He must be in a Francoma

Apparently, the BoSox skipper thought it wasn't worth walking Evan Longoria with a pair of open bases and two outs in the 13th inning of a tie game tonight. I wonder where he got that idea. I'm guessing it wasn't from this line:


AB-40
R-11
H-15
2B-5
HR-5
RBI-21
AVG-.375
OBP.426
SLG-.875
OPS-1.301


Let's break it down this way: The guy has more ABs against the Sox than any other team. He has scored four more runs against Boston than he does any other team. He has more hits against Boston than he does any other team. Same for doubles. Same for home runs. He has more than twice as many RBIs against the Sox than he does any other team. His average is second highest against Boston (1st is the Orioles and who doesn't hit them well?). His OBP is 20 points higher vs Boston than any other team which he has at least 20 ABs against. Slugging is second to Baltimore. And the OPS is .008 behind the O's and .312 higher vs. the Sawx than it is any other team with at least 20 ABs (CHW, CLE, KAN, MIN, NYY, OAK, TOR, FLA). This plethora of stats begs the question:

WHAT AM I MISSING?

How do you pitch to him here with the last reliever in your bullpen? Why not take a chance vs. Ben Zobrist or Joe Dillon?

Here's what Terry Francona had to say:

"I wish the ball wouldn't have gone out, but I don't think [walking Longoria] was the right thing to do.''

Well you know what else isn't the right thing to do? Give up 900-foot homers that blow a hole in the roof of Tropicana Field, that's right!

Here's what I would have said:

"Yeah, after we walked Longoria, an obvious move considering his history against us, Zobrist was an easy third out. Fortunately, our bats got going in the 14th and we were able to steal a game that only got this far because Terry pulled Lester too early. Jon threw the ball real well tonight and it was nice to see him bounce back so easily after drilling Pena to lead things off in the 7th and set things up just how we like for our 'pen."

I like my version better. Freakin' Francona...