Whine fine with wins
If they play great, we’ll take Price, Hanley rants
For the Red Sox to maintain or expand their lead in the American League East during the second half of the season, they need two things to happen. They need David Price and Hanley Ramirez to keep yelling at the media member of their choice.
Both only began playing like the players they are being paid to be this season after Price launched The Whiners Manifesto in the direction of first Evan Drellich and then Dennis Eckersley, and Ramirez told every writer he could find (and even a wayward radio talk show host) that he knew he had to do better but nobody could replace David Ortiz anyway (which is true, by the way).
If that’s what it takes to keep them going in a way that allows the Sox to expand on what unbelievably at the moment is the AL’s second-best record, despite all the carping and kvetching about what they are not, then be my guest. Anything the knights of the keyboard can do to assist that doesn’t involve a trip to the ER, just ask.
If it means Price needs to moan all day and night that nobody understands how difficult life is for a guy who goes to work once every five days and is paid over $200 million to do it, moan like you’re working in a coal mine. You aren’t by the way, Dave, but if believing so is what it takes for you to pitch the way you’re being paid to, please do.
After missing much of the first half of the year, the guy who was asked to masquerade as the ace of the staff until a real ace — Chris Sale — showed up finally has shown up, too. Since returning from an elbow strain, Mr. Misunderstood has gone from Mini Me to How About Me! If the formula for Price to pitch winning baseball is that this becomes the days of Whine and Roses at Fenway, we’ll take the roses and put up with the whine.
Price’s 3.91 ERA is now better than it was this time a year ago (4.34) and his WHIP is better than it was the second half of last season, when he went 8-3 (.727 winning percentage for the nonsabermetricians out there who still believe actually winning a game counts for something). So if Price returns to the mound Sunday against the Damned (we hope) Yankees and it requires he verbally assault Mike Silverman to beat them, Mike is surely willing to take one for the team he so adroitly covers for the Herald.
Of course, Price would be better served doing that to someone from the Globe since Sox owner John Henry owns it, too. If he yells at one of their folks, that writer would literally be taking one for the team. If Price were to go so far as to rip Nick Cafardo’s shirt in the process, the Globe could ask Price to sign it and then sell it as game-used memorabilia on page C6, next to the Ortizsigned baseballs they periodically pedal.
As for Hanley, his slow start this season may be traceable to being asked to replace the second-most revered player in Red Sox history or to his constant claim of shoulder soreness. Perhaps if his shoulders didn’t closely resemble LeGarrette Blount’s, he’d have a bit less soreness but that’s up to him and his personal trainer.
Aching or not, his power outage since taking over at DH for Ortiz hasn’t been quite as bad as his first half in 2016. He had only eight home runs at the midpoint of last season to 13 today and his slugging percent- age is slightly better while his OPS is slightly worse. The real concern is he simply isn’t hitting anything — including a much-needed sacrifice fly a couple of days ago against the Rays — as consistently as he did last year, but Ramirez always has been a second-half guy, and the Sox have to hope that again proves to be the case. Let me remind you Ramirez had 22 home runs, 63 RBI, a slugging percentage of .593 (up .118 from the first half last season) and an OPS of .947 (up .146 from his first-half slumbers) during the final two and a half months last year. Maybe his shoulders are still aching from carrying the team for two months. If replicating that demands he stare a hole through a NESN lens after launching a bomb, go death stare. After all, here in Boston, we only care about winning now (unless you’re Celtics fans, who apparently only care about forever winning three years from now). If the Sox need two of their highest-paid employees to suffer with a case of distemper to get back into postseason play, OK. If they need to bel ie v e they’re more misunderstood than a love-sick teenager, so be it. If they have to convince themselves the stress and difficulty of their job is right up there with brain surgery, we can live with that, too.
If that’s all it takes for the Sox not to ruin your summah, most folks around here will accept it. Of course, if those jamokes also want to be beloved like the lovable “idiots” of 2004 or embraced the way this town wrapped its arms around Ortiz or Pedro Martinez, it will take a little more than winning while whining.
They’d have to start acting like it’s actually still fun to play baseball for a living. If they can’t do that, so be it. Just keep whining … as long as
you keep winning.