Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine made one of the dumbest decisions I've seen all season Tuesday night.
Here's the situation: The White Sox are leading 3-2 in the top of the fourth inning. They have runners at second and third with two outs. Kevin Youkilis is hitting against Boston left-hander Jon Lester. Adam Dunn is on deck.
Youkilis, a right-handed hitter, has an OPS of .923 against left-handed pitchers and has been among the most productive hitters in the Chicago lineup recently. Further, he's motivated to stick it to Valentine, who didn't have much nice to say about him when he was with Boston.
Dunn, meanwhile, is batting .165 against left-handed pitchers with 60 strikeouts in 109 ABs coming into Tuesday's action.
I'm thinking, base open, no way they pitch to Youkilis. No way. Lester pitches cautiously to Youkilis and the count runs to 3-0. "They are just going to put him on, right?" Then, Lester starts coming after Youkilis. Finally, on a 3-2 pitch, Youkilis homers over the Green Monster in left field. 6-2 White Sox, and they go on to win 7-5.
After the Youkilis home run, Dunn does what he normally does against left-handers -- he strikes out to end the inning.
It is unfathomable that Valentine allowed Lester to pitch to Youkilis. In the TV booth, Sox color analyst Steve Stone mockingly says, "Good decision, Bobby."
From the Chicago perspective, it was indeed.
Wonder if they miss Terry Francona?
yeah,,uh...you may want to give up writing about baseball, Jason...as far as stupid goes, the Sox and Valentine stupidly found a way to smash YOUR genius Sox 3 out of 4 games...maybe THAT is why ,11 outs into a game a manager calls for an OUTSIDE pitch on 3-2 and is backstabbed by John Lester who grooves a meatball to his buddy Youker...get a clue....Lester has been ostracized from the rest of the team, except for his buddy Pedroia...because they have been deliberately tanking it to show up Valentine...here's hoping YOUR genius Sox trade for all of them
Boston sweeps if Valentine had any clue what he was doing.
People deliberately tanking games to show up the manager? This ain't the California Penal League, Vaughn.
No one really cares about the Red Sox clubhouse drama. I'm sure they won't be catching the Yankees this season.
Bobby Valentine is really horrible at managing. Really horrible:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/bobby-valentine-red-sox-mutiny-text-dustin-pedroia-larry-lucchino-john-henry-adrian-gonzalez-.html
Is it wrong of me to enjoy seeing this happen to the Red Sox? ;)
ESPN is probably paying no attention to the tight pennant race in the American League. The clubhouse drama in Boston is far more interesting to them.