Red Sox Roll It In The 9th
After gaining a 3 run lead, Keith Foulke entered to save the game in the ninth inning and quickly blew the save, giving up 4 runs. Fortunately our captain stepped up to hit a game winning, walk-off home run in the ninth.
With the highest ERA of any closer, my worries about Foulke are growing with each appearance. Yes, he does have 8 saves on the season, but I can’t think of one that was essentially handed to him with a cushion-lead. I know Foulke is a work-horse and has almost 10 saves, but his mechanics are off and his ERA is ridiculously high at this point in the season. This isn’t the end of April, we’re almost half-way through May and I can’t see much improvement to this point.
I think Terry has to keep using Foulke in close situations, but he should have somewhat warming up at the same time. There was no reason to blow that lead. Mantei, Timlin, and Embree have been outstanding lately and Mantei used to be a closer. I’m not suggesting we replace Foulke… yet. But, I’m tired of seeing leads just dissappear.
NOTE: Johnny Damon extended his hitting streak to 17 games.
May 12th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
You can’t send your closer out on the mound with someone getting ready in the bullpen. That just sends a message to the closer that you are not confident in him getting the job done.
May 12th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
And what message does it send when your closer is 6 and 9 in 1 run situations, has 2 blown saves already on the year, and the highest ERA of a closer thus far (7+). Confidence is one thing, these guys are professionals. Foulke knows he’s struggling, do you really think it’d be shocking news if someone told him that, or had someone ready to come in?
It’s amazing that the team is where it is in the standings at this point, given the lack of offense and missing 2 of their top starters. How much credit do you give Foulke for that?
May 13th, 2005 at 7:22 am
I got an idea….lets close by commitee. Confidence is everything when you are a closer. Professional or not, if you are going out to the mound in the 9th and someone is warming up……that says ” Well they expect me to blow this”. When you start putting doubt into your closer, he starts to doubt himself.
He’s blown two saves, do I like no. Is he our closer, yes. We could have Blown Save Kim. Point is, it doesn’t matter who you closer is. You don’t have the pen getting ready when you send your closer out.
May 14th, 2005 at 1:58 am
Well, I’m trying to decide if the person writing the comment above is really named Shawn or Grady Little. Many of us remember the poor decision making by Little in the 2003 ALCS game 7 against the yankees, when Pedro went into the 8th inning with a 5-2 lead and was about to go down in the history books as one of the greatest post-season performances of all time. However, it seemed ole Little didn’t want to knock Pedro’s confidence, maybe, so he allowed a starting pitcher to give up 3 runs in the 8th friggin’ inning of the 7th game of the League Championship. Now, maybe Little was thinking he should have someone warming up right from the get-go, but decided against it because it may hurt Pedro’s confidence. Either way, we know the results of that game and the results of Foulke’s 2 blown saves.
On another note, I’m not necissarily for close by committee, but statistically speaking it sure did the job to get the Sox into the playoffs in 2003. And, as anyone knows, the playoffs are a different breed. Furthermore, Foulke’s problem isn’t his confidence (unless of course you’re one of many TV color commentaries who can somehow know what athletes are thinking at any given point in the game), it’s his mechanics. It’s his placement. The point isn’t to send him out and have someone warming up immediately, unless of course it’s a one run game and you’re down to the 3 final outs. But rather to get the pen going when you are only ahead by a run or two with one out and a man on 2nd and 3rd for the third time this year with your closer.
Confidence or no-confidence, results speak much louder than intuition.