Weekend Buzz: Injuries now have Red Sox in survival mode
LOS ANGELES -- The Weekend Buzz while the Blue Jays were fleeing Toronto because of G-20 security concerns (while having no Cole Hamels concerns). ...
1. Red Sox do not ♥ San Francisco: Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. The Red Sox left their sparkplug second baseman Dustin Pedroia, starting pitcher Clay Buchholz, catcher Victor Martinez. ...
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| Manager Terry Francona will use a platoon at second base in the absence of Pedroia. (AP) |
It is the kind of injury that could be a game-changer in the AL East as the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays and even the Jays navigate a schedule filled with booby traps and trap doors. The Red Sox, already clobbered by injuries this season, nevertheless had gained 6½ games in the division since May 23, pulling to within two games of the first-place Yankees on Saturday.
Now, without the 5-foot-9 2008 AL MVP, life only gets meaner.
Word of Pedroia's fracture trickled down Interstate 5 slowly to a Yankees club that has its own issues (A.J. Burnett's slump, Phil Hughes' workload, pitching coach Dave Eiland's impending return Tuesday from a leave of absence for personal reasons).
And it nearly made Yankees catcher Jorge Posada wince all over again.
"I was hoping it wasn't that bad," said Posada, who suffered a similar injury on May 16. "But it was."
First thing all of the Yankees thought of when they heard about Pedroia was Posada. He took a Michael Cuddyer foul ball off of his foot, the fracture didn't show up on X-rays until a couple of days later and he was supposed to have been sidelined three or four weeks.
Posada was able to return in about two-and-a-half weeks, but only as a designated hitter. It took a month before he was back behind the dish, and that was only once every couple of days. It hasn't been until the past week that manager Joe Girardi has been catching Posada two out of every three days.
 Boston Red Sox |
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Recap: Red Sox 4, Giants 1 |
As Derek Jeter said in the aftermath of Posada's injury, "We can't feel sorry for ourselves. Teams playing us don't feel sorry for us."
As Posada said Sunday, "It's just a long season. You get people hurt, people have to step up for you when you're out. That's what keeps teams in the race."
Boston already has done a wonderful job with that, especially in the outfield, where Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron and, to a lesser extent, J.D. Drew all have missed significant time. Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava have been lifesavers.
Saturday's game in San Francisco wasn't even midway through before the Red Sox announced they had acquired Eric Patterson -- younger brother of outfielder Corey Patterson from Oakland to help piece together Pedroia's spot at second. Patterson had been playing the position at Triple-A Sacramento and had played it a bit in the majors. But he's only a .224 career hitter over parts of four seasons with the Cubs and A's.
Between Patterson, veteran chameleon Bill Hall and the recently recalled Angel Sanchez, Francona will mix-and-match as best he can while Pedroia heals.
"They've managed to stay together and play extremely well so far," Girardi said. "Both of our teams have been nicked up. They've been nicked up in the outfield, and we've had our nicks.
"They're still extremely talented. They're going to miss him. I'm sure it's driving him crazy, not playing and being in a boot. They've weathered the storm so far."
This weekend they also appear to have weathered a couple of other potential disasters. Buchholz hurt his knee running the bases, but it appears to be a minor injury that may just push his next start back a couple of days. And Martinez suffered a broken left thumb on a couple of foul tips Sunday, though he swears he can play through it.
We'll see. The degree of difficulty in an already rugged division just increased exponentially for the Red Sox.
"Yeah, I'm upset," Pedroia told reporters in San Francisco. "This is pretty tough. But I'll try to get back in there and heal as fast as possible."
As he does, most everybody else in the AL East is fresh out of sympathy. The Yankees themselves lost Curtis Granderson for 23 games to a groin strain earlier this year, Alex Rodriguez sat five games last week with a groin strain and Nick Johnson (wrist) probably is out for the season.
Meantime, down in Tampa, center fielder B.J. Upton had to be restrained in the dugout from going after teammate Evan Longoria during Sunday's game against Arizona. And Carl Crawford's shoulder is barking and reliever J.P. Howell (shoulder) is out for the season.
See? Everybody's got their issues.
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Danny KnoblerRight now, though, surviving the next month -- or longer -- is the key to the Red Sox's entire summer.
"He's huge," Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said of Pedroia. "That guy does it all. Offensively. Defensively. Running the bases.
"I have a lot of respect for him."
2. Edwin Jackson's 149-pitch no-hitter: Seriously, the Diamondbacks immediately should pay him a very large bonus. No, not overtime for the 149 pitches. For deflecting attention from their world-class-crappy bullpen.
3. Joe Torre meets the Yankees: And the Yankees take two of three, ripping Torre's heart out Sunday evening in the process. The Steinbrenners are vindicated!
4. Who wants to manage the Marlins? Either the Marlins figure this thing out with Bobby Valentine ... or they pick someone else and remain anonymous for another decade.
5. Cubs lose another in The Cell: Last year manager Lou Piniella sent Milton Bradley home in the middle of a game in White Sox Park. Friday he had to send Carlos Zambrano out when Zambrano went loco -- even by Zambrano's own standards -- and tried to fight Derrek Lee in the dugout. Luckily, as poorly as Lee is swinging, it never developed and now ol' Carlos is suspended as the Cubs await direction from the Commissioner's Office regarding just how long they can keep him on ice. Lawyers are attempting to ascertain exact definition of "Til Hell Freezes Over."
6. Joey On-Base: No small part of why Cincinnati continues as a real threat to win the NL Central is because nobody can keep Joey Votto from reaching base. With a walk Sunday, Votto now has reached base safely in each of his past 35 games, longest on-base streak in the majors this season. And the longest by a Reds' batter since Pete Rose reached safely in 48 consecutive games in 1978.
7. Best thing in San Diego is not the fish tacos: This month, it's the bullpen. In no small part because of Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams, closer Heath Bell, Joe Thatcher and Co., the Padres are threatening to run away with the NL West in one of the summer's most captivating stories. Heading into Sunday's finale in Florida -- the Padres swept the Marlins to move four games up in the division -- there was this:
In 71 1/3 innings during the month of June, Padre relievers have produced a 1.77 ERA and an average of 10.85 strikeouts per nine innings. No bullpen in major-league history throwing at least 50 innings in a calendar month, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, has finished that month with an ERA of below 2.00 and a rate of more than 10-or-more K's per nine innings.
8. Another umpire hoses Tigers: This time it was Gary Cederstrom who admitted he blew it when he called strike three on Johnny Damon in the ninth in Atlanta to kill a Tigers rally and end Saturday's game. So he joins Jim Joyce, who tearfully admitted to costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Don't know what to make of this, but I hear the umpiring crew for this week's series with Minnesota consists of the fellas responsible for kidnapping Jimmy Hoffa.
9. Too bad Minnesota was at CitiField: Because how cool would it have been if Milwaukee would have played the Mets on Saturday? Then, as our MLB blogger Dave Andriesen noted, when Britain's Prince Harry tossed the ceremonial first pitch, Prince Fielder could have received it.
10. White Sox' winning streak halted at 11: Isn't it time for owner Jerry Reinsdorf to scold GM Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen again?
