So let's think back to the trade deadline. Time is about to expire. The big question is if the Sox will do anything to improve their team. Then the news comes in that the Sox beat out the Yanks and acquired Eric Gagne! Great, so one of the best bullpen guys available is added to the team that already had the best in baseball. Excellent! World Series here we come! Yanks, hah your done! WOOO!!! O wait, there's one problem: He hasn't pitched yet! Unfortunately, that has turned out to be a HUGE problem.
Gagne blew another game Friday Night against LAA. He entered the inning up a run and left down 2. This was the same game in which the Sox trailed 4-1 entering the 8th and made a great comeback to take a 5-4 lead into the 9th. Ortiz and Manny finally had huge clutch hits. Fenway was going crazy! And then, it all crashed thanks to the new guy. Gagne was terrible again...and I mean terrible. He got the first out and then fell apart. Sorry Gagne, I know I'm not a pitcher or anything, but I'm pretty sure the idea is to mix your pitches up to one batter! He threw like 12 fastballs in a row to the lead-off guy and then proceeded to throw 3 straight changeups out of the zone to the next batter. Have you forgotten how to pitch? Boston is not far away from Texas. It's the same baseball world and the idea is to mix pitches up to a batter...not throw him the same stuff over and over again and hope something magical happens! A horrible loss and a horrible start for Mr. Gagne.
So, the guy that was suppossed to help an already great bullpen has killed it. Gagne has blown not 1, not 2, but 3 games already and he's only been a Sox since July 31! He has alone cost the Sox 3 games that they would've won if he hadn't been here. How would an 8 game lead look right now? A lot better than 5...thats for sure. You can thank Mr. Gagne for that one! 2 pathetic blown losses to the Orioles and now this. A game in which the Sox were about to sweep LAA in a doubleheader. Unfortunately, Papelbon was used in Game 1, as well as Okajima. So, it was Gagne's time to shine. He had a shot to prove all his critics wrong and he blew it miserably! He had a shot to turn those boos into cheers. Well, guess what buddy. You're going to get booed a lot more now in Boston and next stop may be out of town at some point! You better get your act together quickly!
The way he's pitching right now, there is no chance he ever pitches the 8th again. That's Okajima's job. He's not even worthy of a 6th/7th inning role right now. He should be a mop up guy till he learns how to pitch again.
Gagne has made the team look bad, the front office look terrible, and more importantly has added 3 losses and a lot of added stress on this team. The psychology of this bullpen is shaken and again 5 games is not 8! 3 blown games in a week! Absolutely pathetic Gagne! The front office made the RIGHT decision to bring him here, but the way he has pitched it has looked horribly wrong. Maybe, it was best not to make a change at all. As Ian of Sox & Dawgs said, referencing the old maxim, "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It."
It's such a shame that Gagne has actually made this team worse and it's a shame that he's making no progress. How many more games will he blow? How much more stress will he cause? Time will tell. Meanwhile, he could not have had a worse start in Boston. Welcome to the Big City man. I think you're far from ready!
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