No excuses.
That's the situation with the Red Sox now. Everything is now going their way.
Ask any manager on the day when pitchers and catchers report in February what would be his fondest wish for the season and he would undoubtedly say that he hopes to enter the playoffs with his team playing its best baseball. That is precisely the situation Terry Francona finds himself in as he awaits the start of the American League Championship Series Friday night against the Indians.
If the Division Series didn't showcase the Red Sox at their offensive/defensive/pitching best, then what lies ahead will be magical. You might say, "Well, the offense wasn't all that great," but then you would be guilty of confusing this team with the offensive powerhouses of 2003 and 2004. The 2007 edition is not on that level.
But the 2007 Red Sox now have what they never had during the regular season. They have the firm of Ortiz & Ramírez operating at peak efficiency.
What David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez did to the Orange County American League Baseball Representative was frightening. (Attention Mr. Arte Moreno: When the Los Angeles Times puts you on page 20 of its sports section, that means it doesn't consider you to be a Los Angeles team.) In just three games, Papi and Manny reached base a combined 19 times in 26 plate appearances, with 4 homers, 7 RBIs, and 8 runs.
You don't need a PhD in Diamondology to know that if this type of offensive destruction is allowed to continue, the Red Sox will be holding a parade in three weeks time. But you all surely know that no one performs at this exalted level for very long. There has to be a market correction coming, however modest.
It was hardly surprising to hear Manny say Friday night that he had not really felt right at the plate all year. We all knew something had to be wrong. Oh, he'd have his little spurts every now and then, but he never locked into a power groove. Had he not come up with the oblique thing at the end of August, he'd have nickel-and-dimed his way to a 12th 100-RBI season. He'd have found the needed 12 ribbies in his missing 80-some at-bats, all right. But it would have been a monumental struggle.
So what was wrong with him? We still don't know, but we do know that it was not exactly Manny's favorite year. He had to work through whatever he had to work through, calling on all his years of experience to be as productive as he was.
On Friday night, we discovered that Manny had given himself high marks.
"I guess, you know, when you don't feel good and you still get hits, that's when you know you are a bad man," he pointed out.
