Van Every pitches in - as a reliever
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Quietly, so as not to raise the white flag too early, the coaching staff consulted with Jonathan Van Every in the dugout. The game was spiraling out of control and, with a bullpen already fifth in the majors in innings, the Red Sox were getting into dangerous territory.
Van Every had last pitched as a starter in high school in Mississippi, but had never imagined he would take the mound in a major league game. Nor did Javier Lopez think he would finish the game in right field.
"When it got to 6-0, 7-0, 'Have you ever thrown a ball off a mound?' " Van Every said he was asked. "Any way I can contribute. Unfortunately, you never want your team in that situation, but try to figure out a way to end the madness."
He wasn't throwing heat, his 75-mile-per-hour fastball not fooling the Rays. But he said, "I figured, just throw the ball over the plate and let the law of percentages play out." He became the first position player to pitch for the Sox since Dave McCarty Oct. 3, 2004, at Baltimore. Lopez became the first pitcher to take the field for the Sox since lefthander Tom Burgmeier played left field for one out Aug. 3, 1980.
Van Every got shortstop Jason Bartlett to fly to third base in foul territory, then gave up a double to right-center to Michel Hernandez. "I see Javy running after the ball, I said, 'Oh jeez.' Luckily nobody got hurt," said Van Every.
In 24 hours, Van Every went from hitting the winning home run in Cleveland to becoming the 13th man on the Sox' pitching staff. He said he'll tell his kids about it one day, taking satisfaction because he might have broken a Ray's bat. "I didn't show them all my stuff," Van Every said. "I've got a few more pitches in the back pocket."
"I don't like doing it," manager Terry Francona said. "I'm not going to let a pitcher get hurt. Javy had thrown three days in a row. Once he gave up the hit [his fourth in the ninth inning, a two-run double to Akinori Iwamura], I was like, 'You know what? OK, this is enough.' It wasn't to embarrass anybody. It certainly wasn't to embarrass Javy. Just not going to hurt somebody like that. This way we were already getting killed. It was a bad night."
Francona also ensured that he would have four rested relievers today in Ramon Ramirez, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and Jonathan Papelbon.
The Orioles, meanwhile, led the big leagues with 80 2/3 bullpen innings, and were 25th in bullpen ERA (5.80). Ultimately, those innings will catch up with a bullpen.
"We have logged some innings, I agree," Francona said. "I mean, [Wednesday], as fun of a game as that probably should have been [a 6-5 Sox win over the Indians in 10 innings], I wasn't enjoying it as much because I could see that game being tied and thinking, 'Uh-oh.' "
The Sox have almost always carried 12 pitchers since Francona has been in Boston, and the manager can't imagine doing anything else. As he said, "I know I look up there and see seven in the bullpen and wish we had more. Just never seems like it's enough. That goes in cycles. But that's the hard part, you've got to ride the wave and not screw your bullpen up.
"Obviously you want to win, but the biggest worry is not chasing your tail, doing something that never lets you catch up. So we try not to."
During spring training, general manager Theo Epstein announced that the team and Urbon had shared "substantive" talks about an extension, but that those talks had been suspended because the sides could not agree on the market for outfielders.
"There were no expectations, really," Urbon said. "It was more, if we need to respond to something, we will. If it does [come up], we'll be ready for it. Until then, just taking it day by day."
"There was no red flags or he's decelerating or anything like this," Francona said. "The ball was still coming out pretty well."
Smoltz will rejoin the team tomorrow from Fort Myers, where he has been in extended spring training.
