When a team has the second best reliever in baseball sitting in the pen, why would he not pitch in a big game? Granted he blew the game yesterday (got the loss), but he is undoubtedly the Red Sox best option and should have been available after pitching only 20 pitches yesterday. It is bizarre and may be very costly. I have almost no doubt the Red Sox would have won the division title had they won tonight. Cutting the Rays lead back down to half a game would have put intense pressure on the Rays - it is very unlikely they could withstand that kind of pressure.
Yaros
no sense in overusing papelbon when BRS are very likely to make palyoffs even if they dont win the division
ReplyDeletewhy are you so convinced that the rays can't handle the pressure? everyone has expected them to fold and give up for months now, but they haven't!
ReplyDeleteI guess they dont wanna overwork him and feel secure enough in their WC lead. But it will be tough to win series in both LA and TB. I saw a stat yesterday that the Rays are 18-0 when they sell out home games. That's rediculous!
ReplyDeletethat kind of stat is meaningless to me. First of all, the odds of keeping up that record is almost zero. Also, the reason for that stat is that people only show up there when the team is hot. Thus, they win when people come - but not because of the people themselves.
ReplyDeleteYaros