Things pretty chilly for Marlins manager
Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria offered a curt assessment of his strained relationship with manager Joe Girardi, which may mean they’ll soon part company.
“Everything is, you know, it’s fine,” Loria said Saturday. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”
Addressing his rift with Girardi for the first time since it became public three weeks ago, Loria repeatedly tried to steer the conversation away from the subject. He declined to endorse the job Girardi has done in his first year as manager, even though baseball’s youngest team has far exceeded expectations.
“Managers obviously have some input during the course of the season,” Loria said. “But what’s important is the product that’s put on the field by the baseball department as well. An amazing job was done by our organization before we started this season.”
When told his comments might fuel the perception Girardi won’t return next season, Loria told reporters: “If you guys want to come to those conclusions, OK. As far as I’m concerned, the only focus for me and the fans should be what’s on the field, personalities aside.”
The rift erupted at a game Aug. 6, when Loria berated an umpire while sitting behind the plate. From the dugout, Girardi told or asked the owner to stop, witnesses said. Loria angrily left his seat and confronted Girardi after the game during a 90-minute clubhouse meeting.
Loria has declined to comment on the episode or respond to published reports that he fired Girardi, then changed his mind.
“I don’t want to talk about ancient history,” Loria said shortly before the game against Milwaukee. “These kids deserve the opportunity to finish out the season unencumbered by peripheral issues like who said what or who did what.”
Girardi, under contract through 2008, has repeatedly declined to discuss the matter or his future. With baseball’s lowest payroll, the Marlins were widely projected to lose more than 100 games, but instead they remain on the fringe of the National League wild-card race.
Glavine hopes to return Friday
A week ago today, Tom Glavine sat in the cramped, leaky interview room at Shea Stadium and talked calmly about the possibility that his career could be over.
So it’s understandable why Glavine was excited to climb the bullpen mound and throw for 20 minutes before his New York Mets played Philadelphia. It was Glavine’s first real test of the coldness in his left ring finger that led to fears of a blood clot in his pitching shoulder.
“There haven’t been too many times where I’ve looked forward to a simple game of catch like I did the last two days,” Glavine said. “Certainly, I don’t look forward to throwing in the bullpen as much as I did today.”
Glavine gave the finger the thumbs-up after the bullpen session and pronounced himself on schedule to return to the Mets rotation Friday in Houston. The coldness isn’t gone, but Glavine said it “feels better than it did a week ago, so that’s a good sign. It seems like it actually feels better since I started throwing.”
Indians demote closer
Reliever Fausto Carmona, a bust as Cleveland’s closer, was sent to Triple-A Buffalo by the Indians, who plan to bring him back in a few weeks as a starter.
Edward Mujica was recalled from the Bisons to take Carmona’s spot.
After the Indians traded Bob Wickman to Atlanta on July 20, Carmona inherited the closer’s job with awful results.
Carmona blew three consecutive saves on game-ending hits and lost four games in one week, becoming just the second reliever in history to lose four times in a seven-day span. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Minnesota’s Rich Lysander (1983) was the only other reliever to do it.
Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said the plan is to have Carmona go to the minors and make two starts before he’s brought back to Cleveland.
Carmona (1-8) will likely replace rookie Jeremy Sowers, who has already thrown 168 innings – nine more than last season. Since the Indians are no longer in contention, they don’t want to overuse Sowers.