonathan Papelbon and, to some extent, Mariano Rivera, who they’ve been watching for an entire generation of baseball.  There are rumblings about putting Daniel Bard – yes, the same Daniel Bard that just finished getting stretched out and locking down the fifth spot in the rotation – into the closer role, following a pretty dominant bullpen season last year.

Nick Cafardo and Peter Abraham have dueling posts up on the Boston Globe’s Red Sox blog on the Bard as closer issue.  Cafardo argues that Bard’s better suited for the role than any of the other internal options, and suggests that Bard might have a more lucrative career if he commits to being a dominant closer now, than he might have if he takes the risk of trying to become a notable starting pitcher over time.  Cafardo also points out that Daisuke Matsuzaka is set to return to the rotation soon, and notes that giving Bard the closer role could help Alfredo Aceves, who would get his wish to start after all.

Meanwhile, Peter Abraham counters that Bard’s ready to go as a starter – throwing him back into the bullpen smacks of the Yankees’ disastrous treatment of Joba Chamberlain (and, even recent horrific injury aside, Joba’s career prospects are not what they used to be – at all).  Abraham also argues that good pitchers – and Bard in particular – are more valuable to an organization as starters than as closers; especially this year, the Sox will have a problem with finding pitchers that can go six strong, not with finding a pitcher to get three outs at the end of the game.  Abraham also notes that Melancon, even though he closed for the lackluster Astros last year, actually put up some pretty good numbers.

I agree with Abraham, and I think the Sox should let Melancon close (with an assist from Aceves, if necessary) and let Bard start.  It’s closer to the roles everyone expected all spring, and it’s in the best immediate and long-term interests of the organization.  Plus, the Sox can always pick up some bullpen help later on, but it will be hard to find a starter that’s worth the king’s ransom Boston will probably have to pay to get him.

What do you think?