Feature on the Red Sox's middle relievers for the Berkshire Eagle (May 25, 2007)

Red Sox bullpen is intact

By Denis Gorman,
Special to The Eagle

Friday, May 25

NEW YORK--Maybe the person who can best understand what it is like to be a member of the 2007 Red Sox's bullpen is the late Billy Preston.

A friend of George Harrison's, Preston was noted for being "The Fifth Beatle," the man who kept the legendary band together in 1969 when divergent agendas threatened to break it up. Thanks to Preston bringing Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together, the documentary "Let It Be" was made. As a way of thanking him, the band allowed him to play keyboard while they recorded Get Back, along with letting him play alongside them during their famous rooftop concert.

But history doesn't view Preston in the same light as Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr because the foursome were The Beatles. Preston was some guy who the band allowed to jam with them.

That is sort of what it's like to be a member of the Red Sox's bullpen not named Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon. In his second season as a closer, Papelbon is challenging the Yankees' Mariano Rivera for the title of baseball's best. In 2006, the right-hander from Baton Rouge, La., posted a 4-2 record with 35 saves and a 0.92 ERA. This season, he already has 11 saves.

Okajima, in his first Major League season (he pitched for 11 seasons in the Japanese League), is baseball's premier set-up man. Batters are only hitting .154 off of the 31-year-old lefty from Kyoto, Japan.

Ignoring Wednesday night's 8-3 loss to the Yankees since neither pitched, the duo has combined for 13 saves in 15 opportunities, with an ERA of 1.15.

By any measure, Okajima and Papelbon have been good.

But two relievers, no matter how good, does not a bullpen make.

Middle relievers Kyle Snyder, J.C. Romero and Javier Lopez have been instrumental to the Red Sox's success this season, despite going unnoticed. The trio allows Bostson manager Terry Francona to mix-and-match pitchers in the later innings, dependent on matchups. Lopez and Romero get called on to face teams with strong left-handed batters—the Yankees, for example—while Snyder teams with Brendan Donnelly and Joel Pineiro to neutralize right-handed bats.
It's a blueprint for success. Statistically, the Red Sox boast the American League's best bullpen and MLB's second best, just behind San Diego. Going into the final game of the Yankee series, the Red Sox bullpen was 6-1 with 15 saves, a 2.94 ERA and striking out 93 batters. Opponents are only hitting .235 against the American East League leaders.

"Our job is to post zeroes late in the game and that's what we tend to do," Snyder said Wednesday afternoon.

Couple the deep bullpen with a starting rotation that routinely pitches into the seventh inning and it's no wonder that the Red Sox have won 31 of its first 45 games.

"It's great anytime when you can simplify (the game)," Lopez said. "Our starters have been going pretty deep into games and to be to able to get it to Okajima in the eighth and Papelbon in the ninth, and be able to mix in a couple outs; it makes the game easier, a nice recipe for success."

"This is as deep and as good as any team I've every played for," added Snyder.

In 39 2/3 innings, Romero, Snyder and Lopez have combined to post a 3-0 record with a save and an ERA of 2.27.

With reliever Mike Timlin and starters Jon Lester and Matt Clement due to rejoin the team sometime this season, what happens to the rotation and bullpen? Long reliever and spot-starter Julien Tavarez is almost certainly due to be moved back into the bullpen. Yes, the returns of Timlin, Lester and Clement will add depth, but there will be more pitchers than spots. Does that concern Romero, Snyder and Lopez?

Not a bit.

"The main goal is to win a World Series," Romero said.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/sports/ci_5983035

Red Sox aware of the Yankees feature for the Berkshire Eagle (5/24/07)

Sox are staying low key

By Denis Gorman,
Special to The Eagle

Thursday, May 24

NEW YORK--By themselves, Mike Lowell's words were simple statements of fact. But, if you looked beyond the readily apparent, he sounded a warning that New England is intimately familiar with:

The Yankees are coming.

"Honestly, I don't think we're looking at it that way," the third baseman said Monday afternoon, after being asked if the Red Sox's nine-and-a-half game lead in the division provided a margin for error. "We're playing good baseball and we're taking each series (one) at a time. We're just focusing on what we have at hand.

"The rivalry is fun; it's exciting. But in what the game means? It's the same as playing the Orioles. You win, you gain a game, standings wise. From a standings standpoint, we can't get too wrapped up where we are in the division.

"I don't think anything's a knockout punch until you get to September and the calculator is putting some bad percentages up. I'd rather be where we are now than a game up or a game back. We're too smart as a team to do that ... I hope."

For the Yankees, the season has been defined by its inconsistency.

Despite ranking fourth in baseball behind Detroit, Boston and Cleveland in offense, averaging 5.31 runs per game, the Yankees have had too many nights where reputations have overshadowed production, like Tuesday night's 7-3 loss to the Red Sox. The Red Sox's lead over the Yankees in the American League East is now 10 1/2 games.

April 1 may have been the scheduled Opening Day, but the Yankees season could have begun in the eighth inning of Saturday's 10-7 loss to the Mets.

Losing 8-2 at the start of the inning, the Yankees scored three times, on two bases-empty home runs by Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, along with a RBI double by part-time first baseman Josh Phelps, cutting the Mets' lead to 8-6.

After the Mets scored two runs at the start of the ninth on Robinson Cano's third error of the game, the potent Yankees struck back, with Rodriguez scoring on right-fielder Bobby Abreu's fielder's choice and a throwing error by Mets closer Billy Wagner. In his post-game press conference, Joe Torre praised his team's willingness to cope with adversity.

Sunday night, needing a win in order not to be swept and facing John Maine, one of the National League's best pitchers, the Yankees offensive renaissance continued, beating their cross-town rivals, 6-2. Much like Saturday's game, the Yanks' bats were led by Rodriguez and Posada, both of whom homered, and Derek Jeter who has been hot through the first seven weeks of the season.

In the Yankees' 6-2 win Monday night, Rodriguez and designated hitter Jason Giambi hit home runs in the first two innings, giving the A.L. East's second-best team a lead that it wouldn't relinquish.

Rodriguez, Posada, Jeter and Johnny Damon are the lynchpins behind the Yankees offensive uprising. The quartet has combined to go 16-for-50 with 10 runs scored, six home runs, three stolen bases, a double and 10 RBI in the Yankees last four games. As they go, so go the Yankees.
And don't think that the Red Sox don't know that.

"I don't think there's a good time to catch the Yankees," said set-up man Brendan Donnelly. "They are a dangerous offensive team one-through-nine. You can never count a team like that out."

Less than a year after being criticized for not doing enough, Rodriguez has reclaimed his mantle as the sport's premier offensive threat. Last season, in what was widely considered his worst statistical year since his rookie campaign, Rodriguez still hit .290, 35 home runs, drove in 121, scored 133 runs and stole 15 bases.

Through 44 games this season, ARod is hitting .310. He leads the league in these offensive categories; runs (39), home runs (18), RBI (43) and total bases (115).

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/sports/ci_5973386

Boston Red Sox pitching rotation feature for the Berkshire Eagle (5/23/07)

Red Sox have some arms to bear
By Denis Gorman,

Special to The Eagle

Wednesday, May 23

NEW YORK--Bostonian writer and theorist George Santayana once suggested that those who fail to heed history's lessons are condemned to repeating errors.

Between 1919 and 2003, the Boston Red Sox built teams long on offense and little pitching. In that time, the Red Sox were able to score runs and fielded impressive teams, but failed to win.

In 2004, the Red Sox focused on pitching. A lopsided trade brought in Curt Schilling. Keith Foulke signed as a free agent after compiling a 43-save, 2.08 ERA season with Oakland. In October 2004, the Red Sox hoisted their first World Series title in 86 years.

Three years later, the Red Sox are built around pitching. If Santayana's theorem is valid, come October, the Red Sox could be celebrating its fifth World Series Championship.

The Red Sox finished 11th in Major League Baseball with a 4.18 ERA in 2004. This season, the Sox's 3.51 ERA is good enough for fifth best in MLB.

"Our starting pitching has gotten us deep enough into games and allowed our bullpen to be very good," manager Terry Francona said in the bowels of Yankee Stadium Monday night prior to the Red Sox's 6-2 loss. Thirteen times this season the Red Sox have allowed five or more runs. In those games, the Red Sox's record is 6-8.

Tim Wakefield struggled against New York on Monday, allowing six runs over five innings, highlighted by massive home runs by third baseman Alex Rodriguez in the first inning and designated hitter Jason Giambi in the second. After the game, the knuckleball pitcher said he wasn't in rhythm.

"Usually, when I leave the bullpen, I know it is good," said the longest-reigning Red Sox. "I never got comfortable (Monday night). The ball stayed up on the (home runs) to Alex and Jason. I tried to grind it out; I didn't have great stuff."

After winning the World Series in 2004, the Red Sox would allow good pitching to leave 4 Yawkey Way. Starting pitchers Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe signed four-year deals with the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. To offset the departures of the legendary Martinez and playoff hero Lowe, the Red Sox brought in Matt Clement and David Wells in 2005 and 2003 World Series MVP Josh Beckett in 2006.

The losses of Martinez and Lowe showed themselves throughout the 2005 and 2006 seasons. In 2005, the Red Sox finished with a 95-67 record, second in the division to the New York Yankees, and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eventual World Series Champion Chicago White Sox. Last season, the Red Sox finished third in the division with an 86-76 record, an even 10 games behind division champion New York and missed the playoffs for the first time in the Francona era.

The left-hander Wells pitched a season and a half in Boston, compiling a 17-10 record, before being traded to San Diego in 2006 for minor leaguer George Kotteras. Clement struggled, putting together an 18-11 record with a 5.13 ERA in 44 starts over two seasons before undergoing shoulder surgery last June. He is still on the DL, and his contract is up at the end of the season.

In 2006, his first season facing the deeper lineups of the American League, Beckett experienced difficulty, over-relying on his fastball to bail him out of tight situations. It often led to long innings and high pitch counts for the 27-year-old right hander. He finished with a 16-11 record and a career-worst 5.01 ERA.

"He learned a lot about the hitters in this league the first time around; two, three at-bats isn't the same as 20," said third baseman Mike Lowell, a teammate of Beckett's on the 2003 Marlins.
This season, working with catcher Jason Varitek and pitching coach John Farrell, Beckett has been the American League's best pitcher, going 7-0 with a 2.66 ERA before going on the disabled list last week with a tearing of the skin on his right middle finger.

"His stuff is still the same, great stuff. I think he has a definite plan that he's following and he's composed following that plan," noted Lowell.

When last season came to its inglorious end, the Red Sox braintrust met and determined that with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, they had enough offense. What was needed was pitching. To that end, the Red Sox signed highly coveted Japanese right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka to a six-year contract worth more than $100 million. Adding Matsuzaka to a rotation with 2004 holdovers Schilling and Wakefield, spot-starter Julien Tavarez and Beckett, along with stud closer Jonathan Papelbon, gave the Sox another power arm. So far, it's paid off. The starters boast a record of 23-12 with a 3.70 ERA in 265 innings.

"Our starters are doing a good job," Lowell said. "I think they've done the best where we haven't scored a lot of runs. We scored seven runs in the Minnesota series and won the series. Maybe we can answer that back when the pitchers have an outing (they) aren't happy with and we pick them up."

The one pick up that the Red Sox didn't make was Roger Clemens. Yes, the organization was involved in the Roger Clemens Sweepstakes, but unlike the Yankees and Astros, the American League East leader's need for the 44-year-old right-hander wasn't great. The future Hall-of-Famer would have been a luxury instead of a necessity. That's due to the Red Sox's quality depth throughout the rotation and Jon Lester waiting in the wings.

Currently, Lester is in Triple-A Pawtucket rehabbing from cancer treatment. Last season, Lester was 7-2 in 81 1/3 innings with the Red Sox before undergoing chemotherapy treatment last August for lymphoma.

On Saturday night against Ottawa Lynx, he threw 3 2/3 innings allowing one hit and a walk, while striking out two. According to Francona, Lester is due to next throw on Friday against Syracuse.

"He has to get his pitch count back up so where he can get here," said Francona. "When he's ready to help us, we'll gladly accept that."

A deep rotation that possess good pitching. The 2004 Red Sox won a World Series using that formula. The 2007 edition hopes to do the same.

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