Drive me Crazy

SPORTING GOODS

You can't win 'em all, and I have been happy/impressed with Tito's moves of batting Youkilis leadoff with Crisp injured, and of going to Papelbon as the closer quickly, before Foulke had the chance to blow several saves.

But my biggest ongoing gripe with Francona has to be his habit of deciding to bench a number of starters when Wakefield is pitching. For those that don't follow the Sox, All-Star catcher Jason Varitek does not catch the knuckleballer, so this year a relative unknown Josh Bard will be in the lineup every fifth day.

That's fine, and unavoidable. With Trot Nixon ailing and Coco Crisp on the DL, that leaves the Sox down three of their usual starters. So why is it today of all days that Francona insists that starters Mike Lowell and Mike Loretta need a day off? That left the Sox with 4 of their opening day starters in the lineup, including Alex Gonzalez who isn't much of a hitter (to say the least).

Not surprisingly, about 2.5 hours after I first complained about Francona's insistence on doing this - well, that was the first time I had complained about it today - the Mariners completed their shut out of the Boston Red Sox in front of a sell-out Saturday crowd. Even as the Sox put together an occasional rally, it would never be long before the Mariners had the pleasure of facing some part of the J.T. Snow - Wily Mo Pena - Josh Bard - Alex Gonzalez - Adam Stern - Alex Cora portion of the lineup.

A pitcher can breeze through a lot of innings with that lineup. And today, that's exactly what Joel Pineiro, J.J. Putz, and Eddie Guardado did.