Return of the Mac: Okie refreshed

It’s official, the AL playoffs will go through Fenway Park. And guess who the Sox have to thank for that? A man by the name of Hideki Okajima.

That’s right, Okie has returned from his respite/vacation to toss two perfect innings in two nights, last night’s spotless frame in the ninth to shut down the Twins. He’s looking like the dominant set-up man from midseason, when he made the All Star Game as a rookie over much more highly touted countryman and teammate Daisuke Matsuzaka.

So, is Okie really back in form? Or is this all a mirage? The last two nights sure make it seem like he’s back and already forgetting prior struggles. When he was shut down indefinitely for a tired arm, the obvious problem with his pitching was that he wasn’t locating down in the zone. As his oferrings slowly floated up in the zone, they were getting crushed by career nobodies, setting up rampant comebacks and costing Boston wins.

Now Okajima-san is pounding the strike zone low again, with a couple more miles-per-hour on his fastball and his patented finger-tip control in full effect. It may not be spot on perfect yet, but it’s getting close.

Of course, the renaissance of Okajima breeds a whole new question: Who do the Sox use as an eighth inning setup man in the playoffs, as the bridge to power closer Jonathan Papelbon? While Eric Gagne has been good his last couple outings, he’s soldmore TUMS in New England than commercials based in a Philly diner. And while Okajima could slip back, it seems hard to believe they’d relegate him to purely seventh inning duty after this turn around in his last two outings. You don’t usually go from recording a save in the ninth to mop up duty and spot work in the sixth inning.

So it says here that Okie is the setup man, again. Naturally, we’re dealing with Terry Francona, so who knows if that will actually be the case.

All we know is that it should be.

– Cameron Smith