The Lenny DiNardo Blog

To The Bullpen

I have been a bad blogger.

Not only have I posted NOTHING at all. But I have failed to blog about Lenny's first big-league win, about David Wells's statement that he'd rather have Lenny get his starts if he doesn't feel up to par, and all the great Lenny quotes that have come out of the last few weeks.

My excuses: law school exams, the kentucky derby, the outer banks, this other kid that I'm trying to get out of jail, guided tour of the supreme court. Basically, I've been neglecting The Lenny DiNardo Blog for selfish, awesome reasons.

So, in another lame post, here's the most recent news: Lenny has been moved back to the bullpen. For a short time...mostly because of the rainout. Tito:

"Lenny goes to the bullpen for the foreseeable future," Francona said Sunday. "We'll have Clement on Friday in Philadelphia and then either Beckett-DiNardo or DiNardo-Beckett. They're going to pitch Saturday and Sunday. I just don't know what order yet."

So, here's a belated congratulations to Lenny on his first win. Only 191 more to catch Clemens and Cy Young.  I'll leave you with a good DiNardo quote. Upon hearing that last Saturday's victory was the first of his career:

''I was just sitting on the couch looking through the game notes [and realized it]," he said. ''Really cool."

Try Fried Chicken

MLB.com had a story today about Lenny's early-game struggles:

ST. PETERSBURG -- Frustrated over his lack of control early on in games, Lenny DiNardo suggested maybe he needed to shake up his pregame routine a bit.

The left-hander gave up four runs to the Devil Rays in the first three innings on Saturday before settling to face just one batter over the minimum in his final two innings. In his previous start, Toronto got to DiNardo for seven runs off 10 hits in the first three innings.

"Early in the game, it seems like [there's] a tendency for me [to struggle]," DiNardo said. "It's a battle early on."

DiNardo said he's able to perform better after he's logged a few innings, and because of that, he is considering allowing more time and activity before the game begins.

"I need to get out there and maybe throw three innings in the bullpen [first], maybe run a little bit," he said. "It seems like I'm throwing better when I'm sweating."

Boston manager Terry Francona preferred to look on the bright side, noting that after a rocky three innings on Saturday, DiNardo was able to pull himself together and give two more innings.

"He needed to [settle down]," said Francona. "Not only were we losing the game, but getting into a dangerous part of the game where we were going through our bullpen, which is not what we wanted to do."

"Go out and pitch like Lenny DiNardo"

Last night, Tito confirmed that DiNardo will be starting Saturday's game against Roy Halladay.  Turns out the Globe had to inform Lenny of this situation, which means two things: (1) clubhouse communication isn't quite up to par and (2) Lenny isn't reading The Lenny DiNardo Blog regularly enough.

That said, the Globe article gave some begrudging praise in its article on DiNardo: "a more-than-serviceable spot start." 

They pulled some good quotes from Lenny, as well:

"I've always told myself I want to pitch in the big leagues, [as] a starter, a reliever, a ballboy, whatever," DiNardo said. ''It's just one of those things where this is a dream come true, especially playing for the Red Sox. It's unbelievable.

''Being a starter is icing on the cake. It's really surreal, me pitching for the Boston Red Sox and starting, with guys like Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, [Josh] Beckett, [Matt] Clement, all those guys.

''It's unreal. I'm going to ride it for as long as I can."

C'mon, Lenny. It's either unreal or surreal--can it be both?  Maybe, it can. Who am I to judge?

''Be aggressive, and pitch like I know I'm capable to pitch," he said. ''Don't go out and try to be Curt Schilling. Don't try to be Josh Beckett. Go out and pitch like Lenny DiNardo, which is a guy that's going to let the movement get the guys out. I'm not going to strike a lot of guys out."

That's the best advice I've heard in a while. I think I'm going to start talking myself up like that - "Go out and pitch like Lenny DiNardo." I like it.

Day-After DiNardo Coverage

After yesterday's outing, most of the coverage is focused on Bam-Bam Loretta's walk-off homerun. (There's been a lot of bad headlines up there, but no one thought of this one: "V is for Loretta" - hey, feel free to use it...I've got a whole bag full good stuff like that).  However, most of the local papers gave a head nod to Lenny's clutch fill-in performance.  It seems like Lenny got a little emotional at the end of the day:

"“It’s a feeling that I really can’t explain,” he said. “I can’t tell you what I thought. I did get some tears in my eyes, though. I can’t say that happens very often but it definitely happened when he hit that ball.”"

In terms of coverage, it appears that the Herald appreciated the outing ("A Special Kind of Win"), while the Globe could find little more than to say that he hasn't gotten a win (and make it sound like DiNardo was somehow disappointed in his outing).  This has been a pretty consistent slant (from both papers) since early spring training: Herald-Happy to see Lenny succeed; Globe-Would be able to write chicken little columns if he fails. They also disagree about how many appearances he has in the majors: Globe-33, Herald-31 (according to Baseball-Reference.com, he had 30 appearances before this season, so, plus 3 in 2006 should make 33).  The Globe points out that Lenny is coming up on Scott Williamson's record of 52 appearances without a win. 

As for the other papers, they followed the Herald's lead and had some favorable coverage: ProJo ("First Start Pleases DiNardo"), Hartford Courant ("Solid Start by DiNardo")

Here's a betting-odds article on DiNardo's start that I wish I had found before the game. The oddsmaker kept the Sox as the favorites, even with Lenny starting:

“I don`t believe you`ll see a significant drop in the Red Sox price,” says Belmont.com oddsmaker Peter Childs. “Wells had been slated to be the Red Sox fifth starter, the last man in their rotation. It’s not like DiNardo is stepping in for Curt Schilling or Josh Beckett.”

Here are some more quotes:

Lenny:

• "Yeah, I am ecstatic right now, more for the ‘W’ than anything else,” he said. “What can I say? Mark Loretta (who hit the walkoff, two-run homer) can’t get much more clutch than that. Kevin Youkilis (whose infield single preceded Loretta’s homer), he plays like that every day so it’s not like a fluke or anything. He hustles like that every day. So I am really excited right now."
• “I felt like my stuff was getting better throughout the game progressively,” DiNardo said. “Just trying to put the ball in play and give it to the defense, let them take over. They made some really great plays today.”

Tito:

• “Five innings, and I thought as the game progressed he got a little more comfortable,” Sox manager Terry Francona said. “It probably helped that when he got into the flow of the game, his ball started sinking a little bit better, cutting. Thought he did a good job. Five innings and keeping us right in the game is what we needed today.”

Captain:

• "He did a good job keeping us in reach," agreed catcher Jason Varitek.

DirtDogs:

• All Wells and Good: DiNardo Keeps Sox in the Game

The ProJo is also reporting that Lenny's outing was good enough to earn him another start, when Wells's spot in the rotation comes around again (Saturday v. Toronto). You thought Gil Meche was a tough pitcher to go up against?  Lenny faces a gimpy Roy Halladay on Saturday. The Herald's Blog thinks that Lenny might get a 3d start due to Wells's trip to the Dl...

PHOTO CREDIT: Boston Herald,  Matthew West

The Italian Job

So, I'm back from Belize. It. was. way. cool.

To the Lenny Biz:

As you may have heard, Lenny started Team Italy's second game of the WBC Tourney, which was against the Venezuela powerhouse. From all accounts, it was a pretty good outing and if the offense had actually come through when they had the bases loaded, Lenny wouldn't have gotten the loss. Alas, he did.

The good stuff:

• Faced 13 batters, retired 8.
• Got Miggy Cabrera to fly out and Magglio Ordonez to line out.
• Mike Piazza on Lenny:
  

  • "The kid that pitched," Piazza said, looking over at DiNardo, "he's going to inspire some Italian kids to pitch. And maybe some day one of those kids makes it to the major leagues . . . The reason we're playing is we're trying to get some interest to continue to grow baseball in

    Italy."

• Skipper Matt Galante on Lenny:

• "One thing about starting pitching in this series -- it's the first outing of the spring. When you talk about command, you're probably not going to have your best command in the first outing. I thought [DiNardo] kept us in the game. That's all we want from our starters, is to keep us in the game."

The Less-Than-Good Stuff:

• He got the loss (0-1 on the WBC).
• 6.75 ERA
• Wild Pitch.
• Balk (which put a runner in scoring position who then scored).
• 54 pitches, 28 strikes, 26 balls

This Dayton Beach News-Journal article had a really good take on Lenny's time with the Italian team. On his chances with the Red Sox after taking time off from Spring Training to play in the WBC:

"You never know. I feel like I'm getting a great experience out here throwing," DiNardo said. "I wouldn't have come out if I didn't get their blessing.  I talked to (general manager) Theo (Epstein), talked to (manager Terry Francona) during last season when I heard about this.  They thought it was a great opportunity.  I'll still be getting innings.

"They've seen me throw the last couple of years, so they know what I have.  If I was just signing on with the Red Sox this year it might be a different kind of story."

Now that Italy (1-2) didn't advance to Round 2, Lenny has re-joined the Sox.  His next stop, we will see...

UPDATE: The Herald had a short article on Lenny's 2 2/3 for Italy. Also, the pic above comes from the Herald article.

Pawtucket Times Roundup

Leave it to the PawSox local paper... the Pawtucket Times sat down with Lenny to discuss everything from playing for Team Italy ("Getting the call is an honor") and his Italian heritage ("Every Sunday, growing up, we’d always have pasta"), to being an American ("I’m (also) proud to be American") and his pitching prospects for this spring in the WBC and with the Sox:

DiNardo, who is vying for a spot as a lefthander in the Sox’ bullpen, doesn’t know whether or not he’ll start or relieve in the WBC. All he’s been told is that he’ll throw an inning against Detroit in an exhibition game on Saturday, then another on March 7 against Team Australia. He also knows that a Red Sox representative will be on hand to make sure DiNardo isn’t overworked.

DiNardo’s status on the Red Sox is even less clear. He’s hardly a shoo-in to make the team out of spring training, but he’s not worried about possibly missing close to three weeks of camp.

"If this was my first year, I definitely would not be going. But I feel right now, the Red Sox have an idea of what I can do. I’ll pretty much be doing the same thing as all the other guys."

I like his attitude. Being a veteran has its benefits.

The Quotable DiNardo II

Chris from Westboro came across this choice quote from Lenny back in April 2005.  This is from an interview by Red Sox Nation with the man himself. (I know...I gave RSN a hard time for their recent interview with Lenny...this one is a pretty good interview).  Here, Lenny was talking about how great it had been to work with so many veterans who gave him advice:

Pedro was another.  He came up to me in the outfield once, and told me to taste the ball with my fingers.

Good stuff. Thanks for the find, Chris!

DiNardo embraces roots

The Boston Herald had a nice piece this weekend on Lenny's upcoming WBC tournament action. While Lenny seems excited about the whole thing, his roots to his homeland seem a bit attenuated.

“I’m not sure how they knew I qualified, other than the name, but I’m looking forward to this,” DiNardo said. “Baseball is not in the Olympics anymore, so this is the next best thing.”

His paternal grandfather, Michael, was born in Pogenza, Italy, in 1905 and emigrated to the United States in 1915. He died in 1986. No member of the immediate family has visited Italy other than a great-uncle while serving in the U.S. military in World War II.
“My mom’s family is Irish. I’m still waiting for them to call,” joked DiNardo, who was born and raised in Florida.

The best part of the article though is Lenny's enthusiasm for taking on Manny and Papi in the Pool D regionals.  What happens when your fight fire with fire?

The Quotable DiNardo

Turns out that there is a whole page devoted to Lenny DiNardo quotes on the internet! Here's a keeper that I'm sure we'll all be quoting at the dinner table:

"Hopefully, the ground balls will be playable, and they were, . . . Every ground ball they hit we handled with ease."