Red Sox 8, Indians 6
Three things stood out for me in this game.
One, I couldn’t help but think back to a Ken Rosenthal article on Travis Hafner last week after David Ortiz homered on Scott Sauerbeck’s first and only pitch of the evening. Rosenthal correctly notes that Hafner stacks up favorably to Papi, and then gets this quote from Sauerbeck…
“He doesn’t wear jewelry, pimp his home runs and give hugs afterward,” Indians reliever Scott Sauerbeck says. “He hits ‘em, puts his head down and runs. It’s refreshing in this day and age, to say the least.”
Too funny. Jewelry and hugs shall be the downfall of Western Civilization. I wonder if the not-so-thinly veiled shot at Ortiz made its way back to Boston before the Sox arrived in Cleveland. Anyway, it was pretty funny to see Papi knock Sauerbeck out of the game after just one pitch.
The second thing that stood out probably stood out for most others as well. Why in the &^%$ did Curt Schilling stay in the game for 132 pitches? A DL stint can’t be far off.
Finally, a hat tip to Tito is in order for pinch-hitting for Alex Gonzalez to lead off the eighth inning. Problem was of course that he did it with J.T. Snow, when Wily Mo Pena and Dustan Mohr were also avaliable to him. Just inexplicable.
Whatever. It was a nice win against a very good team.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:26 am
Last three years vs. Righties
Wily Mo - .740 OPS
Mohr - .726 OPS
Snow - .847 OPS
I think when you said inexplicable, you meant “right move.”
The Schilling thing was obviously a mistake.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:15 am
LOL. Have you seen J.T. play this season? Here are some other numbers - their ages:
Mohr: 29
Pena: 24
Snow: 38
I appreciate the comment but Snow is about ten kinds of done, Joe. Plus, as long as we’re comparing numbers that may or may not be meaningful, Pena’s got a 1.500 OPS vs. righties on 2006
April 26th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Sully - I’ll concede that Snow is not exactly inspiring me, but I don’t think the decision was out of whack. Neither Pena nor Mohr instills confidence against a righty right now.
Let’s not mess around, Hee Seop Choi is a better option than any of those three against righties.
Forget about Pena’s OPS vs. righties this year, check out his OPS vs. Cliff Lee! He OWNS this guy. (um…two at bats is a sufficient sample size, right?)
April 26th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Joe, Pena’s 24. 24 year olds tend to improve, unless of course you don’t allow them to. Pena very well may be fine against righties…his track record wouldn’t suggest so to date but it is more likely than not that he will acquire the ability to hit right-handed pitching before he reaches his peak.
April 26th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I don’t have access to Snow’s historical splits, but I’m curious - how’d he hit lefties in just 2005?
I’m asking because while Snow’s overall OPS for the three years you referenced Joe was .824, it was only so because in ‘04 he turned in a .958 OPS. In ‘05, however, his overall OPS was a much more mediocre .708 . . .