Assuming Bobby Jenks isn't right -- he and the Sox say he's fine, but his fastball says his otherwise -- Ozzie Guillen is now adding Mike MacDougal and Matt Thornton to the ninth-inning mix and employing a three-headed monster for his closer. In his arsenal:
- A flamethrowing righty lacking his usual power
- A righty with devastating breaking stuff and an injury history
- A lefty with some nasty stuff
This looks awfully familiar to the situation Jerry Manuel had in the second half of the 2003 season, with the following former Sox:
- Billy Koch
- Tom Gordon
- Damaso Marte
Of course, the situation is different because Koch recorded his last save with the Sox on June 24 of that year; Jenks has encountered his troubles in September. Koch was also a lot worse for a lot longer, so Manuel had no choice but to turn to Marte and Gordon based on the situation. Jenks is in a limbo state right now, and I'm wondering if he's becoming the fourth reliever under Ozzie to have trouble disclosing injuries.
Marte and Gordon fared decently after Koch lost the job, putting up the following numbers:
| G | W-L | SV | ERA
| IP | H | ER | BB | K |
Marte
| 38 | 2-1 | 7
| 1.10 | 49 | 28 | 6 | 21 | 55 |
Gordon
| 27 | 3-1 | 11 | 2.61 | 38 | 25 | 11 | 14 | 45 |
Total
| 65
| 5-2 | 18 | 1.76 | 87
| 53 | 17 | 35 | 100 |
Tallying up blown saves in this case is somewhat unreliable, since they jumped between setting up and closing. For what it's worth, I only see three blown saves after June 24.
At any rate, they managed to become an effective ninth inning combination for Manuel. The Sox struggled in the last two months of the season and finished the season four games behind the Twins and out of the playoffs, but it wasn't the fault of Marte and Gordon. As mentioned before, the Twins finished four games better than the Sox against the 119-loss Detroit Tigers alone.
More importantly, the Sox lost five straight games against Minnesota in August, never scoring more than three runs in any of those games. I still
blame Jose Paniagua.
That's going to be the same story this year. Given what they have shown so far, Thorndog and Mac The Ninth (We can use that again!) should be fine in the closing role. If Jenks needs to miss some time, I don't think the Sox would miss much by choosing the closer based on matchups.
The games are most likely going to be decided in the eight innings prior, and the bigger problem facing Guillen is how to replace MacDougal and Thornton in their setup roles. If
tonight's game was any indication, Brandon McCarthy, Dustin Hermanson and Boone Logan aren't the answer, and Neal Cotts has been dismissed from the discussion a long time ago.