That Howie Kendrick at-bat in Anaheim, Calif., wasn't exactly an anomaly. The 10-pitch standoff that included seven straight fouls behind the plate might have been an extreme example, but it has mirrored the start to Jonathan Papelbon's season. The closer isn't missing many bats, or at least as many as in the past, the fouls pushing his pitch counts and extending his outings.
Though Papelbon has maintained an exemplary ERA at 1.08, it's his WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) that's looking slightly shakier. After three straight years in which his WHIP has been below 1.00 (.776 in 2006, .771 in 2007, and .952 in 2008), it's at 1.20 this season. That's more men on base and more pitches. After three consecutive seasons in which Papelbon has thrown between 15 and 15.6 pitches per inning, he's at 20.9 this year.
"I've changed my delivery, kind of added a little bit more power to it," Papelbon said. "When you make adjustments in this game, you're going to have to take the good with the bad, and maybe right now I'm throwing a little bit more pitches than I have in the past. To me, I'm still not overworking myself because by changing my mechanics, it's able to take some of that pressure off my arm. So throwing 15 pitches the old way is the same as throwing 25 the new way."
But what might be most troubling is that batters simply aren't swinging and missing as they once did. Since 2006, the first full year Papelbon spent in the bullpen, no pitcher made batters swing and miss at a higher rate. Batters whiffed on 27.6 percent of their swings, followed by Rudy Seanez at 27 percent, and Eric Gagne at 26.2 percent.
Now? It's not so automatic. Batters have swung at 85 of Papelbon's pitches this season, and missed 18 times for a 21.2 rate. That leaves him tied with Manny Delcarmen for 29th in baseball.
"I don't think his location is where it will be," manager Terry Francona said. "I think the power behind his fastball is probably better than it was last year. I just think he's not quite locating yet. Some good hitters are making him work really hard. His ERA is good. It's not like he's walking people. He's got some deep counts because they are fighting balls off. When he locates and he gets ahead, then he elevates, then he can throw this, it will fall back into place quicker."
In addition to changing where he sets his hands (from his waist to his shoulder), Papelbon is driving more with his lower body.
"I'm using my legs more so all that torque and stuff is going to be on my legs and not on my arms," Papelbon said. "I feel really good with it right now. My outing in Oakland kind of solidified that, like OK, I'm comfortable as I can be with the new mechanics."
Papelbon's last outing came Saturday, one day after he had thrown 15 pitches Friday night. In Saturday's appearance, in a non-save situation, the closer threw 30 pitches against five Yankees. He walked Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira and had 11 balls fouled off.
"[Saturday] night, for example, Jeter's on second base, we're putting down one sign," Papelbon said. "They knew every pitch that was coming. So Jeter's relaying pitches that he sees from [Jason Varitek]. I still get through that outing even with them knowing what's coming."
"Kind of an odd [situation], pitcher for position player," Francona said. "But after sitting down and talking with Theo [Epstein] and the guys, we were like, 'Where can we really get hurt?' That's messing up our pitching, our bullpen. If something were to happen with an infielder, the worst it would be for us is maybe embarrassing. We'd end up moving Youk or doing something or not being able to pinch run, which doesn't ruin our year."
To that end, Kevin Youkilis was out during batting practice taking ground balls at shortstop from first base coach Tim Bogar. He would have had to shift to shortstop if Nick Green were injured. But he's not advocating a permanent move.
"I guess it's a just-in-case thing," Youkilis said.
