Setup seems to be working
The new setup man and the new closer had done their 8-9 thing once before, two days earlier in Baltimore. The results were impressive -- seven batters, six outs, two strikeouts, no runs, and one potentially devastating combination to finish games for the Red Sox.
In yesterday's 5-3 win over Toronto in the home opener, the Fenway fans saw Keith Foulke in his new role as setup man and Jonathan Papelbon in his new role as closer reprise their performances, with mixed results.
To be fair, Foulke deserved better, but history will show he gave up a two-run homer in the eighth to Frank Catalanotto, a long fly to right field that Wily Mo Peña should have caught. The fact that the ball popped out of Peña's glove and into the visitors bullpen -- and was still counted as a hit -- made Foulke's line look a lot worse than it should have.
''If I make my pitch, it doesn't happen," said Foulke, who also yielded a single, but finished the eighth by getting two fly balls to Peña that were eminently more catchable. ''But we won the game. I gave up a long fly ball, and that doesn't make me happy. But I'm over it now. It's in the past. And we won the game, which is all that really matters."
Foulke's ERA took a leap, from 3.00 to 6.75. Peña easily could have been charged with a four-base error. Official scorer Chaz Scoggins of the Lowell Sun ruled it a home run, however, because Peña crashed into the wall after seemingly catching the ball.
(Two seasons ago, Johnny Damon ran down a Tino Martinez fly, snared it, banged into the wall, and dropped it. Scoggins ruled it a hit. Damon asked Scoggins the next day to change the play to an error, which Scoggins did, reluctantly. The league then overruled him and gave Martinez the hit.)
It sure looks like Foulke, brought here two years ago to be the closer (and paid accordingly) has moved up an inning to ready the opponent for the fireballing Papelbon. After a shaky performance in the season opener (one run, two hits in the ninth), Foulke pitched an uneventful ninth inning April 7 in a 14-8 win over the Orioles. Two days later, he donned his setup gear for the first time this season and mowed down the Orioles in the eighth, facing three batters, fanning two.
Moving Foulke to the setup position surely will benefit the heavily utilized Mike Timlin, who last year led AL pitchers with 81 appearances, also a Red Sox record. And Foulke seems to have come to grips with the situation, according to manager Terry Francona.
Before yesterday's game, Francona was asked how delicate it might be to move a closer to setup.
''You get a guy who's accomplished what Foulke has accomplished and become a so-called closer. He's willing to pitch whenever we ask him to pitch," Francona said. ''So often in this game, you can't get people to understand that. It gives us an advantage. He's a good kid. I've known Foulkie for a long time [the two were together in Oakland], so communicating with him wasn't hard."
Foulke, who threw 20 pitches yesterday, 13 of them strikes, said simply, ''It's my job. I do what I'm told. Pitching is pitching."
He might have stayed out for the ninth had the Red Sox done anything in the bottom of the eighth. But once Alex Gonzalez grounded out to end the inning, and it was still a two-run game, the bullpen door opened for the imposing Papelbon, who has been automatic to date. The kid came out to the strains of Bruce Springsteen's ''Glory Days," but said he might change the music. (He did admit to coming out to some ''1970s porn music" while at Mississippi State. He said he wasn't kidding.)
Papelbon needed only 10 pitches to dismiss Toronto for the afternoon. He caught Lyle Overbay looking, got Shea Hillenbrand to fly to left, and Bengie Molina to fly to Peña, who had three of his four putouts after muffing Catalanotto's fly.
Papelbon said he stuck with his main stuff -- fastball, slider, splitter -- to notch his fourth save in as many chances. He has saved four of the last five games and, in five innings pitched, has allowed only one hit. Opponents are batting a lusty .063 against him (1 for 16.)
''I go out there and lay my heart on the line," Papelbon said. ''You see a guy like Josh [Beckett] go out there and battle his heart out. He gave it all that he's got. You want to do the same for him." 