Papelbon - Still Money

Aside from the minor nagging injuries, like those that have sidelined Youk and now Pedroia, the big question marks for 2009 have been Papi, Beckett, and before last night, Papelbon. Papi, we all know about. Forget about the batting average that's slowly climbed above .225. It's more a question of whether Papi can hit with power. He's had over 150 at-bats this year, and not a single home run. Last night the ESPN crew mentioned that during batting practice, he hit a few half-way up the seats in the right field bleachers. That's a long ways out, because it's 380 to the bullpen in right, so half way up the seats is an upper deck shot in many parks with a short right field porch, say the new Stadium, for example. But that was batting practice, and although Papi had a big double in the eighth, and came around to score the winning run (on Jason Bay's game winning hit), he still hasn't parked one all year long.

Second question mark is Beckett, who looked terrific in shutting down the Rays in the season's opener, but since then has looked ordinary at best. He tossed a decent game last night, allowing only three earned runs over six innings, which turned out good enough because the bullpen followed with three shutout innings. (Really, it's been the pen and not the starters for pretty much all of 2009.) But since opening day, Beckett's ERA has been sky high, even worse than in 2006, when he was having trouble adjusting to the AL. And I still believe that Beckett is the key, if the Sox make it to the post-season. So unless he rounds into 2007 form, I don't care how the regular season goes. No one is going deep into October without an ace, without someone to play the role of stopper. Beckett was that guy in 2007, and especially with Schilling having retired, there's no one else on the staff who has shown he can do that job.

The other question mark had been, at least in my mind, Papelbon. I know that Pap had converted all of his save chances this year, but still, he hadn't looked dominant. He's been giving up more hits; he's held on for a couple saves despite having been hit hard; and I just don't recall any of those one-two-three innings, where he threw only eight pitches; where he would strike guys out on three pitches; where no one could make decent contact; or where the ball didn't leave the infield.

But then last night, Tito brought in Pap to pitch the ninth, even though Ramirez had looked solid facing a single batter in the eighth. I figured: Why not hold Pap in reserve? Why not use him only if Ramirez allows a base runner. I was still wondering about that as Pap walked the first batter, and then gave up a single, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Fly ball -- tie game. Double play ball - still a tie game. And Carlos Pena now coming to the plate as a pinch hitter. So after putting his back against the wall, and putting the tying run ninety feet from home, all Pap did was strike out Pena, Upton and Crawford, in order. Game over. Better than the win was the reassurance that Pap was back. That he could be every bit as overpowering and dominant as he had been in 2007, when he did not allow a single run in the post-season. When the game is close he's still money. He's not so money that he doesn't know he's money. On the contrary, I think Pap well knows that he's money. But who cares? What difference does that make, if he really is money? You understand what I'm I'm saying here?