Renteria Reeling As A Red Sox
By David Borges, For the Times
April 06, 2005
NEW YORK --- It's only two games into his Red Sox career, but to this point, Edgar Renteria was a lot more helpful to Boston when he was grounding into the last out of the World Series as a Cardinal last fall.
Terry Francona moved Renteria down to sixth in the batting order yesterday, in part to let him "kind of settle in," but it didn't work too well as the Sox' prized free agent pickup struggled through his second straight tough game, both at the plate and in the field.
Renteria booted Alex Rodriguez's potential double-play ball, opening the gates to the Yankees' three-run third inning in their eventual 4-3 win over Boston.
"If I had made that double play," said Renteria. "I think we would have gotten the win."
But he wasn't making excuses.
"He hit it hard, but I have to make that play. It took a little bad hop, so next time (I'll make it). No excuses."
"Edgar's going to make that play 99 times out of 100," said yesterday's starter, Matt Clement. "I'm not worried about that."
Renteria also grounded into a double play of his own in the sixth, squelching a possible rally after one-out singles by David Ortiz and Kevin Millar. It was the second twin-killing Renteria has bounced into in as many games.
In fact, in an odd bit of symmetry, Renteria has now gone 0-for-4 and struck out, grounded into a DP and was robbed of a hit in both games. Yesterday, he had a hit taken away from him on a terrific diving play by Derek Jeter. On Sunday night, Rodriguez made a nice play on a Renteria hard grounder.
"I know he's 0-for-two games," Francona pointed out, "but Jeter takes a hit away, he hits a line drive to center (in the eighth). You've got to sometimes look past that a little bit. He's swung the bat pretty well."
What's more disconcerting has been the two-time Gold Glover's performance in the field. In Sunday night's opener he could have been charged with one if not two errors, though he wasn't charged with any.
Renteria, who's spent his entire nine-year career in the National League with Florida and St. Louis, said he has to get used to new infields in the A.L.
"The good thing about it is our guys won't let him feel like he's by himself out there," said Francona. "That's one of the great things about our ballclub, they're there for each other. Any nerves he may have, he won't have."
"Edgar's going to fit in well," added Johnny Damon. "It's just unfortunate his first two games here haven't gone as smoothly as we'd like, but it's only two games. He's going to pick us up so many more times this year."
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