"The eight-time All-Star is scheduled to start next Thursday at Washington. In his final scheduled tuneup, he pitched four innings for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox on Wednesday night, giving up one run on Keith Ginter's leadoff homer for the Charlotte Knights in the third. Smoltz allowed three hits, one walk and a wild pitch and struck out two on 61 pitches, 36 strikes. He also pitched the equivalent of two innings in the bullpen before the game. "I just lost the feel for the baseball and struggled with that," he said, "but, overall, physically, I felt great. ... I'm not a guy that doesn't throw his fastball pretty much where he wants to and my split was all over so it was a little bit of a struggle feel-wise (Boston.com)."
This was Smoltz last rehab start before being called up to play the Nationals. It sounds like he looked good, and the only reason he didn't go deeper was because of the 2 innings he pitched in the bullpen. I think they did that to make sure he got the number of pitches he wanted in. Even when Smoltz gets called up it will be a while before Francona takes the chains off this guy. He is coming back from a serious injury, is old, and the Sox really want him for the postseason. If he is able to be what he used to the Sox are just going to be unstoppable. Obviously the question that remains is who is going to lose in all of this if he is healthy. Francona seems to be sticking with Dice-K, but our poll shows that most people would take him out over anyone else. Penny's stock keeps rising so maybe the Sox can pull off a deal for another bat, or minor leaguers.
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