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Tito, Tito, Tito: Red Sox Francona needs to get tough in playoffs
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I like Red Sox manager Terry Francona, I really do. If I had a kid that played major league baseball I would want him to play for Francona. He seems like a benevolent dictator who actually cares for the ball players that lay it on the line for him and the team. Having two World Series Championships will never hurt your popularity either.
Francona has done a remarkable job over the years in containing and focusing some divergent personalities in the clubhouse such as Damon, Millar, Schilling, Pedro and Manny. He has succeeded by playing it straight with his charges and they/we have been rewarded for it. He stood by them and they responded in kind.
Because of the way he’s handled personnel, he has been characterized as a “player’s manager.” In the old days “players manager” was shorthand for someone who let the players walk all over him and it was only a matter of time before management stepped in to can him for letting the inmates run the asylum. Make no mistake; Francona is on the same page as upper management for the Red Sox.
As for his on-field decisions, that is entirely another story. Being the manager opens one up to near constant second-guessing. Normally I don’t get too agitated when Tito gaffes one. I chalk it up to dealing with human flesh, highly skilled and highly compensated, but human nonetheless. No one gets it right all the time. Also during the regular season, there is always tomorrow, next week, and next month to dilute the effect of mistakes.
But...there is not any margin for error in the playoffs. This is the big, bright light that magnifies everything good and bad. This is where Francona’s insistence on stubbornly being a “player’s manager” is causing problems.
First he had to trot out Mike Lowell against the Angels. He just wasn’t able to play. Hell, he couldn’t walk and he couldn’t hit and he couldn’t field his position.
Next he refuses to have Jason Varitek bunt (yeah, I know he did it once in the regular season). Against the Angels, late in the extra-inning game, the leadoff runner got on and Tito had Varitek swing away into an out. Three up, three down. I don’t know if Varitek is toast at the plate permanently but he shows no signs of getting it together this year. Make him bunt!
And then, the coup de grace. In Francona’s apparent infatuation with Justin Masterson, he brings him in to start the eighth inning with the Sox leading 2-0. I was beside myself. Hey, Francona has done a nice job bringing Masterson along this year and he has big upside. But the kid is a rookie with less than a year’s experience. If Lester couldn’t go another inning then give me Delcarmen who has much more major league and postseason experience. What happens? Masterson coughs up the two-run lead.
When Masterson came out to start the ninth I practically spit up some perfectly good micro-brew through my nose. Did Grady Little somehow take over Terry Francona’s mind?
Luckily Mike Scioscia bailed Francona out by making an even bigger bonehead play with his failed suicide bunt.. Why would you do that in a tie game on the road? Francona should also thank Reggie Willits for another bonehead play, that being his failed attempt at Jason Bay’s fly ball in the bottom of the ninth. He should have just contained it to a single. Instead he plays it into a ground-rule double and puts Bay in scoring position from where he scored the winning run.
Terry, enough with the love. This is the playoffs. Time to get cold hearted.
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