Terry Francona and His Propensity to GIVE games away..Pre-Game.

[NomahsHammSammich]

I for one am getting pretty sick and tired of seeing lineups with Cora/Willie/and MiraJobber....not to mention J.T. Snow.

 

Yesterday was the Worst Major League lineup I can remember the Red Sox sending out there in recent years. I know you gotta give people a rest now and again and the Snows and Willies have to play sometime in order to not start rusting on the bench..but do they ALL need to be in the lineup for the 2nd Game yesterday, with an OFF-Day on Monday, against the Western Division Leading Texas Rangers? We had just eeked out a Dramatic 5-4 victory on the shoulders of Big Papi once again...and Terry decides..OK...we got our split..let's rest now?

 

I know Youks is dinged up and Manny has been banged up..but they get a day off Monday. I know Terry likes to couple a day off with a scheduled day off in order to give the player a total of 2... but man... You cannot send that lineup out there and possibly expect to compete with a team like the Rangers against a AA pitcher. It seems to me Terry threw that game yesterday and it is not the first time he has done this. If I were attending yesterdays game I would want my money back.. That was a second rate product Tito sent out there.. It was a f***ing disgrace.

[Papelbon58]

it is a long season, the Yankees lost and it was a doubleheader that we got a win out of.

 

I'm not necessarily defending Francona, because it was a bad lineup, but it is not the end of the world and there were plenty of reasons

[RoyNHSox]

I kind of agree with yesterday’s second game lineup was similar to a split squad spring training lineup.

 

I think that there are some games that come up throughout the season where factors like scheduling, player availability, and injuries dictate how the lineup is put together. The manager puts a lineup together that is obviously inferior to the A lineup, and kind of hopes for the best. I think there is some kind of thinking that “you can’t win them all” but the hope is that maybe you’ll get lucky and still pull out a win.

 

If this had been a playoff game you know that Harris and Snow wouldn’t be starting. But I think that Tito’s thinking was this particular game wasn’t THAT important. It does suck that there are a handful of throwaway games every season , especially when one win can make the difference in September.

[NomahsHammSammich]

I kind of agree with yesterday’s second game lineup was similar to a split squad spring training lineup.

 

I think that there are some games that come up throughout the season where factors like scheduling, player availability, and injuries dictate how the lineup is put together. The manager puts a lineup together that is obviously inferior to the A lineup, and kind of hopes for the best. I think there is some kind of thinking that “you can’t win them all” but the hope is that maybe you’ll get lucky and still pull out a win.

 

If this had been a playoff game you know that Harris and Snow wouldn’t be starting. But I think that Tito’s thinking was this particular game wasn’t THAT important. It does suck that there are a handful of throwaway games every season , especially when one win can make the difference in September.

 

I agree with most of what you said. And to my recollection Tito did this a few times in 2004..and nobody can argue with his results..but c'mon. You can have Snow and Mirabelli in the lineup..maybe even Cora...but not Snow/Mirabelli/Cora/AND Harris. That is simply too many TERRIBLE hitters in one lineup.. You gotta give some kind of effort.

[schillingouttheks]

Well, you should just take Cora out of there. It wouldn't be any better if Gonzo was in there. I was one of the few people that supported Cora as our everyday SS before we signed Gonzo. I love it when I see his name in the lineup.

 

Anyway, if we had lost that first game I doubt we would have had that bad of a lineup for the second game. You can't have banged up players (like Youk) play both games in a double header. It doesn't make sense. You also don't want to increase their fatigue.

 

I personally think knowing that we won the first game and that the Yankees lost helped Francona to sort of throw away this game with a less-than-mediocre lineup. I think he already knew that Pauley was going to get hit hard against a cream of the crop Texas lineup, so he just wanted to suck Game 2 up and get through it, because at the end of the day we'd be at least 1 game up on New York even if we lost Game 2. If we lost Game 1, that means that if we lost Game 2 as well we'd be tied. I'm sure you would have seen a much better lineup if this was the situation than what you saw. I know you're going to say that the possibility of being up 2 games should have influenced his decision as well, but when it came down to it, we would have been ahead of them at the end of the day. And while we go out to Minnesota to face an average Twins team (and not needing to face Liriano, I might also add), the Yankees can host the Guardians and their offense and hopefully that will add some distance between us.

 

It was a harsh game to watch with a terrible lineup, but I'm happy with where we stand at the moment. Let those players get some playing time, and move onto Minnesota.

[yeszir]

We should trade for Jose Offerman.

[RoyNHSox]

I for one am getting pretty sick and tired of seeing lineups with Cora/Willie/and MiraJobber....not to mention J.T. Snow.

 

As an obvious side note, the bench is very weak offensively.

 

WMP, get well soon!

[seabeachfred]

I agree with most of what you said. And to my recollection Tito did this a few times in 2004..and nobody can argue with his results..but c'mon. You can have Snow and Mirabelli in the lineup..maybe even Cora...but not Snow/Mirabelli/Cora/AND Harris. That is simply too many TERRIBLE hitters in one lineup.. You gotta give some kind of effort.

 

Francona did this earlier in the season against Seattle with Bard instead of Mirabelli in the lineup. You can qualify it all you want but Francona has done this too many times in the past and it could really come back to hurt us this season. Reason? I do not think the Wild Card is coming from the AL East this year, not with the AL Central and Al West having a few easy marks in the division. There really aren't any in ours and if we don finally win the AL East this season we will be watching the playoffs on television with some foreign teams playing.:thumbdown :dunno:

[a700hitter]

I agree. There have been too many games where Terry has loaded up the 6th through 9th lineup spots with garbage-- usually when Wakefield pitches. It's no wonder he gets no run support.

[jsinger121]

There was no reason at all either to have Willie Harris starting both games of the doubleheader when the Red Sox had today off.