You may be wondering what I mean by that title and what is has to do with last nights 8-6 loss to the struggling Minnesota Twins.
Well up until an hour or two before game time, we were all under the impression that Felix Doubront would be getting the start. Then when the lineups were announced, suddenly Jake Peavy was going to be the man on the mound. When I saw it I was a bit confused. Earlier in the day I had written some notes about Doubront so that I could make a pregame post after a was done reffing. Once I was in my car I heard on the radios that Peavy was going. Until I checked it out further I wasn't sure if I had messed up or if the announcer had. Obviously, I eventually realized that nobody messed up and Farrell was just changing things up. My initial reaction was that Farrell was skipping over Doubront so Jon Lester wouldn't end up facing Max Scherzer on Friday night. Since that starter is still TBD on the Red Sox website, we will just have to wait and see.
So, while having Peavy start the game wasn't against any rules, it was a bit of gamesmanship Farrell was trying to play. If it was really meant for Tuesday's game or if it's a set up for later in the week, only he knows for sure. Either way the guy who was expected to be pitching for the Red Sox on Tuesday night was not who the Twins would end up facing.
We all now know how that worked out for the Red Sox and Jake Peavy. By only lasting 4 1/3 innings and giving up 6 runs, Peavy saw his ERA climb almost a full run (3.09 to 3.94). On the bat a David Ortiz (yeah, I called it), patient hitting and poor pitching the Red Sox erased the deficit and hooked Peavy up with a no decision. Unfortunately, they couldn't get ahead in the game and ended up losing it in the bottom of the ninth on an Chris Parmelee two-out, two-run walk-off homer.
Now back to the title of this post. Off the top of my head this is the second time Farrell has tried a little gamesmanship against an opponent this season and the third time they came up as the losing team. No, I'm not including the pinetar incident in my calculations because I don't feel he was partaking in any gamesmanship either night Pineda was pitching. The other incident I'm referring to is the double header against Tampa Bay. His claim was that it would mess up the schedule too much later in the season and deny the Red Sox the proper amount of off days. In reality, we were all thinking that he had Tampa Bay and its depleted pitching staff by the _____ and he wasn't about to let them off the hook. Well, the Red Sox lost both games in that double header and the Rays certainly had the last laugh. So, by my calculations Farrell has tried to pull a fast one on opposing teams twice this season and lost every time.
We all now know how that worked out for the Red Sox and Jake Peavy. By only lasting 4 1/3 innings and giving up 6 runs, Peavy saw his ERA climb almost a full run (3.09 to 3.94). On the bat a David Ortiz (yeah, I called it), patient hitting and poor pitching the Red Sox erased the deficit and hooked Peavy up with a no decision. Unfortunately, they couldn't get ahead in the game and ended up losing it in the bottom of the ninth on an Chris Parmelee two-out, two-run walk-off homer.
Now back to the title of this post. Off the top of my head this is the second time Farrell has tried a little gamesmanship against an opponent this season and the third time they came up as the losing team. No, I'm not including the pinetar incident in my calculations because I don't feel he was partaking in any gamesmanship either night Pineda was pitching. The other incident I'm referring to is the double header against Tampa Bay. His claim was that it would mess up the schedule too much later in the season and deny the Red Sox the proper amount of off days. In reality, we were all thinking that he had Tampa Bay and its depleted pitching staff by the _____ and he wasn't about to let them off the hook. Well, the Red Sox lost both games in that double header and the Rays certainly had the last laugh. So, by my calculations Farrell has tried to pull a fast one on opposing teams twice this season and lost every time.
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