Saturday, May 11, 2013

Closer woes

Just one day after Jon Lester came one batter away from a perfect game to stop a losing streak, the Red Sox lost a heartbreaker in the ninth inning to the Toronto Blue Jays. It's time to address the elephant in the clubhouse: the Red Sox are without a closer, yet again.

With Joel Hanrahan out for the season, and Andrew Bailey reporting that he'll be unable to return from the DL as soon as he's eligible, John Farrell has designated Junichi Tazawa as the stopgap closer. This afternoon, the stopgap closer blew a save after the Sox had rallied to take the lead.

The Extra Bases Blog over at Boston.com has a really great breakdown of the Red Sox closer struggles since they let Jonathan Papelbon back - so far, the financial investment in his replacements has made it seem like it would have been a more responsible decision to just pay him.  Personally, I have a lot of confidence in Andrew Bailey (in fact, I picked him up on both of my fantasy teams when the Sox first declared him the closer), but he can't seem to stay healthy. 

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