Yeah, yeah, he won two titles, first in 86 years, keeps the players happy, whatever...

I was pissed enough at his decisions to call back Sean Casey the last two nights for Lugo and Varitek respectively, despite Sean's huge increase in BA against the pitcher, but tonight...that was just the most moronic decision I've ever seen, and that includes Grady(because at least Pedro was a good pitcher)

Jason Varitek hasn't made contact in a week, so you hit and run with him?!?!?!

What drugs are you on Terry? Are the new MLB uniform policies preventing the circulation to your head?

Thank you. Yeah, look...I get that he's the CAPTAIN and all that bull**it. But its your job as manager to put your team in a position to win. And tonight, its like Terry went out of his way NOT to do that.

Sean Casey is tailor made for these situations. To NOT use him either time is idiotic. To HIT AND RUN...TWICE...is just flat out stupid.

How big does that bull*** interference call look?

Terrible decision ... but, you cant blame it all on him

Not his fault the bullpen threw 3 strikes in the entire bottom of the 7th

As I posted in the game thread:

I keep trying to figure out his reasoning behind the hit and run idea.

Possibilities:
1. He's trying to open up a hole for Varitek... but Tek hasn't been making contact lately.
2. The result of this at bat is less important than getting Varitek out of his slump, which a successful hit-and-run could do... of course this is nonsensical given the game situation.

In other words, what the f*ck.

I think that in general Francona is a damn good manager. This was just one of the most boneheaded, hairbrained decisions I've ever seen.

Edit: And of course, you can't blame Tito for the bottom of the 7th. He put in his best guys, and they crumbled.

When a veteran player is having the worst offensive month of his career by a wide margin, it might be time to give him some time off. A phantom DL stint for Varitek would do a world of good.

Its not like Tek has been scuffling, he put up a .381 OPS and had 9 hits and 8 walks in the entire month of June.

It simply makes no sense that he wasn't pinch hit for.

Whenever there are posts bitching about Francona I usually post that he is smarter than everyone here. I then point to things like the way he used Gagne last year. I talk about how he wanted to know what he had for the playoffs and he'd rather have Gagne cost the team a meaningless division title than a World Series. Then I go into his impeccable use of the bullpen in the 2004 post season. I continue to bang the drum that he knows more than us all and for the first time in my life Sox fans don't need to be concerned with the manager.

With that said... I have never seen a series managed worse than this Tampa series was. I have no idea what he was thinking with Tek either of the last two nights. My girlfriend, who grew up on the other side of the freaking planet and never watched a baseball game in her life until 2003 and now watches once or twice a week knows that Varitek can't freaking hit anymore. How does Tito not know this? Is he worried about hurting his feelings? Tek seems like the kind of guy that if he got pinch hit for and was asked about it, he would say something like "Of course it was the right move. Have you seen my at bats the last month?



It doesn't even have to be a DL stint. How about giving Cash one more starter in the rotation? That would double his rest. I'm not saying it will help, but it sure couldn't hurt.

In an ideal world, Crisp's suspension would have been reduced by an additional 2 outs. He would have run for Lowell. Casey would have hit for Tek. Casey to first, Youk to 3rd in the bottom of the 9th.

I understand the hit and run with Varitek in that, yes, he has managed in the past to put the ball in play in those situations even when he's slumping. It doesn't necessarily get him out of the slump, but it allows him to be temporarily useful.

But, obviously, game on the line and a guy who runs like a cripple at first (not to mention a catcher with a pretty good success rate throwing out runners), that just wasn't the time.

Obviously.

It was a fitting end to an absolutely miserable series, though.

Hopefully the weekend series with the absurd national TV start times and game lengths can give Francona the old "day game after night game" excuse on either Friday night or Saturday, then Cash again on Wake's day Sunday.

I believe Mussina goes Saturday, and Varitek's career numbers against him are just an affront to the game of baseball. If Francona starts him that game after the past month, dear lord...

Yesterday wasn't really possible to hit for Varitek because then if the game goes to extra innings you have Cora catching, but he definately should have been out of there tonight. I know Francona loves to stick with struggling guys, like Pedroia at the start of last year, but Varitek shouldn't have been anywhere near the plate in the 9th tonight. And then to hit and run TWICE? Inexcusable. I generally think he's one of the better managers in baseball, but that decision was just plain dumb.

Sometimes when a guy is in a slump managers try to break him out of it by putting the hit and run on. Its an old tactic and there is some wisdom behind it. When you think a slump is getting in a guy's head it makes sense to try to get him thinking about something else - like just putting the ball in play.

I dont have a problem with it.

That's fine, and he's been doing it for a couple of days now. But with the game on the line, you don't send a guy up to the plate who has twelve hits in his last 100 or so at bats when you have a very good pinch hitting option on the bench. And if you DO, for some reason, you don't have him hit and run TWICE when he's struggled to even make contact lately with a slow runner on and strong armed catcher behind the plate. I understand trying to get Varitek out of his slump, but not in situations where the game is on the line. At some point you need to stop worrying about individual players' feelings/confidence, and do what's best for the team. They needed a win tonight.

I can understand that, but a manager has to take into account the specific players involved and the game situation.

Its one thing to hit and run with Varitek to try to bust him out of his 'slump' when your team is up 3 runs in the 6th inning, but its a different situation when we have all the factors that were involved last night. Lowell because he is so slow and Tek because he is having trouble catching up to pitches and making contact are a poor combination to employ this particular strategy in that particular game situation.

Getting swept by the Devil Rays on top of a tough road trip, before heading for four games into Yankee Stadium is a game you had and need to win.

The fact of the matter in the under utilization of Casey in this series was a real failure on Tito's part.

Seeing Lowell get thrown out by five feet pisses everyone off and gives us a managerial decision to question. But the thing is that even if there was no hit and run that at bat by Varitek was almost certain to have a bad result anyways - probably a strike out (which is what happened). To me, the mistake the last two nights has been letting Varitek hit in these late-inning spots. I mean, in the Tuesday night game he brought the guy off the bench to PH, for God's sake.

We better get used to it. Tito doesn't like to hit for veterans and he'll be more patient with Varitek than anyone else. It makes me wonder WTF the point is of having a veteran professional hitter like Casey on the bench if he's not going to be used to PH for struggling guys in the late innings with the game on the line.

Maddon was a better manager than Francona in this series, plain and simple.

Trying the hit-and-run once is something that I can understand. Twice just strikes me as excessive. I also agree that this was the 2nd time in the past 3 games that Casey should have pinch hit for Varitek. I guess this is where Francona's "think for the long haul" mentality didn't help matters. I suppose he thinks that pulling Tek in these situations might make him lose confidence and prolong the slump, which is worse for the season as a whole, even though Casey gives you a better chance to win that game.

On the plus side, it took until July for this thread to get started. This tells me two things.

1) Francona has done a pretty good job so far this season, or at least the fans have started to realize that he's not a total incompetent, and that the long-haul approach has some benefits in spite of horrifically frustrating games like last night

2) JvBF was hit by a bus sometime in March.

On the really, really bad side...does everybody realize that the 7th inning virtually guarantees that Timlin is going to get some high-leverage innings after his return? Given the apparent choice of a large number of equally bad options, it won't surprise me to see Timlin used in key situations this weekend. Good thing he won't have to pitch to Jason Giambi! Oh, wait...

I'm all for a mental health day for Tek, but a DL stint will hurt more than it will help. Although it is difficult to tell from Oki, Manny and Hansen, he is too important to the staff.

Back on topic - I have no idea why he called back Casey in the 9th. It was not like they were going to go to Howell. Then he tops that off by hitting and running with a guy who, in relative terms to other MLB players, moves like molasses going uphill on a cold winter's day and a guy who hasn't hit the broad side of a barn in about a month.

You can blame the pen all you want for letting the Rays back in it, but that is no excuse for Francona not managing to win.

Wow. I thought that after last night it would be impossible for me to get more bummed out about this team. Thanks for taking it to a new level.

Based on the performance of the current options - I'd give my wife a chance.

The only positive I can take out of this is that every year when the Sox piss me the hell off beyond belief, and beyond what any sports team should be able to do to a person who is not insane, it seems like it is always in July, and then come OCT we are on another WS run.

But really, this series was just so bad in so many ways.

Francona is a good manager, and like I said before - you can't blame him that the pen is beyond awful. You can't blame him that Dice-K can't make it more then 5IP without throwing 130 pitches. The only thing I can not figure out is why he has not benched Tek.

Cash sucks, but really, how much more can you suck then 9 hits in a month? Surely Cash/Rookie could muster up 9 hits. And possibly throw more then 9% of runners out. The Rays were stealing down 3 late in the game because they knew that it was literally risk free. That is pathetic.

It didn't hurt that the Rays' pen got themselves out of some big jams. Managers can do all they want, players have to perform. The Rays players, especially the bullpen, took it to the Sox.

Maybe i missed something. He hit and run with Tek and Lowell. Tek hasn't hit anything lately, not even Cynthia Rodriguez, Lowell is slower than a handicapped turtle...Why no pinch runner in that situation? Is Coco hurt? Okay, well Cora is faster than Lowell, and can play third...

(right - Crisp suspended - Look at me with short term memory loss - wonder how that hapenned?)

The hit and run was stupid, but not pinch running for Lowell was downright retarded. (No offense to retards)

My question is, why not stick with Oki for another inning? He was good in the 6th [for the 1st time in a long time that I have seen him] ... why the need to turn to the deadliest duo in baseball MannyDel and Hansen? Yes i realize Hansen was only in because MDC sucked ...

The only thing I can think of is trying to instill some confidence. He had a good inning for the first time in about a month. I'd bet Francona was thinking that this might be a good base for moving forward and going into the next series. That doesn't make much sense b/c the team that is in front of the Sox in the standings is on the field at the time.

Absolutely agree in principle, but that's something you do on the front end of a series, not when you are about to be swept and have a chance to leave 1.5 games back instead of 3.5 back.

There isn't any defense, none, nada, zilch...for Sean Casey not getting to the plate the ENTIRE SERIES when we had game-altering pinch hit opportunities in all 3 ninth innings. Moreover, the hit and run is made for Casey, he's a pure contact guy. And Tito just plain ignoring his lefty splits this series is just mind-boggling.

I think a bigger issue with Casey is why isn't he starting with Ortiz out, getting the DH AB's. He's arguably the 5th or 6th best hitter on the roster (better than Tek, Lugo, Ellsbury at least).

He's the only late inning offensive weapon this team has, and to punt on that opportunity 3 games in a row is inexcusable.

The only bright spot out of last night's game is that it should be a neon sign to Theo that this team needs help, and maybe can't wait until July 31.

This team has three MAJOR problems to address:

1) Set-up relief.....MDC and Hansen are never going to be able to take an 8th inning role. MDC has had 3 seasons now to move into a dominant setup man role and he can't make the leap. Okajima's failures this year has ruined the pecking order of the pen and turned it into a chaotic mess.

2) Ortiz' long-term health this season. With Manny regressing and two other black holes in Varitek and Lugo in the lineup, we desperately need him back and productive or we need to make an external move.

3) Varitek. This is beyond a slump. He's barely capable of putting the bat on the ball. He's entered that dreaded zone where an NL pitcher could step up there and get more hits than him over 100 AB's. An alternative catching option has to be found ASAP.

Back to Francona. I love the guy, really do. However, that was his worst series since he put the uniform on. That was putting veterans above winning. Period.

The pessimist in me says that is simple - Manny wants to DH and Francona is not going to force him to play in left. So, rather than put the best line-up he has on the field, he bows to his mealticket.

The optimist in me says that Francona is being cautious as he doesn't want to lose both Manny and Oritz at the same time. Francona's plan is to tread water for now. If it all works out, he will have Manny, Ortiz and favorable home/road schedule in the second half, especially the last month.

Two major points of disagreement here.

1) Casey isn't getting ABs at DH because Manny's hamstrings aren't healthy enough to play him in the field. If they were, I'm confident that Manny in LF and Casey at DH would have been the standard lineup in this series. I'd rather see Moss in LF and Manny DHing than Moss in LF and Casey DHing.

2) "Putting veterans above winning." How does this make sense when the player who wasn't seeing playing time was MLB veteran Sean Casey? If you're still talking about the DH thing, it makes even less sense when you consider that the guy playing instead of Casey in your plan was...Moss, a rookie. The "Francona puts veterans before the team!" line of reasoning just got taken to a whole new level right here.

I'll put it differently then: He placed giving Varitek an opportunity to bust out of a dreadful slump over a much higher statistical probability of success in using Casey to pinch-hit.

I seem to recall an at-bat by Lowell last season, when Lowell was going through somewhat of a rough stretch. It was a high leverage situation late in a game with a runner on. Francona started the runner, and Lowell ripped a pitch foul down the left field line. Remy commented that "sometimes Francona likes to put the hit-and-run on with a slumping hitter, to get the focus up." Next pitch, runner on the move, Lowell rips a double. Got him out of the slump.

Francona believes in that, and it has worked for him before. Problem was, it didn't look like 'Tek did anything in that at-bat to shorten up his swing and focus on contact. He went into that sequence of pitches with the same approach, and he failed to make contact.

It looks like a poor managerial decision given the result, but Varitek's approach has something to do with it.

Plus, if 'Tek ripped a double into the gap, and Lowell scores given he was running with the pitch, we wouldn't have this thread right now.

I know this is totally against the new "book", but if ever the 7th inning needed a Paps sighting it was last night. It was apparent that was the key point of the game. I totally am on board with the no need to panic/overeact idea, but I'd want my best guy in at the key moment.
Also, I think the Sox might have wanted to stop the e-mails for Tek to catch the All Star game, if ever a guy needs a rest. it's Tek. Doesn't look like Manny would mind a few days off either.

I'm so pissed about that hit and run, I can't think straight today. Just absurd. Don't give the the slump busting logic, the captain has nothing right now, he needs a month off and some R&R here: http://www.cat69.com/

I'm not sure why they'd even hit-and-run there. What had Wheeler done to make you think you had to put the runner in motion? Was it Lowell's double? Youk's near HR to deep center that drove in a run? We're not talking about Mariano Rivera here where you have to try something to get a run in. If Varitek grounds into a double play, so be it (At least he made contact!!). But the way he's been hitting a K is much more likely and at least you'd still have the tying run on base with 2 outs. Makes more sense than trying a hit-and-run with one of your worst hitters at the plate and one of your slowest runners on base. And not only do you do it once, YOU DO IT TWICE!! The first time, fine. But on the next pitch?? Horrid...

I will applaud his decision to have Lugo bunt in the 2nd tonight...getting those two runs home is very important in putting the pressure on the Yanks early.

I too don't understand Francona's reluctance to pinch hit etc, but over a period of time it seems to me that Francona believes the only way to let the FO know a player's true current ability or identify a weakness is to let people like Varitek hang in the clutch.

Another retarded decision to hit and run which comes back to screw the Sox.

I thought taking out Wake in the middle of the 7th was not a good idea. It wasn't as if he had a high pitch count or was not in control. Jeez

Pinch hitting Varitek.

Do I need to say anything else?

Varitek pinch hitting was fine. Tito brought him in to pinch him for Lugo, not a big loss there. He did his job and moved the runner to third base.

Manny had a horrible at bat taking three called strikes. Now the first two looked a bit high, but he has to protect the plate on that third strike. Just a very bad at bat in a critical situation for Manny.

I haven't met a manager I liked (well, Davey Johnson I guess) but Tito's hands are seriously tied. For the last month he's had a roster that has two catchers who can't hit, two shortstops who can't hit, and three outfielders who aren't hitting. There's really not a lot to be done with that many players misfiring all at once; that's four dead spots in the lineup every night no matter what the manager does.

No.

When there is a runner on second and one out his job is to get a hit and drive him in.

Ha, exactly what I was thinking. He showed great patience swinging at the first pitch too.

I'm convinced Javier Lopez has pics of Francona with underage hookers or something. He brings him in to face Posada instead of leaving Wakefield in there when Posada is a career .230 hitter against Wake and had been 0-for-2 with 2 K's up to that point. If Wakefield gets Posada then you can bring in Lopez to face Cano and even if he gets a triple like he did you still have a lead and two outs.

I know it may sound like picking gnat sh*t out of pepper, but Posada's base hit was huge seeing as how he was the tying run. All you need to know about the decision was Joe Morgan agreed with it...

I don't understand Francona's fascination with Lopez in the first place. The sidearming thing is a cute trick, but he just isn't an effective bullpen option for a close game.

I don't have time to look up the numbers for 2008, but I know that in 2007 he had one of the worst OPSes against lefties on the roster(while Kyle Snyder somehow was shutting them the hell down), yet each and every game Francona puts him in against a Giambi, Pena, Chavez, Thome, etc. and it seems like 3 out of every 4 times he gave up an XBH that either tied the game or gave up the lead.

For a team that is so fundamentally built upon statistics, and a manager who usually ties himself to the numbers, Theo and Tito's hardon for Lopez defies all logic.

That said, I do think he's been much better this year than last, and for a short period was the only one in the bullpen I trusted to get an out. Still, I wish we DFAd him instead of Breslow.

Everyone not named Francona knew Timlin would blow this critical game if he was put in. But the worst part is that after the Rays hit 2 screaming liners in a row, that he was left in against the Rays biggest HR threat. Like everyone else, I called the HR as soon as I saw it was Farrell coming out of the dugout to talk rather than Francona coming out to pull Timlin prior to the Pena AB.

To be fair, we have no idea how long it was going to take Chris Smith to warm up. Using every obviously better pitcher (Smith and Pauley might have been better than Timlin, but we don't know) than Timlin in an extra inning game, then being stuck with him in the 14th is something that I can't really fault Francona for. It's not really Timlin's fault that Ellsbury, Ortiz, Youk, Bay, and Lowell all magically lost their testicles on the same day.

I blame Francona for losing the Tampa series, but not game 3. Francona should have used Paplebon for an inning Saturday in Texas. As it turned out he would have rested Sunday and been available for games 1 and 2 against the Rays. ALso, in the bottom of the 9th in game 2 Francona should have pinch hit Casey for Varitek. Even with Varitek's K Tito should have ordered Ortiz to bunt or hit away from the shift. Papi ain't being Papi.

I'd blame the 3 through 6 hitters who couldn't manage a hit last night. Pedroia was on countless times and never scored. The game before is clearly on Papelbon. He needed the work the other night and I'm sure Francona knew the risk that he would be needed the next two nights.

Has anyone heard anything on Percival by the way? That's the second time this year the Sox were ready to rally late in a game when he came up "lame" and all the Sox momentum was killed. He'd better be done for the season after that crap last night.

In which manner did this happen?

One thing I'm trying to figure out is did we have room on our roster for another reliever or two with Pawtucket's season being over? I guess there are service time considerations and what not, but man, it would have been nice having another reliever in the pen. Though, perhaps this is moot, since Francona would inexplicably put Timlin ahead of said reliever in our depth chart.

But one thing I, and all of us, need to keep in mind is the key reason we lost last night, and that's leaving way too many guys on base. For Pedroia to reach base 6 times and not score a run is unbelievable. And Bay, come on man... you can do better than yesterday's 0-fer.

Keith Law agrees using Timlin was a pretty dopey decision:

The minute I saw Timlin warming I knew we were going to lose... but realistically, Chris Smith is nearly as likely to blow the game. Its'a lose-lose situation.

Maybe he feels that throwing the kid into the fire like that wouldn't be good for his mental make up. If he is just as likely to lose the game with either pitcher, than hand the ball to the vet to take the beating.