Struggling Nava to Pawtucket

Daniel Nava

RED SOX : BASEBALL 2014
April 23,2014.














c/o Ian Browne
      MLB.com

BOSTON -- Daniel Nava's slow start has resulted in a trip back to the Minor Leagues.

With Shane Victorino likely to be activated from the disabled list on Thursday and Boston's bullpen in need of an extra pitcher for Wednesday's game against the Yankees, Nava's roster spot was the one that will be utilized.

Right-hander Alex Wilson, who spent time with the Red Sox last year before suffering arm problems, was recalled from Pawtucket.

The Red Sox will likely send Wilson back to the Minors on Thursday to open a spot for Victorino, who has been sidelined with a right hamstring strain.

With Nava out of the mix, Boston's starting outfield against right-handed pitchers will likely haveGrady Sizemore in left, Jackie Bradley Jr. in center nad Victorino in right.

Jonny Gomes will continue to play against left-handers while Mike Carp will make some spot starts against righties.

This was a downturn for Nava after being one of the feel-good stories of last season, when he hit .303 with 12 homers, 66 RBIs and an .831 OPS in a career-high 134 games. In his first 67 at-bats of 2014, Nava was hitting .149 with no homers, two RBIs, a .240 on-base percentage and 17 strikeouts.

Nava had some memorable hits in Boston's World Series championship season, including game-winning homers in both the home opener and the first game back at Fenway Park after the Boston Marathon bombings. He also belted a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth on Aug. 1 to cap a comeback against the Mariners in a game in which Boston trailed 7-1.

An independent-league player the Red Sox purchased for $1 from the Chico Outlaws prior to the 2008 season, few had even heard of Nava when he made his first trip to the Major Leagues on June 10, 2010.

In an almost surreal story, Nava hit the first pitch he saw in his debut that day at Fenway over the wall in right for a grand slam against the Phillies' Joe Blanton.

However, Nava fell out of favor after a difficult season in the Minors in 2011 and was taken off Boston's 40-man roster by the start of Spring Training 2012.

But after Boston sustained a barrage of injuries in the outfield, Nava resurfaced, hitting .243 with a .352 on-base percentage in 88 games that season.

Far too early to declare losing Jacoby Ellsbury this team's problem

Losing Jacoby ~ Is this the Red Sox problem ?

RED SOX : BASEBALL 2014
April 23,2014.










c/o Ben Shapiro
      The Republican

Let's be real here. If the Boston Red Sox had Jacoby Ellsbury on their 2014 squad, they'd be a better baseball team right now. That's never really been up for debate.

Losing Ellsbury to the hated New York Yankees this past December wasn't about improving the 2014 Red Sox. It was about insuring that the Red Sox teams taking the field towards the end of this decade weren't doing so with an aging, past-his-prime outfielder earning over $20 million a year glued to their roster.

Had Ellsbury been looking for a four-year, or maybe even a five-year contract, then he very well could have been starting for the Red Sox Tuesday night, as opposed to the New York Yankees.

That's not what Ellsbury wanted though. He wanted a longer deal, and that's what the New York Yankees offered, so that's where he's going to be playing through the end of this decade.

Adding Ellsbury to the Yankees has made them a better team. That shouldn't surprise anyone. Removing him from the Red Sox roster has made them a less potent offensive team. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The odds are fairly high that everyone from Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington to manager John Farrell expected losing Ellsbury to hurt the 2014 squad.

Has Ellsbury been good? He sure has been. He's hitting .338, and he has stolen eight bases. The entire Red Sox team has eight stolen bases. The Red Sox's team on-base percentage is .325. Ellsbury is getting on-base at a .395 clip.

The Red Sox are 9-11 and in last place in the AL East. The Yankees are 11-8 and occupy first place in the division. Would things be different today if Ellsbury was in a Red Sox uniform? They probably would be. The Red Sox would be better, and the Yankees would most likely be a worse team.

Ellsbury hasn't been the only player on the Yankees to bat leadoff. But if he had stayed in Boston, then he'd have been the 2014 Red Sox everyday leadoff batter.

How have the 2014 Red Sox replacements fared? Not well. Twenty games into the 2014 season, the Red Sox have used six different players in the leadoff role. They're hitting a combined .190 with two stolen bases and an on-base percentage of .281.

Clearly, losing Ellsbury has had a negative impact on the Red Sox.

The numbers do look bad, but the reality is that it is April 22. The 2014 season is three weeks old.

The 2014 Yankees, bolstered by Ellsbury's production have managed to score one less run than the 2014 Red Sox.

Yea, that's right. The Red Sox, despite of a .238 team batting average, have scored one more run than the Yankees, who sport a team batting average of .265. The two teams are separated by less than three games in the standings and less than two runs in total offensive production. Are the Yankees a better offensive team than the Red Sox? Right now they are, but not by all that much, and it isn't even May yet.

Plus, the man who was targeted to be Ellsbury's top-of-the-batting-order-replacement, Shane Victorino has yet to play in a regular season game.

Would a healthy Victorino be as good as a healthy Ellsbury? Probably not, but he'd probably be a lot better than the cast of on-the-fly leadoff men who the Red Sox have trotted out since opening day 2014.

Losing a player such as Ellsbury can't be looked at in the vacuum of one or even two seasons. That seven-year deal will encompass a total of approximately 364 weeks in pinstripes. After three weeks, it looks as if the Red Sox miss Ellsbury. No one who had a role in deciding whether or not to make Ellsbury an offer that might have convinced him to stay in Boston could have been all that interested in assessing the wisdom of that choice in late April of 2014.

Shane Victorino's return to Red Sox likely delayed due to overworked bullpen, Daniel Nava down?

John Farrell

RED SOX : BASEBALL 2014
April 23,2014.










c/o Jason Mastrodonato
      The Republican

BOSTON -- Shane Victorino was supposed to get activated from the 15-day disabled list on Wednesday, but after Tuesday's 9-3 loss to the New York Yankees, plans have changed.

The Red Sox are considering calling up a pitcher to add to the bullpen, manager John Farrell said after Tuesday's game.

"We've got to take a look," Farrell said. "We may have a pitching move because of how deep we've had to go in the bullpen the last couple of days, so Shane is not a given for tomorrow."

The likely counter move to the roster would be to either send slumping outfielder Daniel Nava to Triple-A Pawtucket (he has a minor league option) or put him on the 15-day disabled list. He emerged from Farrell's office after a closed-door meeting after Tuesday's game with his back wrapped up, presumably for treatment.

Nava could be exchanged for a pitcher for one day, with Victorino's possible return on Thursday.

Boston's bullpen was needed for 6 2/3 innings on Monday and 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday due to a pair of forgettable starts from Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, respectively.

"This turn though the rotation, it's been less than we've shown in the past," Farrell said. "It's been less than expected. And for us to play with consistency, we need our starting rotation to lead us through that. Right now, we're not getting that."

Pitches by Red Sox relievers over the last two days:

Burke Badenhop: 40
Chris Capuano: 30
Craig Breslow: 23
Edward Mujica: 16
Junichi Tazawa: 13
Andrew Miller: 9

Badenhop would likely be unavailable for an extended outing two days after his 40-pitch outing on Monday, while Capuano would need at least one day off after throwing 30 pitches Tuesday. That leaves the Red Sox without a long-relief option should John Lackey turn in a short start in Wednesday's game.

Brandon Workman started with Pawtucket on Monday, so he wouldn't be available yet. Allen Webster or Alex Wilson make the most sense.

Lester unable to cool off Ellsbury, Yankees ~ Papi, Napoli go deep, but offense does little else against Tanaka

Ortiz & Napoli's ' Back to Back' not enough

RED SOX : GAME REPORT
April 22,2014.











Yankees     9   15    0  
Red Sox     3     9    0  

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
NYY	2	0	2	0	4	0	0	1	0	9	15	0
BOS	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	3	9	2

c/o Ian Browne
      MLB.com

BOSTON -- It was a night that came with great anticipation, considering it was the return to Fenway Park for Jacoby Ellsbury and the rivalry debut of Masahiro Tanaka.

Even with such electric subplots, the Red Sox continued their tough start to the season by not looking particularly strong in any phase of the game in a 9-3 thumping at the hands of the Yankees on Tuesday.

The defending World Series champions again looked disjointed while slipping to 9-12.

"I don't know if concerned is the right word," said ace Jon Lester, who took the loss. "I know everybody in here is busting their butt to do their best to get on a good run and put a full game together, whether it be pitching or defense or offense, whatever it may be. I hate saying it, but we've got a long ways to go and we're going to figure it out on both sides of the baseball and we'll be there -- we'll be fine."

Of late, the problem has been early deficits.

"For us to play with consistency, we need our starting rotation to lead us through that," said manager John Farrell. "Right now, we're not getting that."

The one constant Boston had until Tuesday was consistently strong outings from Lester.

But even that went away in this one, as Lester labored, giving up 11 hits and eight runs (only three of them earned) over 4 2/3 innings. The lefty threw a season-high 118 pitches.

Meanwhile, Ellsbury and Tanaka shared the spotlight well in leading the Yankees to their fourth win in five games against the Red Sox this season.

Ellsbury had a double, triple and two RBIs while making a nice sliding catch in left-center.

"He makes a big catch as well, and had a big hit to get the score to 7-2 after they had climbed a little bit closer to get it to 4-2," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "I thought he played extremely well."

Aside from back-to-back homers to David Ortiz and Mike Napoli, Tanaka fared well. The righty gave the Yankees 7 1/3 innings of two-run baseball, walking none and striking out seven.

"He has good stuff," said Napoli. "He uses four pitches at any time. He commands the strike zone. He's no different than a lot of pitchers in this league, but he definitely has good stuff. We couldn't really get anything going."

After getting a round of boos as he was introduced for his first at-bat at Fenway as a visitor, Ellsbury clocked the third pitch of the game high off the wall in center. A fan reached over and touched it, and it was ruled a triple.

"I just don't understand why he ended up on third with fan interference. Maybe I'll get the full explanation of it sometime, but no, that's part of the game," said Lester. "Sometimes you get fans running on the field, sometimes you get distractions, but you've got to bear down there and make a better pitch to [Derek] Jeter."

Jeter swiftly singled Ellsbury home, and the Yankees were out in front.

With Carlos Beltran at the plate, Jeter moved to second a passed ball and advanced to third on a throwing error by A.J. Pierzynski.

"I just tried to hurry and just made a bad throw," said Pierzynski. "It was a good read by Jeter. I was trying to make a play and I just short-hopped [Dustin Pedroia] and it went into center field."

Beltran then came through with an RBI single and the Red Sox faced a 2-0 deficit before taking their first swing.

Tanaka worked around a double by Pedroia and struck out Ortiz and Napoli.

There was big-time trouble for Lester in the third when the Yankees opened the inning with doubles by Alfonso Soriano, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann, increasing their lead to 4-0.

Ortiz provided some life for the Red Sox in the bottom of the fourth when he unloaded for a prodigious shot into the center-field bleachers that probably traveled at least 430 feet. Napoli made it back-to-back homers, lacing one into the Monster Seats against Tanaka to make it 4-2.

"A couple of fastballs on the plate, we squared them up," said Farrell. "Many good pitchers, as you see, if you don't get them early, they're going to get a rhythm going. He was able to do that tonight. He threw, I thought, a high number of split fingers, which is a very good pitch for him, tough pitch to lift. More than anything, he pitched ahead in the count. That was the key tonight."

However, the momentum shifted right back to the Yankees in the fifth when the normally sure-handed Napoli dropped a liner by Brian Roberts that would have been the third out of the inning. The Yankees would go on to score four runs in that frame, all of them unearned, to take an 8-2 lead.

"Yeah, it was a little weird," said Napoli. "McCann was on first. I kind of lost it for a second. I thought I was on it. I need to make that play. That was a key situation in the game. We scored two runs. That would have been the final out, instead of them having a big inning. I didn't make the play."

The Red Sox know that they aren't playing winning baseball these days.

"We've given some extra outs," said Farrell. "At this level, when you do that, you're asking for trouble. It's something we continue to address, work at internally. There's not going to be wholesale changes made. We have to go out and execute with greater efficiency."

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

Napoli's 'Home Run' caps a 'Back to Back' with David Ortiz

THE BOX SCORE

New York Yankees Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG J. Ellsbury, CF 5 2 2 2 5 0 0 .342 .395 .479 D. Jeter, SS 4 1 2 2 2 1 0 .298 .385 .351   D. Anna, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .136 .200 .318 C. Beltran, DH 5 1 2 2 5 0 1 .296 .329 .592 A. Soriano, LF 5 1 1 0 2 0 2 .270 .316 .486   B. Gardner, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .254 .306 .343 M. Teixeira, 1B 4 2 1 1 2 1 2 .273 .333 .318 B. McCann, C 4 1 3 1 4 1 0 .262 .294 .431 Y. Solarte, 3B 5 0 0 0 0 0 3 .303 .387 .455 I. Suzuki, RF 4 0 2 0 3 1 1 .371 .389 .429 B. Roberts, 2B 5 1 2 0 2 0 0 .180 .288 .240 Totals 41 9 15 8 25 4 9 - - -

Boston Red Sox Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG G. Sizemore, RF 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .213 .269 .344 D. Pedroia, 2B 4 0 1 0 2 0 1 .274 .322 .381   J. Herrera, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .214 .313 .214 D. Ortiz, DH 4 1 1 1 4 0 2 .256 .333 .449 M. Napoli, 1B 4 1 2 1 6 0 1 .286 .375 .532 J. Gomes, LF 4 1 1 0 2 0 1 .213 .309 .404 A. Pierzynski, C 4 0 1 0 2 0 2 .236 .283 .309 X. Bogaerts, SS 4 0 1 1 2 0 1 .271 .400 .357 B. Holt, 3B 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 .389 .400 .500 J. Bradley Jr., CF 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 .228 .333 .298 Totals 35 3 9 3 20 0 9 - - -

2B: NYY 5, J. Ellsbury (6), A. Soriano (4), M. Teixeira (1), B. McCann (2), I. Suzuki (2). Bos 5, D. Pedroia (9), M. Napoli (4), J. Gomes (3), A. Pierzynski (1), X. Bogaerts (3).

3B: NYY 1, J. Ellsbury (2).

HR: NYY 1, C. Beltran (5). Bos 2, D. Ortiz (4), M. Napoli (5).

HR Detail: NYY, C. Beltran (Inning: 8 , 1 Out, 0 on) off E. Mujica. Bos, D. Ortiz (Inning: 4 , 1 Out, 0 on) off M. Tanaka, Bos, M. Napoli (Inning: 4 , 1 Out, 0 on) off M. Tanaka.

Scoring Position: NYY - 7 for 18.Bos - 1 for 7.

New York Yankees Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA M. Tanaka, (W 3-0) 7.1 7 2 2 0 7 2 28 105 32 - 73 2.15 .202 D. Betances 1.2 2 1 1 0 2 0 7 26 5 - 21 0.93 .094

Boston Red Sox Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA J. Lester, (L 2-3) 4.2 11 8 3 4 7 0 28 118 42 - 76 2.67 .280 C. Capuano 2.1 2 0 0 0 1 0 9 30 9 - 21 0.00 .170 E. Mujica 1.0 1 1 1 0 1 1 4 16 4 - 12 9.45 .333 J. Tazawa 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 13 2 - 11 0.00 .205

Errors: Bos 2, M. Napoli (2), A. Pierzynski (2).

Double Plays: NYY 1, (B.Roberts to Jeter to Teixeira). Bos 2, (Holt to Pedroia to Napoli; Pedroia to Napoli).

Passed Balls: Bos 1, A. Pierzynski.

Umpires: HP--Wolcott, 1B--Davis, 2B--Cuzzi, 3B--Knight.

Time: 3:17

Attendance - 37,041