Game over? Not quite.
As Boston's lead in the AL East shrinks by the day -- it's down to four games over the rival Yankees heading into Monday's games -- the harsh glare of Red Sox Nation has focused in on Eric Gagne, the formerly indomitable closer for the Dodgers who resurrected his career with the Rangers this season.
The key phrase there being "with the Rangers." Let's all be honest now: How many Rangers games have any of you watched this year and how often had you seen the 2007 version of Gagne take the mound prior to his debut with the Red Sox on Aug. 2?
If you are still waiting to see the "Game Over" Gagne, vintage 2002-04, you can stop now. It's not happening. What must have been lost in the excitement of the Red Sox's trade-deadline coup is the fact that all we really had to go on with Gagne and his comeback from two years of injuries were the 33 1/3 good innings he had just given Texas.
Now that he's under the spotlight with Boston and made five -- mostly regrettable -- appearances, we can see him for what he is: a pitcher with very good stuff who has to hit his spots to be successful. In particular, he has to hit his spots with his fastball, which now hovers in the low-to-mid 90s instead of the 99-100-plus stratosphere from his days in Los Angeles.
After reviewing his five Red Sox appearances (thanks to MLB.tv), here are prime examples of Gagne getting hurt by catching too much of the plate with his fastball:
• Aug. 4, at Seattle: With Ben Broussard on second base after a single and a stolen base, Gagne grooved a 94 mph fastball to catcher Kenji Johjima. Result: RBI single off the left-field wall. On his very next pitch, Gagne threw another 93 mph fastball down the middle to Jose Lopez. Result: Double to left. With runners on second and third, Gagne threw a quality fastball on the outside corner to Yuniesky Betancourt to induce a groundout and end the inning.
• Aug. 10, at Baltimore: Brought in to protect a 5-1 lead in the eighth, Gagne imploded. Corey Patterson led off with a double off a 93 mph down the middle. Nick Markakis then lined an 83 mph change-up to right field, scoring Patterson. Miguel Tejada walked. After a groundout by Kevin Millar for the first out of the inning, Aubrey Huff ripped a 93 mph fastball to right field for a single that J.D. Drew misplayed into a double. Two more runs in, Gagne heads for the showers and the Sox eventually lose 6-5.
• Aug. 12, at Baltimore: Boston's up 3-1 with Tejada at the plate. Gagne threw seven straight fastballs, the last of which left the yard. Velocity wasn't the problem; the Baltimore TV feed had it clocked at 96 mph. It was location: right down Broadway. (Pitch selection may have been faulty too -- why not go with an off-speed pitch to finish him off?)
Gagne has at times shown good command of his fastball. For example, on Aug. 8 against the Angels, he escaped a two-on, one-out jam by striking out Chone Figgins on a well-placed high fastball and getting Orlando Cabrera to pop up on a high-and-tight 93 mph heater.
The point here isn't to make too much out of four innings worth of pitching, which is all he's done so far in Boston. It's to show that Gagne no longer has the luxury of missing his spots, as he once did when he could hit triple-digits on the radar gun. He has to stay on the corners and lure hitters into swinging at the high cheese if he wants to be successful. In other words, he's just like any other pitcher: human.
The good news for Red Sox fans is that Gagne's problems are correctible. Look at Josh Beckett's transition from the thrower who tried to muscle his pitches past everybody last year (and gave up a career-high 36 home runs in the process) to the technician we see this year, pounding the corners at will. The question is, How long will it take Gagne to work out of this slump, and will it be too late to hold off the Yankees by the time he does?
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Comments (23) Add A Comment
I'm so happy the Yankees didn't get him. I hope the Red Sox pitch him all the time.
NDRUSS
South Orange , NJ
Total Comments (15)
Same...let Gagne pitch more...helps the yankees get closer and CLOSER to the Sox !
X-Games &…
Total Comments (117)
OH my Jacob. I would just like to point out how right i was about my Yankees. I said last Thursday that the Tribe are 31-30 in their last 61. They're not scoring. CC Fausto and Rafeal are their only bright spots on their pitching staff. I also said this should be an eye opening series to all baseball followers. SOOOOO let me toot my own horn by saying we swept the TRIBE!!!! What happened in this series? Wellllllll the Yanks flashed they're talent young and old. Hughes is a future ace who can produce now. Joba the Hutt is a MAN among boys. When you have a baseball guru like Peter Gammons say you may have the best stuff in baseball and the Tribe say its the best stuff all year. You know the Yanks are working with magic. Moose and Pettite pretty much used they're wits and breaking stuff to make the Indians look like kids who had their candy stolen. Our offense did what score 22 runs 6 long balls. Our pitchind did what? Hold a good but performing bad offense to 6 runs. Come on. How many more times are people going to mention our cupcake schedule. Do we have to go 17 - 0 for the rest of this stretch. While we were enjoying a great weekend Bosox fans had to swallow Eric Gag-ne for 1.1 inn and 5 er. So now all the poeple who said Theo was a brilliant Gm and Cashman was a bum who couldn't pull the trigger look dumb. HMMMM Joba or Gag-ne. I like the guy with best stuff in baseball. Who is only 21 and throws sliders that make me feel like a lil boy watching Santa come down the chimney. So whose next O's Tigers and LAA and more Tigers. Lemme just say this the Tigers gave up 16 runs to the A's on friday enough said! Here We GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!
YankeesareFirst
Middletown , NJ
Total Comments (11)
Gagne looks like a bust, not to mention the fact that he's fragile and prone to injury. Kudos to Brian Cashman for holding onto prospects and laying off of Gagne. To top it off, he'll only be a 2 month rental because of his desire to close. Nice job Theo, Gabbard looks like a decent lefty too.
Yanks324
Yonkers , NY
Total Comments (1)
The day the deal was made, I stated here that the Sox would live to regret it, and rdawg, wherever you are, called my comment "startling in its lack of intelligence" and the trade itself "brilliant." As a Yankees fan, I know something about the stupidity of trading youth for rent-a vets; we've done it often enough. And now Sox fans, you do too. Brilliant indeed!
nochowderheads
Champaign , IL
Total Comments (54)
I hate the BoSox!!! Gagne turned his back on the Dodgers, so as a native of Californian I say...good riddance!
Die Hard Lakers fan
Hawthorne , CA
Total Comments (87)
I enjoyed watching Kevin "Cowboy-Up" Millar win the game for the Orioles. Gagne has not looked very as of yet. I will take the two games, thank you very much.
I wonder if yesterday's game will make the Walk-Off Sox show...
4 games and closing!
Go Yanks!
CMD
Total Comments (111)
Gagne is a 9th inning pitcher...period. Even during his dominant period, us Dodger fans would cringe when he entered the game in the 8th inning. He was guaranteed to give up at least one run. He thrives on 9th Inning pressure. He starts to get too relaxed when the game isn't technically on the line.
Ned25
Santa Maria , CA
Total Comments (3)
I hate Scott Boras and any of his overrated clients. So what if A-Rod is going to hit 800 home runs, his teams still won't win anything worth talking about. Gagne should have stayed with the Dodgers and showed some loyalty for them paying all those paychecks when he was out sitting on his butt with his injuries. It could have been Broxton, Gagne and Saito. Lights out from the 6th inning on. True, they have to score some runs first!!!!
Speedsamurai
Garden Grove , CA
Total Comments (2)
Just for the sake of accuracy: Gagne didn't "leave" the Dodgers, they refused to re-sign him, a move that made sense given his injury history. I love it when a team's "die-hard" fans can't even remember what their team did six months ago.
Palamas
Total Comments (2)
Gagne is a die-hard bugger. Hey! with his record saves, he must have strained his arm to require one or two? operations to his arm. Then he got a vertebra hernia(?) operation. I recall he did get upset a few times, even thrown out of the game by either the referee or his coach?
He came back a long way. If it is true that he thrives under pressure, he just respond amazinly in the next inning. He certainly put a lot of pressure upon himself....who would not; we are talking $ millions.
Give him a chance. Also give Boston management a little intelligence for picking this guy up.
I hope I am right!
Past expo fan!
alexandre
Total Comments (67)
Gagne isn't the same pitcher without the steroids and growth hormone, he won't ever hit 100 mph again...and location suffers whenever you have an injury, especially a nagging one that you will never fully recover from (see Tom Gordon- Phils). If they both hit their spots they can both be successful, but if they miss.....it's leaving the yard and another blown game. News to a Red`Sox fan but just ask a Phillies fan how many times he's seen it this year and last........we've been there, done that.......we know the feeling all too well.......
Mark1npt
Naples , FL
Total Comments (3)
damn i miss game over gagne... i remember he was my wallpaper for about two years...hell, i would even use the term "game over gagne" when i was in a conversation...
example: "hey dude, you still with that freshman beezy? Nah, its game over gagne with that chick".
okifeelthat
Fresno , CA
Total Comments (5)
If there wasnt anything wrong with Gagne, the Dodgers never would of let him go. The fact they did is all the red flag the rest of the league needed to back way away from this dude as he fell off the planet due to injury after his 55 consecutive save CY Young year.
-Cassidy
Cassidy's House:…
Whatsittoya, NO
Total Comments (16281)
For accuracy sake Palamas, the Dodgers didn't sign him because he was asking for something long term at a ridiculous price and the team wasn't willing to give him that. They refused to sign him at his terms during the off season after he had said that he was willing to give them a discount to stay during the season. So Boras suckered the Rangers -- who also gave A-Rod that ridiculous contract -- who apparently wised up and understood why the Dodgers didn't want to sign him to a long term contract.
Speedsamurai
Garden Grove , CA
Total Comments (2)
Gagne just can't pitch unless he's closing out the game. He gave up a total of 8 runs when he was playing for the Rangers, and all but one of those (a blown save on 7/6) were in garbage time. Put him in the 9th inning role, and you'll see his numbers come back down.
rangersfan
Total Comments (2)
Okifeelthat:
That's funny stuff!
BearDown
Total Comments (282)
I am just loving this late Yankee surge, not as a Yankee fan (quite to the contrary, in fact), but rather as an exasperated reader of hack sports writers who profess to have an especial purchase on the game and yet continue to prove themselves as incapable as the next guy down the bar of making reliable forecasts about a game that continues to defy their definitive analysis and dogmatic conclusions. According to any sports writer who cared to address the issue, two months ago the Yankees were dead in the water, out of contention, belly up and at the mercy of the Red Sox. What a farce! I just wish there were some kind of stat documenting what is all too often the inept performance and misguided microanalysis of those writers who persist in making predictions about a game that refuses to be reduced to mathematical equations.
fiat_lux
Total Comments (1)
Bottom line, this is AL East baseball the way it has been and the way it should always be. The Yankees and Redsox trading haymakers till the last game of the season. I love Boston because I can hate them with passion as I am sure the Boston faithful feel the same about the Yankees. We all want our teams to win the division but it is never as sweet unless our rivals are right there at our heels. I want the Yanks to always be a contender and I want the BoSox to always be a contender (who just happen to be a few wins shy of the division at the end). Gagne, well I feel for the guy... he was supposed to be the next Mo. I love when people compare these closers to Mo and Hoffman. The only guy out there that may be in that category one day is Papelbon and that remains to be seen if his arm can hold out. Lots of kids can come in and throw high 90's. Only the greats can close for a long career with success. Pabelbon's stuff is awesome, but so was Gagne's.
ForeverNY
Total Comments (903)
"Die Hard Lakers fan" since you live in LA, I thought you would be a bit more informed as oppose stupid. He didnt turn his back on the Dodger, the Dodgers didn't want to sign him due to his high salary and injury. As far as the Yanks, they better get ready for the A-Rodless 2008.
LA Boy
Total Comments (1744)
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