Mike Timlin has been placed on the 15-day DL with left knee tendinitis. According to Francona, he’s been playing through it for some time now. Boston will retain the services of 27-year old reliever Chris Smith for the time being. If Timlin can’t get fully healthy, they will most likely turn to Craig Hansen or Justin Masterson to fill Timlin’s role in the bullpen.
The roster move makes room for Daisuke Matsuzaka to be activated, and he will get the start today against the Cardinals. Apparently, Dice-K is responsible for the good luck Phiten necklaces all of the Sox have been wearing.
David Ortiz is exuding confidence after spending almost a week out of his forearm cast. He’s pain-free and should be able to start swinging a bat inside of two weeks.
It looks like I got my wish. Timlin is out, and Chris Smith is in his place.
Smith was very good today giving up only three hits in 4 innings, and one earned run.
Maybe we will end up needing a starting pitcher more than a relief pitcher at the deadline. We will all be watching closely at how our Japanese pitchers do over the next few weeks. We could really use them to be effective.
As bad as this start was, try not to overreact about Dice-K. The issue does not seem to be injury-based, so I think he’ll be fine. He’s hard-headed, but is mentally tough, so I expect him to bounce back in time. The question is how much time does he need?
I plan to address this team’s weak spots in a series of upcoming posts.
Dice-K was deserving of a mulligan start, but he is so mysterious I can’t help but be concerned. I’ve gotten my hopes up for him, assuming he will pitch with a lower WHIP the rest of the season. While that’s not a fair assumption, I do expect him to pitch more consistently deeper into the season, now that he has had a DL break, and a year’s experience.
I look forward to his next start.