Terry Francona

Red Sox manager Terry Francona joined The Big Show Wednesday afternoon to discuss the state of the Sox, including Erik Bedard‘s latest outing, David Ortiz‘ contract dispute and Tuesday night’s comeback win.

Bedard battled with a tight strike zone in Minnesota through five innings of two-run, three-hit ball, and he impressed Francona with the way he overcame a few questionable calls.

“I thought he showed a lot of poise,” Francona said. “I thought after that first inning he really dialed it in and I thought after the fifth inning, I thought he could have kept pitching as far as the way he looked. I don’t think it would have been smart to leave him out there because we’re still building him up. But he got into a rhythm, he held his velocity, he can spin a breaking ball any time he wants. And I’m telling you, it’s exciting. He’s got a good changeup that he used to throw more, and he actually threw it to the lefty, the last hitter that he faced, and I hope he starts throwing it a little bit more because it’s really a good pitch, too.

“During the game, we want every call. So does the other team. There’s not too often during the game where one of the two teams isn’t yelling at the umpire. Whether they were strikes or not, for the amount of pitches he threw that inning and for the amount of walks he had and baserunners, he actually didn’t command that bad. And then there were some pitches, the 3-2 pitch, man it looked like he hit his spot perfect. Those things happen. Tim McClelland is a really good umpire. You don’t see guys complain too often when he’s behind the plate. The only thing they complain about is he’s slow on his call, so we never know when it’s a strike or a ball, but he’s got one of the best reputations in the league. Saying that, sometimes guys miss calls, sometimes it’s easier to miss calls when a guy’s maybe not hitting his spots as well as he should. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

Following is a transcript of the interview. To hear the conversation, check out the The Big Show audio on demand page.

Because [Dustin] Pedroia is spunky, because he does all of these things, it almost hurts his image as how good of a baseball player he is. You probably see him a lot differently than most people.

I’m probably supposed to. I’m supposed to be biased with all of our guys, and I am. But no, I think I might disagree. I think if you asked the players around the league, especially the players, I think you’re going to find how much respect they have for him, the way he plays the game and how good he actually is. A couple of years ago when he played in the World Baseball Classic, I was telling [Derek] Jeter before he met him, I said, “You’re going to love this guy, you guys are going to be inseparable.” And when it was over he was like, “You were right, I couldn’t get enough of him.” And that’s how guys feel when they’re around him.

[Sports Illustrated writer] Tom Verducci describes you and Pedroia as a comedy team, playing cribbage all the time and hurling insults at each other. How did you get to that point?

Last night I went out to the mound to get [Daniel] Bard and it’s obviously a key point in the game and [Pedroia], he’s in there, always. And he’s asking me where I want the infield to play because [Jim] Thome was hitting, and I had my mind on so many things that I wanted to go back and ask [third base coach Tim Bogar] because I just didn’t know. And you talk about laying into me. I mean, [Adrian Gonzalez] is over there laughing, [Kevin Youkilis] is looking at me like what in the world’s going on here, and [Pedroia] is screaming at me. It’s just, he’s one of a kind.

He told you he wanted you to drink some vodka and that way you might manage better?

He actually gave me a bottle of vodka, this was last week, and he told me to drink it before the games so I wouldn’t do stupid things. He’s in my ear. He’s not playing tonight so that’s going to be worse. I’ll hear him for 9 1/2 innings.

You’re sitting him down tonight?

Yeah, I think it’s going to be good for him. We have a day off tomorrow, I think it will be good for him.

But it won’t help you because he’s going to be closer to you.

No, it will be awful. He’ll be four 5-hour Energies into the game and not have anywhere to go with that energy, so he’ll be a mess.

You probably never thought Ortiz was going to beat out an infield single and that was going to be the winning run.

I told you guys we were going to squeeze at some point and it would work. Again, [Pedroia] deserves a little credit for that. Because of his secondary lead and the way he got off third, he made that a harder play than maybe it should have been and it put some pressure on the pitcher, or maybe he does make the play.

We saw it on tape with Ortiz interrupting your press conference. What did you think when he came into your press conference saying, “Hey, I’m pissed off and we’ve got to talk”?

Well, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was doing the press conference as I do every day at 4, and [media relations director] Pam Ganley stands by the door and kind of just monitors the press conference. I saw [Ortiz] stick his head in, and that’s not the first time he’s done that, he’ll stick his head in and say something smart aleck, it’s just not caught on camera. I just think for whatever reason this really got under his skin and unfortunately for him, or for us, it was caught on tape and you have to do some explaining. It wasn’t the end of the world. We actually talked about it a few minutes later downstairs because I didn’t want to address it with him, but we ended up being pretty good with it, laughing in the end. Sometimes different things, different times of the year get under somebody’s skin and they react to it. We’re not all perfect and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I wish it wouldn’t have happened, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Did Pedey provoke it? Because there’s a story out there that he provoked it.

I don’t know. Again, I was upstairs. If anybody provoked anything, I’m putting my money on Pedey.

Apparently, there’s a story out there that he provoked it, basically telling him that the RBI was taken away by John Henry and by Theo [Epstein] to kind of put pressure on him for a new contract.

Do you feel that it’s a standard part of baseball, is it a rare part of baseball for players to view official scorers with a little skepticism? Do you think that most players understand what these guys are doing?

No. No. Players want their hits. And I don’t think they slow down enough to, they’re concerned about themselves. And this kind of thing happens a lot more often than you realize. In fact somebody told me that we actually, there are so many things that get sent into the league and we’re not even close to the top of the list of complaining about stuff like that. So I felt good about that.

I know people made a big deal, certainly Bobby Valentine did the other night, about the time in between pitches from Josh Beckett.

Bobby makes a big deal of a lot of things.

He made a colossal deal. Apparently he’s never seen a Red Sox-Yankees game before, or he’s never worked one because these are normally 4-4:30, Bobby. It was a typical Red Sox-Yankees game and as you pointed out after, Beckett took a little bit longer, but as the manager he’s pitching so well. What do you say? Why would you say anything to him? Would you?

I didn’t say anything that night. We did recognize he was being slow. It was hot. And again, that’s a Yankees lineup. Man, they work you so hard. He was, I don’t want to say laboring because he was pitching great. But you could see [Jason Varitek] making a couple of trips to the mound after he covered first. It was humid. He was trying to kind of maneuver his way through a lineup, a good lineup. He was working slow because we talk to our guys all the time, not just for the pace of the game, but for our infielders just because it gives us a better chance to win just to get these guys, get them throwing it. That was kind of an abnormality.

And again, I understand. I know the rules. I thought the umpires did a good job of staying out of the way. Because it was a good game. And fans don’t complain when it’s a good game. And I talked to [MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations] Joe Torre about it, who, and everybody knows how I feel about Joe. I remember seeing his quotes when he was the manager of the Yankees. There’s a lot riding on these games. There’s a lot going on. I understand the league’s policy and we need to adhere to it, but it’s also pretty good baseball.

I want to talk about that, that contrast. Last night, I think Tampa had a game that was under two hours, I think it was 1:56, and the Yankee games are over four hours. From your perspective, in the dugout, do you even notice? Do you notice that this is a fast game or this game is longer than usual. Or are you so caught up in the action that you’re not thinking about the time that’s elapsed.

I think the nights when I probably feel those are bad games. When somebody’s getting blown out or it’s just getting to the point where it’s like, “Come on, let’s go.” But not on games like that. I never even think about it. I’ll be amazed sometimes. I’ll go in after the game and look up and think, “Oh my god, it’s 7 p.m. or something, or it’s 11:30 p.m.” And I don’t think the fans are saying the same thing either, or a different thing. If it’s good baseball, nobody cares.

But again, I understand the league’s policy. They want to move the game. There’s so much time now, especially on national games given two [minutes] in between because they’re trying to sell the product. There’s two [minutes] and sometimes 20 [seconds], I think it goes up to two minutes and 40 seconds in between innings. So, they’re trying to make up the time somewhere else. That’s probably the part I have a problem with.

Have you guys heard from the league at all based on Beckett’s performance the other night?

Yeah. I talked to Joe the other day. He was great. I promised him that I’d kind of give him a kick in the pants.

What’s it like talking to Joe now, in this capacity? You’ve seen him in all stages. You saw him as a kid when he was playing with your dad, you managed against him, and now, he’s working for the league. What’s that like?

It’s pretty good. I think they made a good hire. He’s a great guy to talk to and, again, he’s got the perspective, probably better than anybody you could ever talk to about the Yankees-Red Sox and what goes into it and the rest of the league. I think they did a good thing. He’s level-headed. You never hear him raise his voice, and if you do, you really did something bad. I actually enjoyed talking to him. He’s pretty good. He’s better than pretty good.

It’s probably good to have somebody that has great respect throughout the league because usually when you’re talking about an enforcer like that, it’s not a good situation. It’s an emotional situation.

When Joe talks to you, he’s going to get your attention and he doesn’t have to raise his voice. And he’s got a way of making a point. He’s tremendous. I’ve always had a lot for respect for him. I know that wasn’t a real popular thing to say back when he had a Yankee uniform on, but that’s just the way he carries himself.

I was going to say, get ready to have your press conference interrupted today because Pedroia is going to upset that whole thing when he’s out of the lineup. What are you going to do with the replacement? How’s the batting order going to look?

We’re going to try to hit it pretty much the same. We’re going to hit [Marco Scutaro] second, just let him slide in for Pedey. And then [Mike] Aviles is playing second and we’ll have him hitting ninth. Everybody else stays put.

I wanted to ask you about Adrian Gonzalez. We had him on here a couple of weeks ago and I asked him the question about the home run drought because he he’s had one home run now in the last month, month and a half. He said it didn’t bother him. He didn’t care about it. That he was just going out there and he was doing certain things. And it’s interesting as you watch this play out and look at his production. There are a lot of guys who will go through 2-3-week hitting slumps where they can’t touch the ball. Here he is, he’s become a singles hitter, a doubles hitter last night and he’s being extremely productive even though he’s not showing that power. Does it ever bother you that the guy’s not showing power when he’s hitting like this and producing like this?

No, not even a little bit. That’s the last thing we ever talk about with any of our hitters because you’re only going to cause problems. He’s had, from time to time, a stiff neck or been banged up. His shoulder was a little bit sore. Those things happen. Sometimes they get in the way of maybe getting a bit of extension in your swing, things like that. Like you kind of alluded to, he’s found a way to still be productive. Most hitters, when they’re struggling, they’re making outs. He’s hitting singles. When he feels good he’s driving the ball out of the ballpark. But it happens over the course of a season. That’s why very few guys hit 50-60 home runs. Because you go through periods where you just don’t feel good, for various reasons.

Mohegan Sun’s Dinner With Tito Question of the Day: It seems inevitable that each season brings a breakdown in the five-man pitching rotation. That being said, can you address how important it has been to have such a versatile pitcher like Tim Wakefield on your pitching staff all these years?

That’s a good point. We found out the hard way a couple of years ago when we ran out of pitching and it kind of derailed our season. Saying that, it’s hard to find guys of that caliber that you can kind of have waiting. I think Theo’s done a great job of not only realizing we need to address it but then going out and addressing it.

It may not always make Wake the happiest camper in the world, but he’s fulfilled that role really well. Back in ’04 when we used five starters, We thought that was going to be the case every year. That’s not the case. It’s not just us, it’s every team.

You need guys like that with that versatility. Like [Alfredo] Aceves can start or throw multiple innings out of the bullpen. Guys like that are very helpful in your rotation.

Is it also important to have a guy not just with that versatility, but a guy who understands that because he’s versatile, sometimes he might be a starter, sometimes he may be a long guy, sometimes he might be caught in between. I can imagine some players want a role, or some pitchers want a role and they just want you to leave them there.

Yeah, I think it’s probably — sometimes it’s the exception, like you’re saying. And I think sometimes Wake doesn’t like it either. We respect that. There’s a reason these guys are good. They’re competitive. They want to do things, and they have goals. Sometimes our view is not the same as the players. But if we can get past that and all kind of get going in one direction as we seem to be, then it certainly makes your team better.

Again, I understand that. Wake wants to win games. He wants to go out and pitch. I think that’s the way with everybody. I respect that.