Sox Drawer: The Aftermath of the Lineup from Hell

First of all I want to say I hope that everyone is honoring the 6th anniversary of Sept. 11th, both the memories of the victims and the courage of the survivors, rescuers and the thousands of people who have poured their hearts and lives into the recovery and rebuilding effort.

It's hard to believe that we are already six years removed from the greatest tragedy in modern American history, and hopefully before the 10th anniversary this day will be a national holiday as it so rightfully deserves to be.

Never forget.
--------------------------------------------------------- Many people today have criticized the patchwork lineup that Tito trotted out last night to face the Rays and Sox killer Scott Kazmir, but not many have suggested what the manager was to do without the services of Manny & Papi and with J.D. Drew becoming more of a liability every day.

Which is why you have me.

I meant to do this in my piece last night, but I had a computer problem as I was finishing my post so I had to get up super early this morning and finish it, and at that hour I couldn't remember that I was supposed to back up my Tito bashing with a counter-argument.

So here is a comparison of Tito's starting nine last night and the one I would have chosen to oppose Kazmir:

TITO/J ROSE
1. DH Lugo / RF Drew
2. CF Coco / 2B Pedroia
3. 2B Pedroia / LF Ellsbury
4. 3B Lowell / 3B Lowell
5. RF Kielty / DH Youk
6. 1B Youk / C Tek
7. C Tek / CF Coco
8. LF Ellsbury / 1B Hinske
9. SS Cora / SS Lugo

Loyal reader Red Sox Bat Boy commented that no matter what lineup Francona penciled in for the game at least Drew's name wasn't in it. And with a .254 average and an uncanny knack for being at bat but not coming through with a clutch hit in nearly every game over the past couple of weeks, it's hard to argue with that logic.

But I am going to have to disagree here, and it's simply a numbers game. Although Drew's average is horrible, he does have an OBP of .357, which is good for seventh on the team among the regulars and 62 points higher than Tito's leadoff choice, Lugo.

Plus if you stick him at the top of the order there's considerably less chance he will hit into a soul-crushing, rally-killing, inning-ending double play.

From there you have Pedroia in his normal two spot, the team's hottest hitter Ellsbury sandwiched between Dustin and RBI machine Mike Lowell, the slumping Youk taking a day off from the field and DHing in the five-hole, rounded out by Captain Clutch, Coco, Big Hit Hinske (remember, he doesn't get many hits but they're usually big, and he's got more pop than Kielty) and Lugo bringing up the rear where he belongs.

I dare anyone to tell me that lineup wouldn't have had a better chance of putting some runs on the board than the band of oh brothers Tito ran out there instead.

Not that I'm trying to tell a World series-winning manager how to do his job or anything.

More notes from last night:

-The 1-0 shutout loss was the first such game at home for Boston since the infamous Mike Mussina near no-hitter on Sept 2nd, 2001.

I have a particularly fond memory of that game, as I was back home in Boston that weekend and watched it at my grandparents house in Wakefield. I distinctly remember sitting on the edge of my seat in their kitchen praying for someone to get a hit off that a-hole Mussina, and jumping for joy when Jurassic Everett singled in the 9th to rain on the Stanks near-parade.

Two days later the family and I flew back to FLA.

It was exactly one week before the hijackers would leave from Logan.

Never forget.

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Kazmir Karves his way through ragtag Sox lineup

Tampa Bay 1, Sox 0
WP: Kazmir (12-8)
LP: Schilling (8-7)
SV: Reyes (24)
HRs: None

SUMMARY
Rays ace Scott Kazmir continued his mastery of the Bosox by tossing seven innings of five-hit shutout ball, walking just two while striking out 10 Boston players in leading Tampa Bay to its 13th win in its last 17 games.

#1 STUNNER Kazmir 7IP, 5H, 2BB, 10K
With 10 more strikeouts tonight the 23-year-old lefty now has fanned 109 Boston batters in 96 1/3 career innings against the Sox.

PAN's FAUN Tito Francona
He is rewriting the book on juggling lineups this season, and I know he's hamstrung by injuries, but the starting nine he rolled out there tonight against a top-notch starter was an abomination.

RECAP
After following this team for the better part of 25 years and witnessing a plethora of pitiful lineups, perhaps due to the foggy onset of my 40's, I cannot remember an odder starting nine to take the field for the Sox than I watched line up against the Rays tonight.

And it starts right from the top.

Literallly and literally.

Terry Francona had already been strapped for solutions without the services of his mercurial left fielder and cleanup hitter Manny Ramirez for the past couple of weeks, and when word came out of Yawkey way that Papi was going to need the night off as well, presumably to rest his achy knee but more realistically due to his .147 lifetime average vs. Kazmir, well you knew what Tito might scratch together had the potential to be, shall we shay, unconventional.

How unconventional was it?

How about your 5' 9" second baseman, who has 8 homers and 52 RBI in his career, batting in Big Papi's #3 slot?

Not bad enough?

What about using your .240-hitting shortstop as your tablesetter, placing a guy at the top of the order who has a .249 OBP for the season in control of jump starting the offense?

Still not de,err impressed?

How do you explain burying electric rookie OBP machine Jacoby Ellsbury in the eight spot? Huh? I know he's facing a tough young lefty, but let the kid with the hottest hand on the club try to jump start the makeshift lineup?

I could go on about Bobby Kielty, he of the .319 slugging percentage, batting fifth, or having Alex Cora, mired in a 1-20 slump, bringing up the rear of this motley crew, but I don't want to harp.

Let's just say that Tito's merry ragtime band of a lineup cost the Sox this game and leave it at that.

Because against a pitcher like Kazmir, who has enjoyed some of the most successful games of his young career against this club was like sending Britney Spears out onstage first at an awards show.

A disaster waiting to happen.

The hard-luck victim of all this lineup lunacy was Mr. Curt Schilling, who for the third straight start contributed a quality start only to see his efforts get wasted due to a dearth of offense once again.

Schilling (6IP, 5H, ER, BB, 5K), who in his last three starts has allowed 19 hits and six earned runs in 19 innings for a 2.84ERA, showed more promising signs of fully recovering from his shoulder injury as he scattered five hits and a walk through the first five innnigs and only got into real trouble once, and that small indiscretion ended up costing him the win.

Greg Norton (2-3, R) got the winning rally started when he doubled over Ellsbury's head and off the scoreboard to lead off the fifth inning. Catcher Dioner Navarro, who ironically leads the Rays in sac bunts although he is portly and can't hit worth a lick, then moved Norton over to third, and four pitches later Josh Wilson launched a sac fly to right to score Norton with the games one and only run.

Not like that was the end of the excitement, though.

Aki Iwamura and Carl Crawford bot followed with two-out singles to put Schill and the Sox in a real jam, and the veteran had to know that any more runs allowed would make it drastically tougher for the lineup to comeback, and with Rays leading power man and longshot MVP candidate Carlos Pena at the dish, the game was basically on the line right then.

Schill merely got Pena to wave at a crowd-inspiring splitter to end the threat, and the way the old man escaped a tough spot just like the old days had the giddy Faithful believeing a comeback was just around the corner.

The Sox had put the leadoff batter on base in four of the first five innings, so when Varitek worked a walk to leadoff the bottom of the fifth the crowd could sense a potential rally was at hand, especially with Bostonian Idol Ellsbury coming to bat.

But Kaz induced the wunderkind to ground into a fielder's choice, forcing Tek at second, and then things got ugly from there.

After Cora ran the count full, he sliced a sinking line drive into center field that looked as if it were going to drop in for a hit, but B.J. Upton came gliding over to snag the shot before it could fall to the turf, catching not only the ball but everyone including Ellsbury, who was at second base already, off guard.

As Jacoby turned and hightailed it back to first Upton unloaded a cannon back to the infield and nipped Jacoby just before he got back to the back for a demoralizing inning-ending double play, and just like that one of the Sox best chances to get back in the game had gone up in flames.

Boston finally got two base runners on in the same inning when Kielty singled and tek walked with one out in the seventh, but Kazmir got Ellsbury (1-3) to whiff on a swing that only a lumberjack could love, then got Cora to tap into a force out to squelch the threat.

The last golden scoring chance Boston would get came when Joe Maddon finally removed Kazmir after the seventh and Dan Wheeler came in for the eighth. Wheeler walked Coco with one out, then saw him steal second easily as he struck out Pedroia looking for out #2.

The tying run was now in scoring position with money Mike Lowell at the plate and Ortiz on the on deck circle to pinch hit, and the crowd could sense something was about to happen here.

Unfortunately that something was Lowell staring at a filthy breaking pitch from Wheeler right down the middle of the plate for strike three, and with that Boston's last gasp chance at getting this game even went by the wayside.

Boston did get a measure of revenge for the Ellsbury gaffe after Delmon Young led off the 9th with a single off Mike Timlin, then got burned like Jacoby when he took off for third on a high deep drive to center by Brendan Harris.

Trouble was Coco made another one of his nightly spectacular catches, tracking the ball all the way back to the wall, timing his leap and hauling the ball in, then he fired it back to Cora who relayed to first to catch the napping Young for the "take that" double play.

But the feel good play would quickly be forgotten when the Sox, including pinch hitter papi, went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th, and the Sox and the Faithful realized they had just been punked by not only the Rays and Kazmir but by their own manager as well.

Tito, here's a bit of advice for ya: you want to beat a pitcher who treats you as his personal chew toy, don't start your second baseman in the spot reserved for your power hitting DH for starters, numb nuts.

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Tito's Tirade: A retrospective

During these tough times we must search for the small things in life to bring us pleasure.

That's why even as our Sox stumble through its worst streatch of the season, we as a Nation can find joy in some of the simplest things that take place on the field: another brilliant catch by Coco Crisp; Kevin Youkilis popping blood vessels while chugging around the bases for a triple; or our mild-mannered manager going all Tom Sizemore on an unsuspecting umpire.

Last night Tito provided miles & miles of smiles for weary Sox fans with his 8th inning meltdown on home plate umpire Dan Iassogna.

Francona was miffed about a few perceived blown calls on the night by Dandy Dan, including a check swing strike three that nearly caused Big Papi to bump Iassogna in the sixth inning, but the waist high breaker that he called for a third strike on Dustin Pedroia sent Tito into full-blown Piniella mode.

Luckily I grabbed some screen shots to capture the merry moment. They are in chronological order, and I apologize for the quality- I was not able to watch the game in HD (friggin Extra Innings!)

Tito came out spitting mad from the start...

But after a mild introduction...

...the gum was tossed...

...and Tito got ramped up to the point where...

...he tried to swallow Iassogna whole.

He then muttered something like "FINE" under his breath..

...noted the fact that Iassogna's mom is a horticulturalist

... and then the two kissed and made up!

From the bottom of the Nation's heart, Tito, we just want to say thanks.

Thanks for providing some entertainment during this seriously un-entertaining time. Thanks for attempting to light a fire under this sparkless team.

And most of all thanks for knowing how to argue like a true baseball man, not a glorified rodeo clown like Piniella.

Keep up the good work, Tito.I hope your tirade translates into a win today.

Go Sox!

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