From the Boston Globe’s Gordon Edes.
A season slipping away took another crushing turn last night, even before a ragtag team of Red Sox was beaten, 9-0, by the Oakland Athletics.
About 20 minutes before the first pitch, David Ortiz was scratched from a starting lineup that once again was missing Manny RamÃrez. “He isn’t feeling well,” said PR man Peter Chase, who had been briefed on Ortiz’s condition in the dugout by Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein.
But it wasn’t until after the game that manager Terry Francona revealed that Ortiz had experienced another episode involving an apparent irregular heartbeat, the one that had sent him to the hospital overnight during the recent Yankees series.
The team isn’t taking any chances, Francona said. Ortiz is flying back to Boston today to be examined by doctors.
This is the first instance of Ortiz missing playing time since these heartbeat episodes began over a week ago. If you’re thinking Carlos Pena’s gonna make the most of his latest big break, well, I admire your optimism. Jon Lester went on the DL with back trouble yesterday — but if anyone would like to remind us (again) how none of Boston’s injuries woes can possibly compare to losing Matsui and Sheffield’s Little Mustache, please, go right ahead. I reckon that had Varitek not gone down, the Yankees’ 7 game lead would be closer to 2 or 3 at this stage.
In any event, losing 17 of their last 21 and showing little fight, undermanned or not, all pennant race considerations rank a distant second compared to Papi’s condition. Particularly as there’s not likely to be much of a race remaining.
Hopefully this is nothing serious and Ortiz gets back to 100%. There should be no undue pressure on him to return before he gets a clean bill of health, as the Red Sox are only very loosely involved on the fringes of any “pennant race”. This isn’t a season to risk your health on – not that any season is.
I don’t understand how this team seems to be folding faster than an underpaid laundress. Why has their will to fight seemingly disappeared? A Yankees sweep at Fenway is disheartening, sure. But yeesh, the Yanks lost Matsui and Sheff early in the season and rebounded pretty quickly. I can’t help but think there’s something untold going on in that clubhouse these past two weeks….
I can’t speak to the attitude stuff, but with all due respect to the Yanks’ resiliance, my own layperson’s impression is that the loss of ‘Tek was bigger than huge for Boston. This is already a team with question marks galore on the pitching front beyond Schilling and Papelbon, and Varitek made a massive difference for starters and relievers alike.
Matsui and Sheff…granted, that’s a lot to lose. But the Red Sox have tried to make do with Nixon, Wakefield, Crisp and Varitek M.I.A. at one point or another, and if you throw the recent Ramirez and Ortiz abscences / scares into the mix…yeah, I think it is fair to say something is happening in the clubhouse. Or the MASH unit, whatever you want to call it.
And I’m really not looking to make excuses or do the Boston-crying-poorhouse thing. The Abreu deal has worked out pretty well for the Yankees so far…and if they make it to the post-season in the face of all those lawsuits from fans maimed by A-Rod’s errant throws, all the power to them
The Mets are going to win the World Series anyway. Everybody knows that. Maybe we should be talking about Willie Randolph’s little mustache.
As long as they can figure out a way to clone John Maine twice, the Mets have nothing to worry about
my own layperson’s impression is that the loss of ‘Tek was bigger than huge for Boston.
yeah, about 10-14 days ago the globe ran a bit that showed how since ‘tek went on the shelf the opposition was hitting .314 against boston.