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September 18, 2007

Papelbon Not Into It When Facing New York

From the San Francisco Chronicle -

It's no surprise that Japanese reliever Hideki Okajima has hit the wall; that's to be expected for any workhorse pitcher in his first big-league season. And it's hardly a shock that Eric Gagne always seems to be a pitch or two away from the disabled list. Papelbon is Boston's bullpen stud, and the Yankees believe they own him right now. Back in June, Alex Rodriguez's dramatic home run beat Papelbon at Fenway. Friday night, in a move of inexplicable desperation by manager Terry Francona (the Sox had a 51/2-game lead), Papelbon was asked to get six outs - and couldn't get out of the eighth, having been tagged by Derek Jeter's RBI single, Bobby Abreu's two-run double and A-Rod's game-clinching single.

Those things can happen. The troublesome part came later, when Papelbon dodged reporters after the game (for closers, an unacceptable act), then admitting Saturday that he "wasn't in the game as well as I have been. Mentally, I wasn't completely there." For a kid this talented, maybe it's merely a glitch. The Yanks - and any American League team taking notice - would like to believe otherwise.

Mentally, I wasn't completely there...

Where was he? Inside Manny's hair-net? How could Paps, The Mad Louisianan, not be into a game, in a spot like that? The Yankees not enough to juice him?

Sounds like an excuse to me.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at September 18, 2007 11:44 AM

Comments

Mentally, Pap's usually never there... (or anywhere else for that matter).

Posted by: sunny615 [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 18, 2007 01:35 PM

Seems that article is giving Okajima a bit of a pass. The guy's given up nine runs to the Yankees and eight to the rest of baseball. Maybe he's mentally into it, but he clearly has issues of some kind against New York. And I hope those issues continue, of course.
Papelbon's always seemed to be a reluctant closer, so that may be a problem. On the other hand (and I don't want to defend him too much), maybe his closer career will last longer if he's not some crazy man who loses his mind every time he blows a save.

Posted by: jdasilva [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 18, 2007 01:52 PM

Gomer Pap has to realize that it cuts both ways. The reason the Botox have had more success against Mo than the rest of the league is that they've seen him over and over and over. Same goes for Gomer vs the Yankees, only Boston has had Mo in front of them 5-8 times a year, every year for the past 10 seasons. Some of the Blood Sox had 20-40 career AB's against Mo. Manny has faced him 37 times, every one in the clutch. Varitek 30 times. Pap's got good stuff, took the Yankees a couple of rounds to get a read on him; now he's better than average, but not nearly great. Gomer was making an excuse for failure, something I don't recall Mo ever doing.

Posted by: #15 [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 18, 2007 05:22 PM