Worst Move of the Night

[Deadrody]

Batting Lavarnay behind Gonzalez. I know the kid hit 2 HR yesterday, but those came off lefties. And before that game he was 7 for 30 with 2 doubles. That does not scream to me "#5 in the batting order". Three intentional walks to Gonzalez pretty much tell you all you need to know about that.

And then, with the bases loaded, you leave the rookie in ? Yikes.

 

[GavinEdreamy]

I agree that it wasn't ideal, but what were the alternatives? Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury were already in the game, so it's not like Francona could pinch-hit for him since all of the bench options were terrible. I agree that Lavarnway should not have been batting behind Gonzalez in the first place, but late in the game with men on, I didn't really like any of the bench options either.

 

[Vuce]

SWEEEEEEET CAROOOOLINE BAAAA BAAA BAAAA good times never seemed so good......LOL

 

[Waquoit]

In both games, the Sox were one out away from their desired result. God knows Sox fans can take it.

 

[swami7774]

Batting Lavarnay behind Gonzalez. I know the kid hit 2 HR yesterday, but those came off lefties. And before that game he was 7 for 30 with 2 doubles. That does not scream to me "#5 in the batting order". Three intentional walks to Gonzalez pretty much tell you all you need to know about that.

And then, with the bases loaded, you leave the rookie in ? Yikes.

You think that was bad? Tuesday night his cleanup hitter was Jed Lowrie.

 

[lark]

When you're so top heavy with lefty hitters, you need to put a righty in there to at least try to give a manager pause with bringing in a lefty to pitch to everyone instead of burning a guy up with one batter. Bottom line for anyone that's watched all of the Red Sox games over the last month, whatever Tito has tried didn't work.

 

[bpo57]

Batting Lavarnay behind Gonzalez. I know the kid hit 2 HR yesterday, but those came off lefties. And before that game he was 7 for 30 with 2 doubles. That does not scream to me "#5 in the batting order". Three intentional walks to Gonzalez pretty much tell you all you need to know about that.

And then, with the bases loaded, you leave the rookie in ? Yikes.

No doubt it hurt them but as stated below there weren't a lot of other great options. I would have put Scutaro there but as also stated below no matter what Tito did it was going to backfire. Also not sure if they could have PH for him with the bases loaded because the health of the other two catchers was in question.

 

[Danzz]

Batting Lavarnay behind Gonzalez. I know the kid hit 2 HR yesterday, but those came off lefties. And before that game he was 7 for 30 with 2 doubles. That does not scream to me "#5 in the batting order". Three intentional walks to Gonzalez pretty much tell you all you need to know about that.

And then, with the bases loaded, you leave the rookie in ? Yikes.

There were a couple of bad moves and that was one of them along with the Yankee rookie who got picked at 3B on a ground ball to 3B.The fact is Lester and Beckett both had to win and they didn't. The rest of the pitching is either burned like the bullpen or substandard starting pitching that doesn't go deep enough into games.
The Sox got by in August because of outstanding bullpen peformances that allowed the Sox to overcome deficits left by the starters. I expected the Sox to take a huge tumble in September and predicted it. I also thought that their lead and schedule was enough to still make the playoffs.I'm not really all that upset. They weren't going anywhere in the playoffs with that pitching staff.
Every team has injuries but to lose 4 of 5 starters is a lot to overcome. This makes 2 years in a row where the Sox had just been destroyed by injuries. Maybe it is bad luck, maybe conditioning or maybe it is simply the players they have.
Papalbon made a bad pitch that lost the game but overall he has been outstanding. He competes every time he is on the mound and I hope they resign him. Lackey ought to be the starting pitcher opening day....in Pawtucket or better still Yankee Stadium. Hey it is a dream but reality sucks right now if you are a Sox fan.

 

[Deepster]

And let's not overlook that had the Sox won, they were potentially trotting Bruce Chen out there in a playoff game. $165m just doesn't get you what it used to.

 

[bpo57]

And let's not overlook that had the Sox won, they were potentially trotting Bruce Chen out there in a playoff game. $165m just doesn't get you what it used to.

If anybody can relate to the disconnect between team payroll and performance it would be a Met fan. Nice move by Jose to comeout of the game yesterday after one AB in order to not jeopardize his batting title. Somewhere Ted Williams' body is rolling over in his freezer.

 

[Dove]

If anybody can relate to the disconnect between team payroll and performance it would be a Met fan. Nice move by Jose to comeout of the game yesterday after one AB in order to not jeopardize his batting title. Somewhere Ted Williams' body is rolling over in his freezer.

...and somewhere else, his head cracked.

 

[Deadrody]

I understand the principle under which you WANT to alternate lefty and righty in the lineup. You WANT to do that. However, that desire does not trump the general idea that you protect your best hitter in the lineup with a bonafide major league hitter. JD Drew, for all his warts, comes to mind. Lavarnay has a .553 OPS against right handed pitching in his brief ML career. The starter in the game was a righty. Forget alternating L and R. You cannot hit Lavarnay with a .553 OPS against righties 5th in the order. Can. Not. That is exactly the kind of thing a manager is paid to think about. Allowing gonzalez to be intentionally walked 3 times is a miserable failure of a managerial decision.

And then you have to pinch hit for him in the 9th. Salty may be dinged up and not able to catch 9 innings, but he could sure pinch hit. If he gets a hit and the game goes longer, you figure it out. You don't go quietly with Lavarnay there.

And for all the complaints about both Drew and Crawford, they are both better against righties than Lavarnay. Crawford, even THIS year has an OPS against righties of over .750. Drew is at .650. Salty at .630. Lavarnay at .550.

Hell, Scutaro's OPS against righties is .750. Even Aviles OPS against righties is .600. The guy hitting 5th had the worst OPS against righties in the entire lineup.

That was, simply put, a horrendous series of moves by Francona. Its almost like he didn't realize Lavarnay is very good against lefties and crap against righties. That seriously can't be the answer.