Winning

This week in Boston, the team came very close to four-game sweep. The team played hard even when the bullpen caughed it up. They played hard in low-scoring games, they played hard in high-scoring games, and they really looked like a team that is ready for the playoffs. There were some managerial question marks, but the manager left no doubt that he was going all-out to win every game. The team is, of course, the Baltimore Orioles.

Contrast that with the Red Sox, who are darned lucky not to have been swept. Keith Foulke obviously had a lousy series, and the bats weren't as alive as they could have been, but I place the blame squarely in two places.

(1) The starting pitchers. I don't know what Derek Lowe has to do, but he has to do something. Likewise Wakefield. Schilling was a demi-god, of course, and I find it hard to criticize Bronson.

(2) Terry Francona. He's managing this game like it's a marathon. IT'S NOT A MARATHON, TITO, IT'S A SPRINT!! There are 9 games left, and he's lets recovering Byung-Hyun Kim pitch against two tough left-handers. He pinch-hits Ellis Burks (who admittedly got a hit). Terry Francona had given up on the Red Sox winning last night, and since he's the manager, the prophecy was self-fulfilling. Worse yet, in a tie game he brought on Terry Adams and then Ramiro Mendoza and later Mike Myers and Kim. Did I miss something, or do Keith Foulke, Mike Timlin, Scott Williamson and Alan Embree still play for the Sox? The first four relievers have an unweighted average ERA of 4.91; the latter four 2.89. Francona needs to go down to Foxboro and have dinner with Bill Bellichek, and learn something about the attitude behind winning. Winning isn't an accident. It isn't the long-term result of averages working themselves out. There's nothing I despise more than baseball professionals who take that approach to the game; they should be traded to Tampa. Baseball games CAN be won the same way football games are: by fighting for every run, having 13-pitch at-bats. Why do guys suddenly become tough when they're in a clutch situation? If Brian Daubach could fight off 6 pitches and then send a double down into the corner to win in extra innings years ago, why couldn't he do it with 2 outs, nobody on, third inning? Maybe I'm out to lunch, but I really believe that approach would win a team 10 more games over a season.

Or maybe, just maybe, they get paid the same amount for popping out on the first pitch, and it's just not worth the effort.