Red Sox reliever Mark Melancon came up in the Yankees organization. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It has been a quiet spring for Mark Melancon. The Red Sox acquired the 26-year-old — who spent 2011 closing for the Astros — early in the offseason, but ever since the team followed that move with another to acquire Andrew Bailey from the A’s, Melancon has moved into the shadows.

With Bailey on board, the expectation immediately became that the former A’s closer would be the successor to Jonathan Papelbon. Melancon was thought of as the likely setup man.

Of course, while Bailey has been unflinching in the idea of following up a closing great in Papelbon, Melancon has some experience in that peculiar art as well. After all, Melancon was once viewed as the potential successor to Mariano Rivera as the Yankees closer.

Melancon was a dominant closer for both the University of Arizona and Team USA during his college career. In 2006, he was being considered a potential first-round talent before he suffered an elbow injury in the middle of his junior year that shut him down and squashed his draft stock.

Still, the Yankees were in the process of flexing their financial muscle in the draft. They selected Melancon in the ninth round but gave him a second-round bonus ($600,000).

Though Melancon would need Tommy John surgery for his elbow condition in late 2006, he came back in dominating fashion in 2008, marching through three levels of New York’s system.

By the next spring training, he was not only on the Yankees’ radar for a big league call-up, but there was even discussion that Melancon might be the heir apparent to Rivera — then in the middle of a three-year contract that ran through 2010 — as the Yankees closer.

“That was talked about,” Melancon said. “I guess it’s neat, but it doesn’t mean anything until you’re there and you’re doing it. It’s an action.” Read the rest of this entry »

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Thanks to a lesson learned from Mariano Rivera the first time Jonathan Papelbon met him at the 2006 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, Papelbon won’t be obsessing about that fateful ninth inning from last September that ended his career in a Red Sox uniform.

“I don’t think about it at all,” Papelbon said Saturday while wearing his new Phillies uniform. “When I was a rookie and I made my first All-Star Game, I had a chance to talk to Mo about what was the biggest thing that was going to make me successful in this game. His first answer was, ‘short-term memory.’ So, you have to be able to learn from them still, learn from those situations but man, I don’t sit there and think about it all spring. You go over things and you try to learn from them but you have to be able to turn the page.”

Papelbon still has in his mind the goal of someday passing Rivera for the all-time saves lead. But that might be next-to impossible as Papelbon has 217 coming into this season, the first of a four-year, $50 million deal with the Phillies. Rivera currently sits at 603. If Rivera doesn’t throw another pitch, Papelbon, now 31 years of age, would have to average 39 saves over the next 10 seasons to pass him.

“I think what Mariano has meant to the game pretty much speaks for itself,” Papelbon said. “But for me, I call him ‘The Godfather’ jokingly because he’s the Godfather of closers but at the same time, I think that he’s the guy you have to go after. Every time I saw him last year, I told him, ‘Man, you’re making my job harder to catch you every year. He’s found some kind of Fountain of Youth somewhere. To me, he’s always been special because I may not be sitting here today if it wasn’t for him.”

But there’s someone else Papelbon is grateful to, someone with a bridge from Rivera in New York to Papelbon in Boston and now Philadelphia – bullpen coach Gary Tuck, who stayed behind with the Red Sox and manager Bobby Valentine.

“For so many years there in Boston, I was able to be under Gary Tuck, who was also with Mo for all those championship runs in New York,” Papelbon said. “How many times I heard ‘Repeat [your] delivery,’ I don’t know, but repeating your delivery and conditioning your body to do one thing, repeat your delivery. Mariano was religious about it and Gary kind of took of that into his role with me and making me realize how important that aspect is. Read the rest of this entry »

Could Mariano Rivera finally be ready to retire? (AP)

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who is awaiting a second opinion about having surgery on his vocal chords, speculated that next season could be his last in the major leagues. The soon-to-be 42-year-old is entering the final year of his contract.

“I don’t know what will happen,” he told the New York Post. “I have one year left. I might call it over. I will know more in spring training.”

Rivera has been dealing with a condition that has affected his voice, and he is considering surgery to see if the problem can be fixed.

“Every time I talk it gets worse and worse,” he said.

Rivera also was asked about Jonathan Papelbon leaving the Red Sox to sign a four-year, $50 million deal with the Phillies.

“I have no reaction — that’s the market and he took advantage of it,” said Rivera, who is playing under a two-year, $30 million deal. “He is a good kid, he means well. He is a hard worker. I wish him the best.”

Jarrod Saltalamacchia was back in the swing of things and available Wednesday.

With all the complaining and moaning about the length of Red Sox-Yankees games, there is some irony not lost on Terry Francona.

With Tuesday’s three-hour, 59-minute marathon, the two teams have combined to play 11 games of at least 3:24, including two over four hours this season. Joe Torre, the former Yankees manager and now an MLB operations executive, oversees how well games are managed by players, managers and umpires alike.

“What’s interesting about this is, because Joe Torre is in charge of this, he had the greatest quotes of all on why these games are long,” Francona said Wednesday. “But it’s two really good teams, and there’s a lot at stake, there’s a lot of attention to detail. Every pitch seems pretty big, every base runner seems pretty big and then there’s [the fact] so many of these are nationally televised games, that’s going to slow it down, too. I think it’s just the fact that they are important to both teams and we treat it that way. I think the players feel that way and the players feel that way.”

The Red Sox manager said he isn’t about to tell Wednesday’s starting pitcher Josh Beckett to do something that will make him feel uncomfortable. Beckett was criticized by former Mets manager Bobby Valentine on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball during his start on Aug. 7 for taking as much as 45 seconds between pitches to deliver the baseball.

“That’s not going to make me lose sleep,” Francona said of Valentine’s critique.

Wednesday’s game was on ESPN nationally but the lead crew of Dan Schulman, Orel Hersheiser and Valentine were not calling the game. Francona acknowledged that major league baseball will occasionally inform teams when they believe pitchers are being too deliberate and slowing the pace of the game.

“They could,” Francona said. “From our standpoint, we always want our pitchers to work quick, just because your defense is going to be better and the game flows better. But if I have my choice of him pitching slow and winning and getting a letter from the [MLB], that’s what I’d go with rather than him hurry and get knocked around.”

On Aug. 7, Beckett labored through 101 pitches over six innings, in a 3-2 game won by the Red Sox in 10 innings. That game took four hours, 15 minutes, with no delays.

“I understand the point,” Francona said. “That just happened. It was a tough night for him He kind of slugged his way through it but he’s generally pretty good.

“I notice it on my way home. Seriously, look at my watch and go, ‘Whoa! It’s 11:30.’ Not during a game. The only game I probably ever notice when there’s a game, 11-0, one of those type games. Games are fun.”

The best sign for Jarrod Saltalamacchia on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after getting drilled in the left forearm by a 93-MPH cutter from Mariano Rivera, was his presence in the batting cage, taking hacks with no visible discomfort.

“I think we thought it was OK just because it got the meat [of the forearm],” Francona said. “When it first happened, it’s hard to tell when a guy check swings, where it hits him. From my vantage point, it looked like it hit him on the back of the hand, which is kind of scary but he just got a good old-fashioned bruise. I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more, with the way that ball cuts. That’s a pitch that kind of has a mind of its own.”

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said before the Red Sox game against the Yankees Wednesday night that J.D. Drew suffered a mild setback in his rehab outing Tuesday night, with the outfielder spraining his right, middle finger while playing for the PawSox.

“We don’t think it’s anything major but he’s not going to play tonight. So we’ll see how long that puts him back,” Epstein said. “Right now, we’re status quo. We’ll see what happens when J.D.’s ready.”

Drew went 3-for-3 in the Tuesday night game, and was potentially set to rejoin the Red Sox’ lineup Thursday.

“I don’t think it as anything major, but it’s just kind of uncomfortable swinging the bat today when he tried it,” Epstein explained. “So we said they have a day off tomorrow anyway, just come back here and we’ll check it out and see where we go from there.” Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel Bard

Red Sox reliever Daniel Bard entered Sunday’s game against the Yankees in an unusual spot for him. The game had gone into extra innings, and Red Sox manager Terry Francona had called upon the usual setup man to pitch the all-important 10th, during which any one mistake could have handed Boston’s bitter rivals a win. Bard stepped to the mound against the Yankees’ heart of the lineup (4-6 hitters Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher) and consequently mowed down the fearsome threesome: Teixeira on a swinging strikeout, Cano on a groundout to second and Swisher looking at backdoor slider for strike three.

Moments later, Josh Reddick lined a hit to left field that scored Darnell McDonald. The home team had won 3-2, and Bard had pitched last for just the ninth time this season.

***

For the time being and at least into the foreseeable future, Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera will be the man that all major league closers are compared to, and for good reason (even if he did blow the save Sunday night that led to the Sox win). His 588 saves are the most among active pitchers and are just 13 behind all-time leader Trevor Hoffman for the all-time lead. At 886 games finished, he’s been on the mound in the final inning more than anyone in the history of baseball. His cutter may deserve its own wing in Cooperstown when the 41-year-old decides he doesn’t want to throw it anymore, although if his 1.87 ERA and 29 saves in 2011 are any indication, that time doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon.

But as is the case with all closers, Rivera wasn’t always the Yankees’ go-to man in the ninth. In 1996 at the age of 26, he set up for then-closer John Wetteland, who led the American League with 43 saves that season and was the MVP of the 1996 World Series.

Flash-forward 15 years and the Red Sox find themselves in a similar situation to the ’96 Yankees in that they also have an elite closer and a 26-year-old setup man, Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard.

Read the rest of this entry »

After blowing the 14th save against the Red Sox in his certain Hall of Fame career, Mariano Rivera took full responsibility, admitting that his trademark cutter pitch to Marco Scutaro that yielded a leadoff double in the ninth was not where he wanted it. Scutaro lined Rivera’s 2-2 pitch high off the Monster in left to start the game-tying rally in the ninth, with the Yankees leading, 2-1.

“It wasn’t the pitch that I wanted it to be,” Rivera said. “It was a little bit down, should’ve been a little bit up. I can’t blame nothing but myself. I didn’t get it done. That’s that.”

Scutaro has a history of dramatics with the Yankees closer, hitting a three-run, game-winning walk-off homer against Rivera when Scutaro played for the A’s on April 15, 2007. Rivera insisted he wasn’t thinking about that when Scutaro led off the ninth on Sunday night.

“I don’t think about it like that,” Rivera said. “If I was thinking like that, I wouldn’t be doing this job. I was just going in there thinking of getting him out as soon as possible, just get him out.”

Rivera nearly got out of his own mess when Jacoby Ellsbury laid down a bunt for the first out, moving Scutaro to third. But Dustin Pedroia lined a ball just deep enough to left for Scutaro to score and tie the game. Josh Reddick gave Boston a 3-2 win the next inning when he singled home pinch-runner Darnell McDonald from second base.

While Rivera hasn’t been perfect this season – as Sunday was his fifth blown save in 34 chances, he still has been dominant. But even back in Rivera’s heyday, the Red Sox always seemed to have a knack for getting to him.

“That’s exciting,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said afterward. “Anytime you see Mo in the game, it’s not good news. We’re the one team, everyone once in a while, you kind make a chip [in his armor]. That was exciting. Scutaro with a huge hit, Jacoby gets a nice bunt down and Pedey with a good at-bat and we get to keep playing.”

Most famously, of course, there was Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series when Kevin Millar worked his walk and pinch-runner Dave Roberts just got under Derek Jeter’s tag, scoring on Bill Mueller’s hit. In the regular season, the Red Sox have tagged Rivera with 14 blown saves, six more than the next closest teams (Angels and Orioles).

But Rivera still managed to set some history Sunday, making his 1,023rd appearance, passing Jose Mesa and Lee Smith for sole possession of 10th place on baseball’s all-time games-pitched list.

It was the singular showdown of a classic Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park.

With the Red Sox leading, 2-0, they managed to get the bases loaded with two outs against Bartolo Colon. The Yankee starter was pulled by manager Joe Girardi in favor of Boone Logan, a long man in the Yankees pen who is one of the unsung heroes of a surprisingly dominant bullpen.

Into the batter’s box stepped the most dangerous and consistent hitter in the American League this season, Adrian Gonzalez. One would figure the advantage would be in favor of the batter. But Logan wasn’t concerned about the star quality of the batter just getting his team out of a big jam.

“A lefty is a lefty and that’s a big situation, no matter who’s at the plate. You can’t think of it like it’s Gonzalez is at the dish. If you do, that’s when you can probably get in trouble. Just stay confident and go to work.”

And work in this case required just three pitches. Fastball, slider and slider, with the final two coming on uncharacteristically ugly swings from Gonzalez.

“First pitch, coming in figuring he’s looking off-speed,” Logan said. “That’s typically what lefties do, coming in, especially with the bases loaded. I came in there, instead of throwing slider, I went fastball first pitch. He was definitely looking off-speed and then my next [pitch] a slider, which wasn’t one of my better ones, he didn’t look very good on it. I said, ‘If I throw this next slider in the dirt he’ll swing over it.’ And he did.”

Gonzo’s take?

“If I would have been looking slider, I wouldn’t have swung,” Gonzalez said. “Last time we faced him in New York I had a pretty similar situation, bases loaded, and I don’t know if he came in to face me or if he was already in the game, but I worked the count and I was able to get a walk. He usually attacks me with sinkers in, sliders away. So I wanted to see how he was going to attack me early. And he went with a four-seamer down in the zone – good pitch, just at the knees. And I told myself to look fastball, middle-away. And he threw a good slider to put me 0-2 and then I just tried to battle. He dropped down a little bit and I wasn’t able to pull back.

Logan said he was as proud of the relievers behind him as he was to strike out the American League’s best hitter on three pitches, giving his team the chance for the go-ahead rally in the next half-inning.

“It’s awesome when the whole bullpen goes in there and puts up zeros, especially against Boston, keeping a one-run lead from the sixth inning, on,” Logan said of the trio of Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera after him. “It’s a great feeling. I’m proud of the guys.”