Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon will begin serving a two-game suspension Friday night, the result of an appeal with Major League Baseball over an incident at Fenway Park on June 4.
Papelbon was originally suspended three games for a tirade thrown following an ejection by home plate umpire Tony Randazzo. He appealed, and was pleased that MLB saw enough to shave a game off the penalty.
"I feel definitely that our situation came back fair," Papelbon said. "That's all … it's pretty simple. I put in the appeal and they looked at the video for a week now and came back and said two games is fair enough."
The incident in question occurred in a game against Oakland. Papelbon was called upon to protect a four-run lead in the ninth, but slowly saw the advantage slip away. Both he and catcher Jason Varitek took exception with Randazzo's rulings. Both were ejected. Papelbon became rather heated and made contact with Randazzo in the ensuing argument.
The suspension was handed down four days later.
There has been speculation that Randazzo, who seemed to play a role in the incident, would face discipline of his own. For his part, Papelbon has moved on.
"We don't hear that, nor am I really worried about it," he said of Randazzo’s situation. "I was just glad we’ll be done with it after the next two games."
As for those two games, manager Terry Francona will mix and match at the end of games to ensure his suddenly lean bullpen survives. Daniel Bard could get the save opportunities, but the nature of the game will dictate that. Francona loves to use Bard in critical situations, and if those situations arise in the seventh or eighth, he may try to put out the fire then and worry about the final three outs later on.
"Bard is that one weapon where he's always the guy that comes in with men on base," Francona said. "I'd hate to get to trying to get to the ninth inning staying away from him. If you have a three- or four-run lead with the bases loaded, I’d rather it be Bard. We’ll figure it out in the ninth."
Matt Albers is one option to pitch the ninth if Bard is used up early. So, too, is Alfredo Aceves, who has three career saves. Dan Wheeler owns 43 career saves but has not been utilized in many high-pressure situations this season.
The time change for Saturday's game, which was moved from 1:10 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. to accommodate the Bruins Stanley Cup championship parade, may benefit the Sox in this regard. There is no longer a short turnaround from Friday night to Saturday afternoon in the event the bullpen gets used up in the series opener with Milwaukee.
