Who is this Torey Lovullo?

Photo Credit: Winslow Townson – AP

After the team’s day off on Thursday, the Boston Red Sox came home from a 3-5 road trip to host the Seattle Mariners in a three game set starting Friday night. Prior to the Friday’s game, manager John Farrell held a press conference at which he announced that he had stage one cancer of the lymphatic system which had been discovered during his hernia surgery on Monday of this week.

He said the doctors had removed a lump during surgery and that the cancer was localized and ‘highly curable’. He said he will undergo chemotherapy and will be out on medical leave for the rest of the season.

Bench coach Torey Lovullo was named manager in Farrell’s absence. In his first game as manager, the BoSox scored 15 runs on 21 hits and beat Seattle 15-1. Joe Kelly started and went six innings, giving up just one run on four hits while striking out six.

Saturday, the Sox scored 22 runs on 26 hits, beating Seattle 22-10. Wade Miley gave them their second quality start in a row, pitching seven innings and giving up just two runs on four hits and striking out eight.

The Sox had scored 37 runs on 47 hits in two games under their new manager and had gotten quality starts out of two pitchers while doing so. People have been left asking, “Who is this Torey Lovullo?”

Lovullo had been Farrell’s bench coach since Farrell took over as manager in 2013. Prior to that he had been first base c oach under Farrell at Toronto in 2011 and 2012. He had previously managed in the Minor Leagues, winning the Manager of the Year Award while managing Kingston in the Carolina League in 2004 and Akron in the Eastern League in 2005.

He had had an undistinguished Major League career as a player after being drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the fifth round of the 1987 draft.

He played eight years in the Major Leagues for seven different teams. He was an infielder who played in 303 games and had a career batting average of .224, playing every infield position in his eight years.

After these two blowouts, the Sox are still 52-64, 12 ½ games back, and in last place in the American League East. Whatever caused the Red Sox bats to explode as they did and their starting pitching to do so well in Lovullo’s first two games remains a mystery.