Is Papelbon Hurt?
Rob Neyer mentioned in his blog that Papelbon threw all fastballs last night in closing out the Rays, and also noted that he has not been utilizing his splitter. And tonight, in blowing it, he again threw all fastballs, except for one pitch after it was too late. I was watching the MLB Gameday because the game is blacked out because of my location. But according to Gameday; Papelbon threw six straight fastballs to Dan Johnson to begin the inning, the last one being very much over the plate, and resulted in a home run. Then four straight fastballs to Willy Aybar and Aybar flew out. Next up: Fernando Perez: two fastballs and a double. Navarro; two fastballs, double. Gabe Gross: Four fastballs, out. Jason Bartlett: offspeed, then fastball=out.
Man cannot live on fastball alone. Unless one is Mariano Rivera. Why is he avoiding throwing the splitter? Is something wrong? I don’t know, but it seems kind of odd to abandon a good pitch such as that…
Statistician Magician 
I don’t think the Red Sox—-with a playoff spot pretty much sewn up whether it’s the division or not—-are stupid enough to put Papelbon out there if he’s not feeling right. They need him more for the playoffs than they do for one game even if losing it may cost them the division.
http://paullebowitz.mlblogs.com/
I wouldn’t think that either. I want to know why he continues to throw fastball after fastball when he has another good pitch in the splitter.
He pitched 4 outs the night before and knew he would go in because they sat on that 3-0 lead for nine innings.
He probably didn’t figure to pitch last night then, suddenly with 2 outs in the 8th they are on top.
I only saw the action on mlb/gameday so, I don’t know how long his warmup was.
I wonder if pitch mindset is altered on short-notice call up.
Yea, I heard that was his third night in a row. I haven’t watched much the last few weeks do to computer problems. But from what I heard, he threw all fastballs on Monday too.
your eagles are looking pretty damn fine…
the offense at least
And you call yourself joeagles….
Good game Joe, could have gone either way with the eagles cheatin all the time. lol
sorry–shoulda kept my mouth shut—
was pretty exciting game tho.
Yes, it was a good game. See you in Philly…
are you going up to philly for a game joe?
No, I just meant that next time Dallas and Philly play later in the year, it will be in Philadelphia. Raoul is a Cowboys fan.
why, unless one is cursed to be a texan, would anyone be a cowboy fan?
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