As they walked from the batting cages to the clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, Frank Thomas shared some advice with Joe Crede.
“He talked about finishing the swing and staying through the ball,” Crede said. “I’m not doing that right now. I’m pulling off it. It’s just a matter of going out there in a game situation and doing it and trusting yourself from that point on.”
Crede will have to wait at least a day to get that chance. Hitless in his last 13 at-bats with seven strikeouts, Crede sat out Tuesday night in favor of Tony Graffanino.
“It could be a day or two,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “We’ll see how Graff does.”
Crede finished the 2002 season on fire, batting .333 with five homers and 19 RBIs in September. But that hasn’t translated to this year, as Crede is batting .215 despite working overtime with new hitting coach Greg Walker.
“Hitting’s not a guarantee,” Crede said. “You have to prove yourself every day, let alone every year.
“It’s just a matter of how you deal with the ups and downs in the game. Right now is definitely not an up time. But how you react to slumps defines what kind of player you are.”
No complaints
Manuel was not exactly distraught to hear that the Sox won’t be facing Curt Schilling on Wednesday. The veteran right-hander was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a broken right hand.
“We see him enough in the spring,” Manuel said, “so we weren’t too excited about looking at him again. We’ll take that.”
Especially considering the Sox took a .242 batting average into Tuesday night’s game.
“For us it seems like everyone we’ve faced has been Curt Schilling,” Manuel said.
The Diamondbacks originally planned to have lefty Chris Capuano start Wednesday in Schilling’s place. Instead they will recall right-hander Brian Good from Triple-A Tucson for the game. Good was 0-1 with a 4.66 ERA for Tucson in three starts.
Middle of things
Manuel doesn’t follow the amateur draft too closely, but he was pleased to hear the Sox drafted Brian Anderson, a center fielder.
“Any time you draft a guy who’s in the middle, I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “If you’re playing in the middle–short, second, center, pitcher, catcher–you can mesh well with other guys.”
Face-to-face
The Sox-Dodgers series this weekend will feature two intriguing matchups.
Mark Buehrle (2-8, 4.73 ERA) will face fellow lefty Kazuhisa Ishii (4-2, 3.21) Friday night. Hard-throwing right-handers Bartolo Colon (5-5, 3.96) and Darren Dreifort (4-4, 4.03) will square off Saturday.
And Esteban Loaiza takes on lefty Odalis Perez on Sunday afternoon. Both pitched Tuesday.
The Sox drew a break by avoiding right-hander Kevin Brown, who has a seven-game winning streak and a National League-leading 2.02 ERA.
