First off, I want to make this clear: I like Terry Francona a great deal. I think he’s an excellent manager for this ballclub, a true great guy and fits in very well with the Boston atmosphere. During the 2004 World Series, Tito was running on all cylinders, he couldn’t do anything wrong. Unfortunately, some of his game mistakes have been noticeable, like yesterday for example.
The lineup for yesterday’s game featured a mirror image of the ’27 Yankees: 1. Adam Stern, 2. Alex Cora, 3. David Ortiz, 4. Manny Ramirez, 5. Kevin Youkilis, 6. J.T. Snow, 7. Wily Mo Pena, 8. Josh Bard, 9. Alex Gonzalez.
Are you sure you don’t want to call up and use him David Murphy instead of Manny? Maybe give Alejandro Machado the DH spot for this game, Tito?
Now, I understand the concept of subs and using bench players. They have to play sometime. But why on earth would you sit Mark Loretta and Mike Lowell the same day Varitek is out with Wakefield pitching? Again, I know the injuries of Trot and Crisp have hurt us. But why all of a sudden is Youkilis out of the leadoff spot? All he’s been doing is hitting .350 and getting on-base.
When I saw this lineup scrolling the NESN screen before the game yesterday, I nearly had a coronary. Francona played way too many subs for one game and gave Joel Pineiro an easy W. And the sad part was how well Tim Wakefield pitched, giving us a complete game effort and two earned runs.
Terry, I love the way you’ve constructed this season so far. The move switching Foulke and Papelbon was dead on. Also, you’ve been putting together lineups that give us a chance to score runs. But yesterday you could have given the team and Tim Wakefield a better chance to be successful.
(Unfortunately, the team is leaving way too many runners on scoring position. This could be a nagging problem all year. We NEED Manny and Ortiz to start having huge games to carry this offense, there’s no other way around it. So Manny, can you please break out of this funk against Jarrod Washburn today? We need ya, buddy.)
