Victor Martinez has become the David Ortiz of old for this year's version of the Red Sox. He has a nack for getting the big hit when it's needed.
Off the bench as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 7th last night, Victor smokes the first pitch, a low outside tailing fastball, to the base of the wall & clears the bases with a 3-run double. Sox go on to win 7-5. Last night's win was an important victory over the Orioles to stay 2 up on the Texas Rangers in the Wild Card. Texas had beaten Cleveland 10-0 earlier in the day.
The other key to last night's win was Tito's continued use of the expanded bench. Pinch runners for Varitek & Lowell late in the game both scored. Francona is managing much differently down the stretch & I think it is working out well. You can't argue with wins in September.
A new podcast with the "brain trust" is coming up later today. We'll talk about this last stretch of 23 games.
1 comment:
Wow, was I off the mark. I spent hours last off season breaking down potential replacements for Captain Varitek. I found nothing and was somewhat skeptical of Victor when he arrived. You can hear my skepticism in my 09 August pod cast here on 3 no hitters. What a pick up by Theo Epstein and the front office
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