A year ago, September signaled the start of Boston's
demise.
The 7-20 record the Red Sox sputtered to that month appears to have
spilled into this season, with the team having fallen out of the wild
card hunt, let alone the division race.
With the team no longer in playoff contention, Red Sox manager Bobby
Valentine has been making moves toward making this September one of
positive results. He started that effort Saturday, taking aside several
players for pep talks before that night's game against Oakland.
"I saw a lot of the guys today individually,"
Valentine told reporters. "Pitchers needed a little someone to talk to,
that's for sure. The hitters are trying their darndest and standing out on the
field a long time. We'll be all right."
The Red Sox may have to validate Valentine's confidence
without David Ortiz, who likely won't rejoin the club this road trip as he
recovers from an injection. But at this point, the manager has his sights
set on evaluating each player's development with or without his star players.
"Hope for guys to keep building their individual
statistics and hope that they collectively build the team statistics,"
Valentine said. "I think we're going to win a lot of games this last
month.
"Why shouldn't I think that? Because I'm the manager
of the team, and we get paid to play and win, and I believe that we're going to
win."
While it likely wouldn't lift the Red Sox into
the postseason, some wins would jumpstart the process of erasing last September's
memories.
