Plenty left
MLB. To say that Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon is dominant would be stating the sublimely obvious.
To say that Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon has held major-league hitters to a .041 batting average over the last month and a half would simply be telling it as it is.
Big-league hitters are 2-for-49 against Papelbon over his last 15 appearances, and the Sox reliever has become nothing short of automatic when he takes the mound with a slim Boston lead.
“[Papelbon] has been great for two years,” said Sox shortstop Julio Lugo. “Every time he comes in there it’s just automatic now.”
Papelbon hasn’t given up a run and has allowed only two hits since the end of July — the kind of long-term shutdown pitching that baseball followers have come to expect from the 26-year-old since he wrested control of the closer’s job last season.
“Who ever thought a dumb redneck from Mississippi would be that good?” Sox starter Josh Beckett said with just a hint of the Texas twang in his voice. “He’s as good as anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Papelbon is fourth in the AL with 35 saves this season, and is second in the big leagues with a 94.5 percent save efficiency rate, behind only Seattle closer and fellow All-Star J.J. Putz.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Papelbon is also averaging an American League-best 13.59 strikeouts per nine innings, and — more importantly — has begun taking on a heavier workload in the home stretch of the season.
After not having worked on three consecutive days all season long, Papelbon did just that during Boston’s last homestand, and he looks primed and ready for heavier duty with the postseason looming. One key to the increased workload has been Boston’s sparing usage of him until this point, while another is the starkly economic precision with which he’s dispatched opponents of late.
It took only 32 pitches for Papelbon to record nine outs and rack up three saves during three straight nights out of the pen in Boston’s last homestand, and that makes it that much easier for Sox manager Terry Francona to keep on calling No. 58 in tight situations.
“We hadn’t done it all year because we wanted to get this part of the season so [Papelbon] had plenty left in the tank,” Francona said. “His begging to do it has nothing to do with it. We spend a lot of time talking with the medical people — this is Mike Reinold’s department — and with [pitching coach] John Farrell about it. He has a lot of pitching left [this season].”