John Farrell is a lot better than Bobby Valentine at managing the clubhouse, but when it comes to in-game management, especially with the bullpen, he is sorely lacking. It doesn't help that the halfway decent options in the bullpen are severely limited, but how do you justify relieving a pitcher with no control in Morales with a pitcher with even WORSE control in Villareal? And WHOSE brilliant idea was it to call this guy up to the majors in the first place?
Had the offense did its job in knocking around a guy with an ERA approaching 7, they probably wouldn't have been in a situation to have non-strike-thrower Morales in a one-run game. Had they scored more than one measly run in the first inning, Peavy wouldn't have had to throw so many "stress pitches" as Eck was calling them and could have gone longer than a mere 5.2 innings. Having a rookie making his major-league debut, a guy coming back from 3 months on the DL, and the pitcher batting 7-8-9 in a Papi-less lineup is not the best way to take pressure off of said rookie. The poor guy had this only 3 at-bats coming with two outs, being relied upon to make something happen. That's just unfair. Had either Salty or Papi been in that lineup, it might have alleviated some of the pressure. Having both Salty and Papi in the lineup would likely have put Bogaerts in a better position to stick to the plate approach that has worked for him all through the minors and moved him down a spot in the lineup.
This loss brings the Red Sox even with the Rays in the AL East and with the Yankees on a roll thanks to Dempster gift-wrapping them some momentum (that alone should merit a suspension!), the Red Sox are headed in the wrong direction. Would it kill them to have a manager who can manage a bullpen?
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