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The owner and general manager of the Red Sox are headed out to join their team in Seattle in the midst of a West Coast losing streak, but the pair are reportedly not there to fire highly-criticized manager Bobby Valentine face-to-face.
Boston's latest skid has seen it drop six in a row, including a 20-2 loss to Oakland, and fall to 15 games out of the AL East lead. Although the team's recent performance adds to the mounting list of complaints against Valentine, Owner John Henry and GM Ben Cherington denied their trip to Seattle is so they can fire Valentine, reports ESPNBoston.com:
“Nothing going on other than a bad losing streak," Cherington wrote in an email.
The Red Sox had already axed their pitching coach, Bob McClure, but since that move on Aug. 21, the team is 3-10 with an ERA of 7.08. Although rumors of Valentine's firing began in July, the team was still above .500 when August began, albeit a ways out of first place.
A little more than a month later, the Red Sox are 62-73 with no cause for optimism. A setback was to be expected after dealing Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett, but Valentine's squad has performed even worse than those expectations.
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