Saturday, May 10, 2008

Something wrong with Papelbon?

After seeing Papelbon blow his second save in a row last night, I can't help but wonder if there is something wrong with him, physically or mentally. The first blown save came Thursday night against Detroit after a Julio Lugo error led to unearned runs and a broken bat single just over Lugo's glove to bring home the game-ending run, the second came last night against the Twins after he put Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez, and both stealing a base to put them in scoring position, and a two run single to left to score the both of them and end the game. He hasn't looked as sharp as he been in the past to me and he already has almost as many blown saves this season (2) as he had all of last season (3). Maybe hes just going through a bit of a slump, God I hope so the way the rest of the Red Sox bullpen has looked this season, but there is a possibility that hes injured, and theres no way these past couple nights haven't affected his confidence. Papelbon had these comments about the past few nights:

"It's frustrating as hell right now, just because the simple fact is I'm throwing good pitches. I'm just not finishing them right now and executing them all the way through the strike zone."

"It's going to be a test for me these next few days to get back on the mound and regain that confidence, finish my pitches, and do a little bit better job of it."

Lets just hope for the sake of the team that I'm wrong and that hes not injured.

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