BOSTON — Torey Lovullo’s third day on the job was more difficult to navigate.
Lovullo, who took over as the Red Sox’s acting manager Friday after John Farrell announced he’s been diagnosed with Stage 1 lymphoma, basically set it and forget it in Boston’s first two games against the Seattle Mariners. The Sox rolled to two blowout wins in which they totaled 37 runs on 47 hits.
But Boston’s coaching staff needed to make a couple of notable decisions late in Sunday’s series finale. And while neither decision should be blamed for the Red Sox’s 10-8, 12-inning loss, Lovullo still needed to explain the thought processes, marking the unofficial beginning of his 2015 managerial tenure.
The Red Sox fought back Sunday at Fenway Park after falling behind 7-0 over the first three innings. They entered the ninth inning trailing 8-6 and soon pushed the tying run into scoring position, at which point the Mariners intentionally walked David Ortiz with first base open and two outs.
Lovullo chose not to pinch-run for Ortiz, which made sense given that Boston likely needed an extra-base hit to score whoever was stationed at first base. But when Ortiz (representing the winning run) advanced to second base on an infield single by Rusney Castillo that packed the bags, the decision became far more debatable, as a well-placed single could do the trick. Pinch-running Alejandro De Aza — the only player (a faster player) available on Boston’s bench — seemed like a viable option.
Lovullo stuck with Ortiz at second base.
“The way I was looking at it, David was the go-ahead run and not the tying run,” Lovullo explained after the game. “To eliminate him from this game, it just takes such a toll on our lineup. His presence and his force and his ability to change the game with one swing is really impressive.
“So to take him out of the game in that situation, knowing it would be a tie game, I just felt like it wasn’t the right move. I wanted to give us a chance in case we went into extra innings.”
Travis Shaw singled into left field moments later. Brock Holt, who was on third base, trotted home with the tying run. Third base coach Brian Butterfield had bigger ideas, though. He aggressively sent Ortiz despite Big Papi having no chance whatsoever to beat Seth Smith’s throw. Ortiz was out by a mile.
“Maybe De Aza scores. I don’t know,” Lovullo said. “As it turns out, it looks like (pinch-running De Aza for Ortiz) should have been the move, but I’ll live by what I did (Sunday) because I just don’t want to take David Ortiz out of this lineup.”
Lovullo probably won’t lose sleep up over the decision to keep Ortiz in the game. Nor should he. Even De Aza would have been a dead duck. Heck, Usain Bolt would have been a dead duck.
The bigger head-scratcher, then, was Butterfield’s decision to send Ortiz. And while Lovullo said immediately following the game he hadn’t spoken to Butterfield yet about the decision, the interim skipper still shed some light on the all-or-nothing risk.
“The one thing I want to say is it’s a very difficult position, coaching third base. He does a great job. He does a spectacular job there,” Lovullo said. “I’m sure he’s going to tell me he was just trusting his instincts and he was forcing them to make a play. A short hop in the outfield, it was a couple of short-hop throws at home plate and they executed the game plan.”
The Red Sox still had extra frames to pull out a win, which obviously would have squashed any second-guessing. They couldn’t muster up another run, though, and the Mariners took advantage of a tiring Craig Breslow in the 12th inning to salvage a win in a series otherwise dominated by Boston.
Welcome to life as a big league manager, Torey. Some days are harder than others.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
