El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

WTF?!

Unfortunately, Schilling could not keep the ball in Fenway last night and it hurt the Sox. The lineup was able to go up by one; it was aided by Eric Wedge’s decision to leave in Rafael Perez to pitch to Manny and Lowell. The apparent loss of velocity off his fastball, as described by many scouting reports after the MFY series, makes Perez hittable against RHB. Perez’s slider is still makes him tough on southpaws.

At the end of the game, where was the Sox big three against Tom Mastny. Who is Mastny? That was our opportunity to go home happy.

On the defensive side, the issue is roster construction. Even though Gagne has been ineffective, it is reasonable that he is on the roster given his talent / upside and should be only used as one of the last resorts. Gagne at least has the possibility of getting a big strikeout unlike Tavarez.

But Javier Lopez should not be on the roster. Since he can’t lefties out, he is useless. Trot Nixon got a hit off him last night. Kyle Synder would have been a better choice. Hafner and Sizemore are not going to chase Lopez’s side-arm slider, but less disciplined hitters - Peralta, Blake, Garko - stand a better shot at whiffing at Synder’s breaking ball. Plus, it would not tempt Tito to bring in Lopez to face a lefty. It seems Tito thinks Lopez is the second coming of Mike Myers. He is NOT. (BTW, Theo could have signed the LOOGY after he was released by the MFY in August).

Gagne and Lopez gave the runs that lost the game, but Schilling giving up dingers was the biggest factor in this loss. Schilling can’t make mistakes against this lineup, unlike LAA, that has seven guys that can take him deep.