The last five days of the 2009 season. Who cares?
Josh Beckett cares, because he’ll pitch Saturday to show his bosses that his sore back won’t be a problem in the playoffs.
Jon Lester cares, because in his start tonight, he needs to alleviate fears about the contusion he sustained on his quadriceps when Melky Cabrera’s liner hit him last Friday night.
Clay Buchholz, Sunday’s starter, cares, because he stunk in his last outing.
Daisuke Matsuzaka cares, because he’s trying to be Boston’s X factor in the postseason.
Mike Lowell cares, because he just had another Synvisc/cortisone shot to help his hip feel better for the postseason.
So it isn’t five days of playing out the string. There are things that need to be checked off.
Asked about the final five days and how a player’s performance could change the Sox’ thinking, general manager Theo Epstein said, “It could impact the 25th spot, perhaps. It’s one of probably a dozen factors that will go into that decision.
“The way this month has evolved, playing the percentages, it’s looked for a while like we were going to play the Angels, so we’ve had some time to get a head start on planning and thoughts about roster construction and pitching and, most importantly, advance scouting. So that process now just continues.’’
It’s five days of figuring out whether Jed Lowrie is your extra infielder over Chris Woodward or if Nick Green could possibly return from his back problem. The Sox played Lowrie at third base last night and he batted lefthanded. There’s a method to their madness.
They also played Joey Gathright and Josh Reddick. Both can run. Gathright is considered one of the fastest players in baseball. So if you’re looking for a guy who can pinch run - the Dave Roberts effect - it would be Gathright. Yet Reddick is young and can probably do more offensively. There’s something to be said for the youthful exuberance that Jacoby Ellsbury brought to the Red Sox in the 2007 postseason.
There’s also Brian Anderson, a more experienced player and a righthanded hitter. But Rocco Baldelli is also a righthanded-hitting outfielder.
Jonathan Papelbon said he has to make sure he gets his work in, but that won’t necessarily mean having to pitch a lot over the next few days.
“Every other day would be fine with me,’’ said Papelbon.
The Red Sox have their roster 99 percent set in their mind by now. As Epstein pointed out, they’ve pretty much known whom they were going to play for some time. They know the Angels like the back of their hands. So now it’s about matchups and trying to figure out things like whether they need a long reliever - which they didn’t in last year’s Division Series - and how much they trust Buchholz and Matsuzaka not to tax the bullpen.