Game 147 – Knucklin’ in the Rain

Probably the last thing the Jays wanted right now was to face a knuckleball. On a drizzly night at Fenway the Jays could do nothing against Wakefield and his knuckleball. Wakefield gave up just 3 hits and NO walks in 8 shutout innings. Wakefield threw 65 strikes vs 29 balls. He only had 4 3-ball counts. 2 of the 3 hits for the Jays were doubles, but the Jays went 0 for 4 w/RISP.

Purcey did his best to keep the Jays in the game only giving up 2 runs (1 unearned) through the first 6. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep it at that as the Sox scored 2 more runs in the 7th. The final line for Purcey was 6 hits, 2 walks, 4 runs (3 earned), and 6 strikeouts in 6.2 IP. It was an ok start, although it did take him 120 pitches (52 were balls).

I would have had Purcey out a little earlier than Cito did. I would have pulled him after the Crisp 1B and brought in a righty to face Pedroia. I would then bring in a lefty to face just Ortiz and if the inning is still going a righty for the next several batters. As it was Purcey got the RH Pedroia to fly out to centre (not deep enough to score Lowrie) but couldn’t get the LH Ortiz.

I would have kept the bunt on the whole AB for Cash in the 8th (at least until he has 2 strikes). Instead Francona pulled it off on the 1-1 pitch. I’m not big on taking the bunt off mid AB. If you were willing to bunt on the 1st pitch why change it up. Now there are cases where maybe you show bunt to try and draw in the infield but w/Cash up you need to do whatever you can to get the runner over. The other case you might take it off is if the pitcher falls behind like 2-0, 3 – 1 then you can let the hitter take a rip and try and drive it into the gap. Cash ended up striking out looking.

Rolen is really struggling defensively these last 2 games. He made an error in the 9th inning yesterday. Then on the 1st play of this game he made another error. The next ball hit to him was by Lowell in the 2nd and although it was scored a hit I believe it should have been scored an error. The nightmare wasn’t over as the next ball he saw came leading off the 5th off the bat of Bay and he made another error. That means the last 4 balls hit to him (regardless of scoring) he was unable to make the play and get any outs. He finally cleanly fielded a ball the next batter as Lowell hit a line drive that he caught. He also fielded the next groundball hit to him w/o any problems. Only 1 unearned run officially scored b/c of his errors but if the Lowell hit in the 2nd had been ruled an error the run the Sox scored in the inning would have been unearned. That means this game could have been 0 – 0 through 6. At the very least the errors you make extend innings and cause your pitchers to throw more pitches.

Here are the stats:
Adv+: Lowell
P-Adv+: Purcey (5)
NAdv: McDonald (3), Cash
P-NAdv: Purcey (5), Wakefield
DE: Rios (1)