How many of these pitchers with one career Red Sox save do you remember

Captaincoop

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Jul 16, 2005
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Nope. Javy caught all his games for the Sox from August 4 to September 2 (while Varitek was sidelined by arthroscopic knee surgery). During that period, Javier only pitched in one game (August 20), caught by Mirabelli.
That was a joyless stretch of Red Sox baseball. Javy Lopez always brings that lousy memory back.
 

Humphrey

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View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1393031756815683586


after Garrett Whitlock got his first red sox save, RedSoxstats (@SoxScout) posted a list of pitchers who had one career save for the Red Sox in the 2000s.. How many of these names do you remember?



to be honest I only remember like 3 of these, and I think the rest were sent down the Memory hole
I knew Person pitched for the Phils, not the Jays and most certainly not the Sox. Willie Banks I recall as a Twin; shocked that he was here 2 seasons and appeared in 29 games in his second year here. Abad, Shiell, Gomes. Don't remember them as Sox at all
Wasn't Chris Haney the guy on Green Acres always trying to sell Oliver Douglas some sort of hare-brained contraption?
 

TonyPenaNeverJuiced

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Jun 7, 2015
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25/28, feel pretty good about that. Didn't remember Pichardo, Shiell, or Banks.

This gives me a rare opportunity to tell a personal story about Julian Tavarez, with special appearances from Jeff Frye, John Wasdin, Mike Myers, and host of other ex/future Sox.

It's August 22nd, 2000, and the Rockies are hosting the Braves. My dad and I are in town, checking off stadium #23 on our quest to see all 30 stadiums. It's a crummy day, light rain if I recall, and a crummy game. By the 7th inning, we've wound our way down to the second row behind the Rockies dugout.

Jeff Frye was traded from the Sox a month earlier (along with John Wasdin), and he and Tavarez (6 years before he would become a Sox) are leaning on the railing in front of the dugout. So I decide to tell Frye how much I'll miss him on the Red Sox. Tavarez LOVES this, and keeps goading Frye to acknowledge it, which he eventually does. By the 9th it's so thin in the crowd that I'm just shouting anything I think will make those guys laugh, with generally positive but mixed results.

But what Tavarez and Frye LOVE is when I give Bobby Bonilla a bunch of grief for not being as attractive as David Justice, who had also played for the Braves and had been married to Halle Berry (it's the 10th inning, we're all delirious). I'm ragging on Bonilla, who takes a walk and, because there's only a couple-thousand people left in the stadium, looks over at me when he gets to first, laughs, and, looking into the dugout, asks the Rockies if someone "will shut that kid up!" Of course, this prompts Tavarez to turn around and tell me to get louder, egging me on for the rest of the game.

Next inning, John Wasdin relieves Mike Myers in a double-switch which brings Butch Huskey into the game to play left. Andrés Galarraga, with the Braves now, works a full count against Wasdin, who then plunks him with a misplaced curveball. Andrés takes great exception to this, and in the middle of this miserable game a brawl break out. Tavarez is in the thick of it but avoids being tossed, comes back after things calm down and now REALLY wants me to give the Braves grief, which I oblige.

Next inning, out of pitchers, the Rockies send up the injured Brent Mayne, a catcher with a broken catching hand. He throws a scoreless frame and the Rockies walk it off in the bottom of the 12th. Mayne records the win - a historic night.

On his way back to the dugout Tavarez tells me and my dad to hold up, and we get a picture that's lost to time, and he tosses a random baseball, which I'm sure I lost playing catch somewhere. Loved Tavarez ever since, and was very excited when he joined the Sox.

Other ex/future-Sox pitchers who made appearances that night: Stan Belinda, Mike Remlinger, and John Burkett.

And some position players who got ABs: Javy Lopez, Todd Walker, and Terry Shumpert.
 

Humphrey

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Aug 3, 2010
3,163
Ah, yeah, you've got it. He saved all three of our wins in the 2003 ALCS — a set of games I try not to spend a lot of time reliving. But he was nails, and I don't feel like he belongs on this list.
Williamson was the closer for Game 5 in the first round vs the As. Sox were up 1. Walked the first two guys and got yanked, Derek Lowe came in and got the save; w/2 strikeouts with the winning runs in scoring position.

The 3 saves Williamson got in the playoffs were all against the Yanks. Still waiting to close out Game 7, if not for..................
 

Humphrey

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Well you're right - that did happen in 2012. But why should Bobby Valentine turn what was (and apparently still is) an elite reliever into such trash? How does that happen?
He had a couple bad outings at the beginning of the year and IIRC Bobby V made some comments that shattered what little confidence he had at that point. He was in the minors a fairly long time, IIRC; and there weren't very many doing the job well on the big club while he was down there.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,244
25/28, feel pretty good about that. Didn't remember Pichardo, Shiell, or Banks.

This gives me a rare opportunity to tell a personal story about Julian Tavarez, with special appearances from Jeff Frye, John Wasdin, Mike Myers, and host of other ex/future Sox.

It's August 22nd, 2000, and the Rockies are hosting the Braves. My dad and I are in town, checking off stadium #23 on our quest to see all 30 stadiums. It's a crummy day, light rain if I recall, and a crummy game. By the 7th inning, we've wound our way down to the second row behind the Rockies dugout.

Jeff Frye was traded from the Sox a month earlier (along with John Wasdin), and he and Tavarez (6 years before he would become a Sox) are leaning on the railing in front of the dugout. So I decide to tell Frye how much I'll miss him on the Red Sox. Tavarez LOVES this, and keeps goading Frye to acknowledge it, which he eventually does. By the 9th it's so thin in the crowd that I'm just shouting anything I think will make those guys laugh, with generally positive but mixed results.

But what Tavarez and Frye LOVE is when I give Bobby Bonilla a bunch of grief for not being as attractive as David Justice, who had also played for the Braves and had been married to Halle Berry (it's the 10th inning, we're all delirious). I'm ragging on Bonilla, who takes a walk and, because there's only a couple-thousand people left in the stadium, looks over at me when he gets to first, laughs, and, looking into the dugout, asks the Rockies if someone "will shut that kid up!" Of course, this prompts Tavarez to turn around and tell me to get louder, egging me on for the rest of the game.

Next inning, John Wasdin relieves Mike Myers in a double-switch which brings Butch Huskey into the game to play left. Andrés Galarraga, with the Braves now, works a full count against Wasdin, who then plunks him with a misplaced curveball. Andrés takes great exception to this, and in the middle of this miserable game a brawl break out. Tavarez is in the thick of it but avoids being tossed, comes back after things calm down and now REALLY wants me to give the Braves grief, which I oblige.

Next inning, out of pitchers, the Rockies send up the injured Brent Mayne, a catcher with a broken catching hand. He throws a scoreless frame and the Rockies walk it off in the bottom of the 12th. Mayne records the win - a historic night.

On his way back to the dugout Tavarez tells me and my dad to hold up, and we get a picture that's lost to time, and he tosses a random baseball, which I'm sure I lost playing catch somewhere. Loved Tavarez ever since, and was very excited when he joined the Sox.

Other ex/future-Sox pitchers who made appearances that night: Stan Belinda, Mike Remlinger, and John Burkett.

And some position players who got ABs: Javy Lopez, Todd Walker, and Terry Shumpert.
Fan-tastic story.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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He had a couple bad outings at the beginning of the year and IIRC Bobby V made some comments that shattered what little confidence he had at that point. He was in the minors a fairly long time, IIRC; and there weren't very many doing the job well on the big club while he was down there.
Four outings to start the year. Entered a tie game on Opening Day and lost the game on a walk-off hit. Blew his first and only save opportunity a few days later. His third appearance was to finish the ninth of a blow out win. His last appearance before being optioned was a garbage time 8th inning in which the Sox were already down big and he gave up 6 runs without recording an out.

Basically, Valentine kicked him to the back of the doghouse after two outings and totally shattered him. He went down to Pawtucket in mid-April and didn't return until early June. In hindsight, it feels like any other recent Sox manager (Tito, Farrell, Cora) would have given him a public vote of support after the blown save and try to nurse him through getting his groove back, and probably salvaged the year for him.
 

RG33

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View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1393031756815683586


after Garrett Whitlock got his first red sox save, RedSoxstats (@SoxScout) posted a list of pitchers who had one career save for the Red Sox in the 2000s.. How many of these names do you remember?



to be honest I only remember like 3 of these, and I think the rest were sent down the Memory hole
Ben Taylor, Chris Haney, Jason Shiell, Robert Person rang no bells. Everyone else is clearly remembered.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Mar 26, 2005
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Williamson was the closer for Game 5 in the first round vs the As. Sox were up 1. Walked the first two guys and got yanked, Derek Lowe came in and got the save; w/2 strikeouts with the winning runs in scoring position.
Ahh yes, the famous Derek Lowe crotch-grab incident. But what a pitch that was.
 

brs3

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May 20, 2008
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I fondly remember most of these guys. They are the definition of the jokey 'old friend' that announcers refer to players returning with a different team. Only minor detail is Wasdin had a couple saves in the 90s for the Sox. Hard to believe, but it's true!
 

slamminsammya

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Jul 31, 2006
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I think I mostly remember Willie Banks for the very reason we're talking about him now - his one save with the Red Sox happened to be one of the cheapest saves in MLB history. He pitched the last three innings of a 22-4 win over the Devil Rays; it was in that game in 2002 when Nomar hit three home runs on his birthday. Banks held the title of "cheapest save in the 21st century" until 2007, when Wes Littleton took it from him by pitching the last three innings in a 30-3 Rangers/Orioles blowout.
I was at that 22-4 game! Man, it was hot as fuck and I think we left in the 7th inning if not earlier, after Nomar had already hit two.
 

SumnerH

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Jul 18, 2005
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Is Guano still the ugliest Red Sox ever? Maybe ugliest MLBer ever?
According to Bill James, who's run the sabermetrics, it's Don Mossi.

Don Mossi had two careers, one as a reliever an one as a starter, and he was pretty darned good at both. No one who saw him play remembers that, because Mossi's ears looked as if they had been borrowed from a much larger species, and reattached without proper supervision. His nose was crooked, his eyes were in the wrong place... he looked like Gary Gaetti escaping from Devil's Island.
...
Don Mossi was the complete five-tool ugly player. He could run ugly, hit ugly, throw ugly, field ugly, and ugly for power. He was ugly to all fields. He could ugly behind the runner as well as anybody, and you talk about pressure... man, you never saw a player who was uglier the in clutch.
 

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Van Everyman

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Apr 30, 2009
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25/28, feel pretty good about that. Didn't remember Pichardo, Shiell, or Banks.

This gives me a rare opportunity to tell a personal story about Julian Tavarez, with special appearances from Jeff Frye, John Wasdin, Mike Myers, and host of other ex/future Sox.

It's August 22nd, 2000, and the Rockies are hosting the Braves. My dad and I are in town, checking off stadium #23 on our quest to see all 30 stadiums. It's a crummy day, light rain if I recall, and a crummy game. By the 7th inning, we've wound our way down to the second row behind the Rockies dugout.

Jeff Frye was traded from the Sox a month earlier (along with John Wasdin), and he and Tavarez (6 years before he would become a Sox) are leaning on the railing in front of the dugout. So I decide to tell Frye how much I'll miss him on the Red Sox. Tavarez LOVES this, and keeps goading Frye to acknowledge it, which he eventually does. By the 9th it's so thin in the crowd that I'm just shouting anything I think will make those guys laugh, with generally positive but mixed results.

But what Tavarez and Frye LOVE is when I give Bobby Bonilla a bunch of grief for not being as attractive as David Justice, who had also played for the Braves and had been married to Halle Berry (it's the 10th inning, we're all delirious). I'm ragging on Bonilla, who takes a walk and, because there's only a couple-thousand people left in the stadium, looks over at me when he gets to first, laughs, and, looking into the dugout, asks the Rockies if someone "will shut that kid up!" Of course, this prompts Tavarez to turn around and tell me to get louder, egging me on for the rest of the game.

Next inning, John Wasdin relieves Mike Myers in a double-switch which brings Butch Huskey into the game to play left. Andrés Galarraga, with the Braves now, works a full count against Wasdin, who then plunks him with a misplaced curveball. Andrés takes great exception to this, and in the middle of this miserable game a brawl break out. Tavarez is in the thick of it but avoids being tossed, comes back after things calm down and now REALLY wants me to give the Braves grief, which I oblige.

Next inning, out of pitchers, the Rockies send up the injured Brent Mayne, a catcher with a broken catching hand. He throws a scoreless frame and the Rockies walk it off in the bottom of the 12th. Mayne records the win - a historic night.

On his way back to the dugout Tavarez tells me and my dad to hold up, and we get a picture that's lost to time, and he tosses a random baseball, which I'm sure I lost playing catch somewhere. Loved Tavarez ever since, and was very excited when he joined the Sox.

Other ex/future-Sox pitchers who made appearances that night: Stan Belinda, Mike Remlinger, and John Burkett.

And some position players who got ABs: Javy Lopez, Todd Walker, and Terry Shumpert.
Ok, that ruled.

Remlinger is another guy who looked about 20 years older than he was.
 

BaseballJones

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Oct 1, 2015
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He had a couple bad outings at the beginning of the year and IIRC Bobby V made some comments that shattered what little confidence he had at that point. He was in the minors a fairly long time, IIRC; and there weren't very many doing the job well on the big club while he was down there.
Ugh just awful.
 

Sandwich Pick

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Sep 9, 2017
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Josh Smith is the only one I don't remember at all.

Robert Person is real, because I was at a Phillies game around 2002 or 2003 at which he homered twice as a pitcher, and had a third ball caught at the fence. If I saw a pitcher hit 3 home runs in a game, that would probably remain the weirdest thing I've ever seen in person, Baseball division.
I remember that game. He hit a grand slam in the 1st inning and a 3-run HR later.

He also had a fan club at the Vet called 'Person's People'

https://www.philliedelphia.com/2014/06/monday-memory-12-years-ago-robert-person-hits-two-homers.html

Wayne Gomes was picked 4th overall in 1993 (3 picks before Trot Nixon) and was plagued by control issues. The Phillies tried to make him the closer after trading Ricky Bottalico, but it never happened. It's a shame, because I remember him having a biting curveball.

EDIT: Looks like Gomes runs his own baseball academy now.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/article_a6c59e4d-227d-5256-bd12-90618a17b4eb.html
 
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soxhop411

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Dec 4, 2009
46,278
List has been updated by Sox scout
View: https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1520224438947618817
[

Allen Ripley
Chris Howard
Hal Wiltse
Andrew Cashner
Chris Mahoney
Hank Fischer
Matt Andriese
Matt Strahm
Ted Lewis
Ted Wills
Andy Hassler
Chuck Hartenstein
Hipolito Pichardo
Mickey Harris
Andy Karl
Chuck Rainey
Ivy Andrews
Mike Maddux
Ben Taylor
Chuck Stobbs
J.C. Romero
Mike Meola
Biff Schlitzer
Craig Skok
Jack Kramer
Mike Stanton
Bill Butland
Dan Petry
Jakc Dickman
Mike Trujillo
Bill Fleming
Dean Stone
Jason Shiell
Monte Weaver
Bill Harris
Dennis Eckersley
Javier Lopez
Nick Altrock
Tim Lollar
Todd Frohwirth
Tom Bolton
Tom Sturdivant
Tommy Layne
Tony Welzer
Vicente Padilla
Bill Henry
Dick Littleficld
Jerry Stephenson
Nick Pivetta
Waite Hovt
Bill Monbouquette
Dick Pole
Jesse Tannehill
Paul Zahniser
Wayne Gomes
Bob Duliba
Dizzy Trout
Bob Ojeda
Doug Bird
Jim Burton
John Tudor
Phillips Valdez
Weldon Wyckoff
Ralph Brickner
Wes Ferrell
Bob Porterfield
Ed Durham
Josh A. Smith
Ramon Hernandez
Willie Banks
Bronson Arroyo
Ed Karger
Josh Taylor
Randy Gumpert
Woody Rich
Bruce Kison
Elmer Steele
Julian Tavarez
Ray Jarvis
Bryce Floric
Fernando Abad
Ken Holcombe
Robert Person
Burke Badenhop
Frank Baumann
Larry Andersen
Ron Kline
Buster Ross
Frank Castillo
Lew Krausse
Ron Mahay
Carson Smith
Franklin Morales
Lloyd Brown
Scott Atchison
Charlie Smith
Fritz Coumbe
Lore Bader
Scott Williamson
Chris Hammond
Galen Cisco
Mark Melancon
Steven Wright
Chris Haney
George Pipgras
Marty Pattin
Tanner Houck
 
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soxhop411

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Updated my post with alt text for those who may use screen readers or other accessibly apps when browsing the web.
 

donutogre

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Jul 20, 2005
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I did not see this thread the first time, but it is delightful. And I remember way too many of these folks.

My little story is a Tavarez one. My friends and I got tickets to the late September series in Toronto, thinking that we’d be catching preparations for a playoff run. Of course, by late September we knew that wasn’t happening. And so the Sox threw Tavarez, having decided to turn him into a starter late in the season… and he somehow threw a complete game only giving up 1 run. Truly did not see that happening, but ever since then I had a fondness for the weirdo.
 

ookami7m

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Burke Badenhop. I remember this guy purely because the last Sox game I went to was in Oakland in 14 and for whatever reason my wife was very enamored of the "that tall skinny guy".
 

Monbonthbump

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Nov 6, 2005
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I spent a pleasant hour on a cold and rainy day looking for the one save Bill Monbouquette had. It occurred on June 21,1964 at Baltimore. He relieved Earl Wilson who was the winner in a slugfest, 9-6. Monbo pitched the last 4 innings of the game and gave up 1 earned run. Dick Stuart had 4 hits and Yaz had 3 for the Red Sox who were 72-90 that year when the Yankees won 99 and the Orioles 97. Interestingly, Monbo had been 20-10 in 1963, and was 13-14 in '64 as a starter.. In fact, no pitcher had a winning record for the Red Sox that year except the "closer", Dick Radatz, who was 16-9. And some here are already whining about this year?? Another interesting factoid I discovered is that Monbo was the final major leaguer who was fanned by Satchel Paige when he was 58 and pitched for the KC A's. (I once interviewed Paige as a high school reporter for the home town paper in Kansas).
 

soxhop411

news aggravator
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2009
46,278
I spent a pleasant hour on a cold and rainy day looking for the one save Bill Monbouquette had. It occurred on June 21,1964 at Baltimore. He relieved Earl Wilson who was the winner in a slugfest, 9-6. Monbo pitched the last 4 innings of the game and gave up 1 earned run. Dick Stuart had 4 hits and Yaz had 3 for the Red Sox who were 72-90 that year when the Yankees won 99 and the Orioles 97. Interestingly, Monbo had been 20-10 in 1963, and was 13-14 in '64 as a starter.. In fact, no pitcher had a winning record for the Red Sox that year except the "closer", Dick Radatz, who was 16-9. And some here are already whining about this year?? Another interesting factoid I discovered is that Monbo was the final major leaguer who was fanned by Satchel Paige when he was 58 and pitched for the KC A's. (I once interviewed Paige as a high school reporter for the home town paper in Kansas).
And I assume you chose your username as an homage to him?
 

Lose Remerswaal

Experiencing Furry Panic
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I did not see this thread the first time, but it is delightful. And I remember way too many of these folks.

My little story is a Tavarez one. My friends and I got tickets to the late September series in Toronto, thinking that we’d be catching preparations for a playoff run. Of course, by late September we knew that wasn’t happening. And so the Sox threw Tavarez, having decided to turn him into a starter late in the season… and he somehow threw a complete game only giving up 1 run. Truly did not see that happening, but ever since then I had a fondness for the weirdo.
We listened to that game on the radio in a three hour line crossing the border back into the US from Niagara Falls, calculating if the extra two hours we hadn’t counted on would make us miss our flight home.

it did not, but it was tight.