Valentine: 'I was booing myself'

After the Red Sox' eighth loss of the season, Bobby Valentine explained his decision to leave in Franklin Morales in the eighth inning of the Sox' 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Rangers, Wednesday night at Fenway Park. 

With Texas clinging to a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth, Morales replaced starter Josh Beckett to start the eighth. After a fly out to starting the inning by Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton singled to right, moved to second on a pass ball, leading to an intentional walk to Adrian Beltre. Morales then walked Nelson Cruz to load the bases.

With Matt Albers warming up, Valentine chose to stick with Morales to face pinch-hitter Craig Gentry. The result was Gentry being struck in the foot with a Morales pitch, scoring a run. 

Mike Napoli, who had already homered earlier in the game, proceeded to drive in two more runs with a double off the left field wall. After one more intentional walk by Morales -- this one to Mitch Moreland -- Valentine replaced the lefty reliever with Albers with the Sox trailing by four.

"Franklin threw a lot of good pitches. He’s a guy I want pitching against both sides of the plate," Valentine said. "I thought the battle with Cruz was really good. He threw a lot of great pitches. The battle with Gentry, who hasn’t gotten a hit all year, was good until the hit batter. I wanted to keep confidence. I wasn’t going to pull the plug too soon on him. He’s had four good outings for us. I was hoping to salvage that one. It didn’t work.”

At one point in the seventh inning, Morales had been joined by Vicente Padilla in warming up. But when the eighth rolled around, Valentine chose to go with the lefty and Albers. 

"I like Matty," said Valentine of Albers, who got out of the eighth with a double-play grounder. "Matt is throwing the ball real well now. I think it’s almost six of one, half a dozen of the other. That’s a good thing. I was keeping Franklin in for Franklin, not because of who was up or who wasn’t up in the bullpen."

When asked about the negative reception he received after taking Morales out, Valentine said, "I was booing myself. It didn't work out."

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