Aceves Latest to Lose Battle With Valentine

Who's pitching the 9th?

Adrian Gonzalez was front and center of a mini-revolution in Boston a week ago. Reportedly, 17 players wanted manager Bobby Valentine fired and Gonzalez was one of the players pushed to the forefront to approach owner John Henry. The Sox principle owner told the players that Valentine's his man and a week later Gonzalez was shipped to the LA Dodgers as part of a blockbuster deal. Victory to Valentine.

Though his job could still be in jeopardy, the team backed Valentine again yesterday when reliever Al Aceves was suspended three games for conduct detrimental to the team.

What reportedly set Aceves off was Valentine's decision to let Andrew Bailey close out Friday night's game. Bailey had entered the game in the 8th inning to record the final out of the frame and remained in the game to record his first save of the season.

Bailey had been acquired in the off-season to be the Red Sox closer, but injured his thumb in spring training, underwent surgery, and didn't return to the team until recently. After a shaky start, Aceves established himself as the team's 9th inning guy and saved 25 games in 32 attempts. His most recent appearance was Thursday night when he allowed five runs in an inning of work (plus two batters faced in the 10th) and took the loss.

Aceves got into a heated argument with Valentine in the manager's office and stormed away. No word on whether or not Valentine has decided to use Bailey going forward or if it was just a one shot deal for the time being.

Bigger question...how did Al Aceves go from throwing 90-91 mph as a Yankee from 2008-2010, to suddenly throwing his fastball from 95-96 mph. Fueled by anger?