Five Cuts: Maddon missed a couple of chances in Game 1

Joe Maddon opened himself up to second-guessing with a couple of questionable moves in Game 1. J. Meric/Getty Images Tom Verducci's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

1. Joe Maddon is a terrific manager and should be a unanimous pick for AL Manager of the Year for the job he did with the Tampa Bay Rays. But postseason baseball requires more urgency than he showed in running ALCS Game 1 (Recap | Box Score).

Maddon's big mistake came in the seventh inning in what was a 1-0 game. Cliff Floyd singled, sending Carl Crawford to third with the tying run with no outs. Maddon has the speedster Fernando Perez on his bench specifically for this kind of moment. Perez stole 43 bases in the minors this year. Floyd? His knees creak a veritable symphony when he walks. He has attempted to steal one base in the past two years. The Red Sox peered in the Tampa Bay dugout looking for Perez, but were amazed to see him standing in a corner, not even stretching.

"Cliff runs okay when he gets going," Maddon said. "I had Perez [to run] for [Dioner] Navarro."

Navarro was the next hitter, representing the third run. Remember, Floyd represented the go-ahead run. On any ball in the gap, Perez scores easily. Floyd? Not so much.

But it's about more than the chance of scoring from first base. It's about playing aggressively. Perez instantly changes the dynamic of what was the most important sequence of the game. Perez is a threat to run at any time. Perez forces pitcher Diasuke Matsuzaka to divide his attention between him and the hitter. Matsuzaka probably has to throw over and to slide step. And if Perez does run, he puts pressure on catcher Jason Varitek and the middle infielders because Crawford, one of the fastest runners in baseball, can score from third upon any hesitation or misplay from them. The Red Sox might not want to even throw down to second base if Perez gets a good jump. "It puts enormous pressure on us as far as how we handle it," said one Red Sox source.

Instead, with Floyd taking his tiny pitcher's lead at first base, Matsuzaka did not have to worry about the runner at first at all. Indeed, Matsuzaka threw 14 pitches to the next three batters without ever having to slide step or throw over to first base. Floyd stayed put for three consecutive outs. The last pitch resulted in a slow bouncer to shortstop Jed Lowrie. With Floyd running, Lowrie had time to turn and flip behind him slightly for an easy force play at second. With Perez, either Perez is already on second base upon a steal or his speed from first forces Lowrie to make a tougher throw to first base.

Perez never did get in the game. Maddon lost 2-0 without firing one of his bullets.

2. Maddon also let Kevin Youkilis bat against a lefthander in the eighth inning of a one-run game with runners on. That seemed odd, especially with righthander Grant Balfour ready in the bullpen. But Maddon said he trusts his lefty, J.P. Howell, against righthanders and, he said, lefthanded hitter J.D. Drew was on deck. But Youkilis, not Drew, was the priority. Youkilis already had two hits and was having the best at-bats of anybody in the Boston lineup.

Youkilis knocked in the back-breaking run with a double off the glove of a sliding Crawford in leftfield.

And Howell? Maddon might be interested in hearing the postgame reaction from Howell, who walked his only other hitter, David Ortiz.

"I didn't really throw that many quality pitchers," he said. "I had a problem curbing my emotions. The environment affected me mechanically. It's good to learn from it and carry it over to tomorrow."

3. Now here's something in defense of Maddon: he was perfectly right to give Carlos Pena the green light on a 3-and-0 count against Hideki Okajima with runners at first and second and no outs in the eighth. Why did it make sense?

a) Pena had homered this year on a 3-and-0 count.

b) He's a veteran hitter whom you can trust to be selective.

c) He can hit the ball out and change the game.

d) The Red Sox were next going to bring in Justin Masterson, one of the best groundball pitchers in baseball, meaning this might have been the Rays' best shot.

Good call by Maddon. The problem simply was Pena's execution. He hit a weak pop fly off the end of his bat. The only way he can swing there is if he can square up a pitch. Naturally, Masterson came in and threw a groundball double play to end the inning.

4. It took two years, but Boston pitcher Diasuke Matsuzaka finally started challenging people with fastballs, and the result was a stellar Game 1 performance that caught Tampa Bay off guard. Matsuzaka did his usual nibbling with off-speed stuff to start the game, throwing 59 pitches in the first three innings and somehow surviving four walks. But in the middle innings he started pounding the strike zone with two-seam fastballs and the Rays had no clue what was going on. Matsuzaka threw just 10 pitches in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. By the sixth inning the dazed Rays had 18 called strikes against them. Said Maddon, "We've never seen that before from him."

Said Boston manager Terry Francona, "He's Jekyll and Hyde."

5. I think a world championship just might be foremost on the minds of the Red Sox, but another title is at stake: team of the decade. Boston has a shot at making up the ground the Yankees gained at the start of this decade, especially if they can get to a third World Series in five years and close out strong next season. (Yes, I'm counting the decade as 2000-09). Here are the only teams with 800 regular season wins this decade and how they've fared in the postseason: