Theo Epstein made a promise. “One way or another we’ll field a team every night,” the Red Sox general manager said. He was responding to a question about the rash of injuries that have jammed the team’s disabled list. “Are you going to be able to play out the season?” I asked him.
Ken Williams, on the other hand, refused to answer the question I asked him: “How did you put that streak together?”
“I can’t talk about a streak,” Williams, the White Sox general manager, said. “We’ve lost three of four. You can’t talk about winning streaks when you’ve lost three of four. We should play better. You should have caught me at a better time.”
Nevertheless, the White Sox, like the Red Sox, have played themselves into the races in their divisions.
Before losing three of four, the White Sox won 11 games in a row, their best winning streak since 1961. In the three-week stretch from June 6 through June 26 the White Sox won 16 of 18 games and slashed the number in their games-behind column from 9 ½ to 1 ½.
Back in the race? Don’t tell Williams that.
“We never should have been out of the race,” he said. “We played like crap the first two months. The way we played we earned our record. It was a team effort. Now we’re playing the way we should.”
Paul Konerko was an exception to Williams’ assessment, hitting 11 home runs and driving in 21 runs in April. He fell off in May – .233, 3 and 12 – but rebounded in June – .351, 6 and 23.
When the White Sox acquired Jake Peavy from San Diego at the trading deadline last season, he was expected to lead their pitching staff this season. But he struggled the first two months, posting a 4-4 record and a 6.23 e.r.a. June was different. He won three of his last four starts in the month with a 1.55 e.r.a.
The team’s most consistent pitcher has been Freddy Garcia with an 8-3 record and a 4.65 e.r.a. But even he started slowly with a 0-2 record and 5.87 e.r.a. in four April starts.
Nevertheless it has been a strong performance for a 33-year-old right-hander who spent the past three years in four organizations trying to come back from shoulder surgery. The Mets gave him two minor league starts the first month of last season before they released him. The White Sox signed him six weeks later for a return engagement.
“Freddy has been nothing but consistent,” Williams said. “He’s changed. He’s not the same guy he used to be, but he’s always been able to change and do well.”
The White Sox have changed and done well. If they hadn’t, their season would be over. Williams, however, didn’t want to talk about that. He let the streak speak for itself. “I’m hoping we start another one,” he said.
The Red Sox have come back without benefit of such an impressive streak. Their longest winning streak has been six games. But on May 17 their record was 19-20 and they were in fourth place, 8½ games from first, and they won 28 of their next 39 games and were suddenly only a game behind the American League East-leading Yankees.
“We played really bad baseball in April,” Epstein said. “It was uncharacteristic of us. We didn’t play well. We were better than that. But baseball is a long season. We caught fire in May. We played better defense, and had a lineup full of guys grinding out at-bats.”
David Ortiz epitomized the team’s return to Boston baseball. As Ortiz staggered through April with a .143 batting average, one homer and 4 runs batted in, many people, even Red Sox fans, especially Red Sox fans, believed it was time to put the designated hitter out to pasture.
But the Red Sox turned the page on the calendar, and on May 1 Ortiz hit two home runs and proceeded to swat through the month hitting .363 with 10 homers and 27 r.b.i. Reports of his demise were premature once again.
“Last year,” Epstein said, “he was just as bad in April and May, but from June 1 on he was the best hitter in baseball. This year he started a month earlier.”
Ortiz’s emergence from his personal doldrums is a significant development for the Red Sox. “He’s proven that even in the depths of a terrific slump he can contribute,” the general manager said. “It gives you added comfort and increases the patience level when someone is struggling.”
Epstein also cited the efforts of the left side of the infield, third baseman Adrian Beltre and shortstop Marco Scutaro.
“Beltre and Scutaro had the unenviable task of adjusting to Boston as free agent signings,” Epstein said. “Beltre made some errors in April, and it took both of them a while to relax and be themselves. They’ve been different guys since.
Beltre has been an m.v.p. candidate, Epstein added, and “Scutaro is one of the best shortstops in the American League.”
Beltre and Scutaro also are two Red Sox players who haven’t been on the disabled list. Not many of their teammates can say that.
Catchers have been particular targets of the injury bug. Victor Martinez was already on the disabled list with a fractured left thumb when Jason Varitek broke a bone in his right foot. They, however, were not the only injured catchers in the organization.
Epstein said the Red Sox would have summoned Mark Wagner and Dusty Brown from the minors to replace the injured catchers, but both of them are hurt and on the minor league disabled list.
The injuries forced Epstein to look elsewhere, and he came up with Kevin Cash from Houston.
Outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury (for the second time) and Jeremy Hermida are on the disabled list with fractured ribs. Outfielder Mike Cameron was out for more than a month earlier in the season with an abdominal strain.
Second baseman Dustin Pedroia has a fractured left foot. Infielder Mike Lowell has a strained right hip.
Pitchers have not been immune, Josh Beckett has been out for seven weeks with a lower back strain, and Daisuke Matsuzaka has visited the list twice with neck and forearm strains. Clay Buchholz recently suffered a hamstring strain but has avoided the disabled list.
The injuries have opened the Red Sox roster to names to which their fans are unaccustomed, particularly Daniel Nava and Darnell McDonald.
“Unexpected sources have made contributions,” Epstein said. “We found Daniel Nava in an independent league. We signed him, and he hit his way through our system. We called him up May 27 and he hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw.”
McDonald is a 31-year outfielder whom the Red Sox signed as a minor league free agent. With 5 homers and 20 r.b.i. in 60 games, “he has been really helpful in the outfield,” Epstein said.
“We don’t rely on them, but our scouting department does a good job on minor league free agents,” he added. “Typically the best ones want to sign with the worst teams so they get a chance to play but we treat them fairly.”
So despite the early losses and the injuries, the Red Sox appear to be in pursuit of another playoff spot.
“The players see this as something we’ll expand and be a real force to be reckoned with,” Epstein said. “Too much emphasis is put on April and May. It’s a long grind.”
NOW WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?
George Steinbrenner fired plenty of managers and general managers in his time, but he never did what the Arizona Diamondbacks did last week. Ken Kendrick, the Diamondbacks’ managing partner, fired his manager, A. J. Hinch, and the man who hired him, the general manager, Josh Byrnes.
If Steinbrenner, who turns 80 on Sunday, is aware of the Kendrick executions, he probably regrets not having done that himself in his active years.
According to Major League Baseball records, the last time a team fired its manager and general manager at the same time during a season was in 2007 when the Houston Astros dismissed manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura.
The last general manager to be fired in-season was Bill Bavasi by the Seattle Mariners in June 2008. Two months earlier the Cincinnati Reds fired Wayne Krivsky.
In May 2006 the Kansas City Royals fired Allard Baird. What set that move apart from other similar acts was that it happened a week before the amateur draft, in which the Royals had the No. 1 pick. They selected Luke Hochevar.
MLB TO WORLD CUP: THANK YOU
World Cup referees have done Major League Baseball umpires a favor and in the process have made them look good.
That is not to say that officiating mistakes in world soccer make it all right for umpires to get calls wrong in baseball, but given the number of bad soccer calls, it seems that umpires do a pretty good job.
Some of the seemingly wrong calls could have affected the outcome of World Cup matches. The most blatantly wrong baseball call this season did not affect the outcome of even a regular-season game. It was Jim Joyce’s call at first base on what should have been the last out of what should have been Armando Galarraga’s perfect game.
The call outraged people because it spoiled a gem of a pitching performance. But the Tigers still won the game. The season was not affected.
The outcome of the 1985 World Series might have been affected by Don Denkinger’s wrong call at first base, but no bad call between that one and Joyce’s this season rose to their level.
In other words, there’s no need to saddle baseball with greater use of instant replay.
MESS UP THE TEAM, THEN ITS SALE
It was bad enough that Tom Hicks messed up the Texas Rangers and his ownership of them so badly that he has been forced to sell the team, but now he has messed up the sale, too.
“Hicks has left a terrible trail,” a baseball official said.
Earlier this year Hicks agreed to sell the Rangers for $580 million to a group headed by Chuck Greenberg, a Pittsburgh lawyer and owner of minor league teams, and Nolan Ryan, Hall of Fame pitcher and Rangers president. However, Hicks owes his creditors $575 million, and they have tried to disrupt the sale.
A mediation hearing is scheduled to be held in Texas Tuesday. A Federal bankruptcy judge has set July 22 as a deadline for a resolution of the sale. It is far from certain that the Greenberg-Ryan group will get the Rangers. An auction for the team may yet be held.
The commissioner’s office favors the Greenberg-Ryan group and has not been pleased with the delaying developments.
Meanwhile, Hicks owes M.L.B. $20 million from a loan Hicks received so that the Rangers players could be paid. Baseball officials are not concerned about having the loan repaid.
“We’re first in line,” one said.