Old Reliable saves day
As usual, Pedroia key man
ARLINGTON, Texas — In a span of two pitches and one wayward throw, last night’s Red Sox game was quite suddenly spiraling out of control, until Dustin Pedroia did one of those things that great players do to keep the ship from sinking all the way below the surface.
Craig Kimbrel had just coughed up a game-tying home run in the ninth, and sure-handed Deven Marrero had just taken a slow roller and turned it into a wild throw. Carlos Gomez was making the turn for second base when Pedroia recognized the carom off the short wall, made a diving grab with his bare hand and threw to first base from his belly.
Gomez was out, order was restored, and the Red Sox won the game in extra innings. Credit Pedroia with the save. Or the win. Whatever you want to call it.
“I don’t think you can give Pedey too many accolades for the game he had here (last night),” manager John Farrell said. Or, to put it another way: “(Last night) might be one of the better games he’s ever played in this uniform,” Farrell said.
We haven’t heard things like that very often this season. Sure, Pedroia’s the face of the franchise and the icon in the clubhouse, but he is somehow the forgotten man on the field. This team is built on the big names Dave Dombrowski brought in from the outside, and all the young talent he inherited from the previous administration, and Pedroia doesn’t fit either narrative.
He doesn’t have Kimbrel’s menacing glare, Chris Sale’s wipeout slider, Mookie Betts’ limitless potential or Xander Bogaerts’ carefree grace.
What Pedroia has is a .303 batting average that will be his third highest of the past nine years if he keeps this pace. His on-base percentage (.388) is the best of his career, and last night was his 102nd game in a row without an error, a franchise record at second base.
“I just try to play the same every night, you know what I mean?” Pedroia said. “That’s it. Show up to the yard to compete and try to win a game. Try to do it every night.”
Pedroia’s power has largely vanished — two homers, 14 doubles and a .382 slugging percentage — and although he’ll shrug off the excuse, it’s hard to ignore his series of knee problems as a potential culprit.
But Pedroia keeps finding ways.
Last night, he did it with three singles. One of those was a two-out, two-run single in the second inning. Another was a two-out, tworun single in the sixth. And those two hits should come as no surprise.
Pedroia’s hitting .433 with two outs and runners in scoring position this year.
He was intentionally walked in the 11th, loading the bases for Andrew Benintendi — another of those young kids — who won it on a barely-there two-run single.
Pedroia took second base on the play, turned toward Benintendi at first and just clapped his hands over and over again. Let the kid have his moment. Pedroia’s had plenty.
During this stretch of six wins in seven games, Pedroia’s reached base 22 times, an average of more than three times per night, but he was at his best in the field last night.
His remarkable play in the ninth inning — “I was just backing up the base,” Pedroia said. “I do it every time.” — was one of four times Pedroia saved the Red Sox in the late innings.
He also corralled a bad throw from Sandy Leon in the eighth — had it gotten by, speedy Delino DeShields would have advanced from second to third as the potential tying run — and he made a diving stop to his right for the first out of the 10th, then an over-theshoulder running catch for the second out in the frame.
He just kept finding ways to keep his team in it until someone else could win it.
When Pedroia took the field last night, it was with a shortstop who was 14 years old when Pedroia won his MVP award. The Red Sox starting first baseman had as many big league doubles as Pedroia had Gold Gloves, and their third baseman was a fellow Arizona State Sun Devil, who was still in college nearly a decade after Pedroia had moved on.
Surely Pedroia looks around occasionally and realizes how much things have changed all around him — all these shiny new toys to capture the imagination.
Other times, it seems Pedroia can see only a runner who needs someone to drive him in, or a bouncing ball that needs someone to grab it and throw it.
In those moments, it’s the same as it’s always been, whether we notice it or not.