Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Mo' Trouble

The Monk will have better analysis later I am sure. The Red Sox down a run in the top [CORRECTED] of the ninth has just batted around on Mariano Rivera and scored 4 runs. A-Rod booted a double play ball (apparently) on Ramirez that would have ended the game.

The truth though is this is replay of Game 4 of the ALCS last year. Mo got himself in trouble by walking the leadoff batter, #8 Bill Mueller, lets #9 Mark Bellhorn get a single. He nearly worked himself out of the jam. Problem is he shouldn't be in this jam in the first place.

He's just been pulled with two outs and the bases loaded for Felix Rodriguez.

The sad fact is Mo's Achilles heel is he doesn't throw enough strikes, especially first pitch ones. So the Bosox and the Halos have figured out that if you take, take, foul off, at some stage Mo will either give you something you can hit or he'll walk you.

It's not rust because this has been happening over the last 2-3 years. We face the Sox another 16 times and likely in the playoffs. Mo has got to admit to himself that he has a problem and do something about it. Or else we'll also wish we kept Armando Benitez.

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