Editor’s note: NESN.com is going to tell the story of the 2012 Red Sox in Bobby Valentine’s words. Each game day, we will select the best Valentine quote that sums up the day for the Red Sox.
Let’s get the obvious statements out of the way.
Tuesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) was incredibly frustrating. Likewise, it’s been a wholly frustrating season for Boston, which finds itself six games below .500 and all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with five weeks to go in the regular season. This is not the position Red Sox Nation expected to be in.
So what do you do? How do you go forward when everything about your year is another reason for frustration, another impetus to take out some pent-up energy on the punching bag? Well, if you’re the Red Sox and manager Bobby Valentine, you look for the positives and focus on the elements of a wayward season which might have some value going forward into 2013 and beyond.
“Positives will still be taken out of this game,” said Valentine after the heartbreaker. “We did a lot of things well and Clay [Buchholz] pitched seven strong innings. Alfredo [Aceves] had a great eighth inning, just a lousy ninth inning and the offense kept coming back.”
So, what are those positives? What are the factors that the Red Sox can feel good about taking away into next season?
Well, as Valentine mentioned, one of those is clearly Buchholz, who was nothing short of dominant for stretches after some first-inning hiccups (then again, who doesn’t have trouble against Mike Trout?), at one point retiring 15 of 16 and nine batters consecutively. The 27-year-old right-hander will clearly be counted on to be not just a big part of the rotation in upcoming seasons, but quite possibly the ace of the staff.
Aside from that, Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a solid night and continues to be one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball, Jacoby Ellsbury looks to be returning to form with two hits on Tuesday and Ryan Lavarnway reached base twice, including an impressive opposite-field double off the wall. In most other ballparks, that’s a home run.
All that being said, this wasn’t the place the Red Sox and their fans wanted to be at this time of the year — talking about salvaging positives and debating what players have a future with the club. As exciting as it may be to watch prospects take their first big league steps and speculate over the future, it only glosses over how frustrating the present has been in 2012.
So, as the Red Sox go forward into evaluation mode, for the players who are still around come next spring, one would hope the empty feeling of looking for silver linings as early as August would make a lasting impression. One would hope it’s incentive to avoid ever winding up back in this position again.
Motivation: Call it a positive to take away from this game.
