Sox Lose Game, Youk to Tigers (8/2/10)

It couldn't have gotten any worse for the Red Sox after it started so well.

Red hot John Lackey (10-6, 4.48 ERA) continued his effective pitching by striking out 4 in the first 3 innings as Adrian Beltre started his monster evening by scoring David Ortiz on a sac fly to give the Sox their only lead of the night. Indians starter Fausto Carmona (11-8, 3.78 ERA) appeared to be ready to get rocked, then things went sour:

First, Kevin Youkilis jammed his thumb in the second inning and left, putting Victor Martinez at first and bringing Kevin Cash into the game to catch. With the score 1-0 and Marco Scutaro at 3rd, all Kevin Cash had to do was hit a long fly ball or a ground ball to score him. Instead he hit a poke job to left fielder Shelly Duncan and for some reason 3rd base coach Tim Bogar sent Scutaro who was gunned down at the plate. What should have been a 2-0 lead or a chance to make the lead 2-0, it remained 1-0. In the top of the 4th, the scorching Lackey finally cooled off. After getting the first 2 batters, he allowed a single to Matt LaPorta, a double to Jordan Brown and a double to Duncan to give the Indians a 2-1 lead. They extended the lead 3-1 after a Shin Soo Choo double play scored Trevor Crowe. The Sox then fouled up another opprotunity in the bottom of the 5th when Bill Hall doubled and Ryan Kalish singled to put runners on first and third. Then Eric Patterson (in the game because Mike Cameron was put on the DL when his ribs could take no more) whiffed and Marco Scutaro bounced into a double play to end the threat.

In the 6th, Lackey completely fell apart as he walked Brown and Lance Nix in between a Duncan single. Lackey was able to get Jason Donald to strike out but he walked Trevor Crowe to extend the Indians lead 4-1 and knock himself out of the game. In came the struggling Manny Delcarmen who got Asdrubal Cabrera to pop out to third. Then came rookie Dustin Richardson to face the lefty Choo who ended up doubling in Duncan and Nix (who beat a throw home by Drew). Richardson got Carlos Santana to pop up to end the disasterous inning. Lackey's final line was 5 1/13 innings with 9 hits, 6 earned runs, 7 K's and 5 walks.

In the bottom of the 7th the Sox then blew another chance to get close, but not before Adrian Beltre clocked his 18th homer of the year into the monster seats to cut the deficit 6-2. Kalish doubled but then Bill Hall failed to get him to third by grounding out to short. Daniel Nava pinched hit for the overmatched Patterson and hit a shot to Choo in right, who then gunned down Kalish at home (who injured Santana in the process, knocking him out of the game). Scutaro then grounded out to end that rally.

In the bottom of the 8th the Sox tried to rally for the 4th game in the row with Adrian Beltre singlehandedly almost winning the game. Rafael Perez replaced Fausto Carmona (7 innings, 2 earned runs, 8 hits, 1 walk, 5 K's) and got Drew to ground out. Jed Lowrie hit for the overmatched Cash and hit a soft ground ball to second then beat out the throw. Ortiz singled to chase Perez from the game and in came Frank Herrmann. Adrian Beltre then clobbered a 3 run home run (19) over the monster seats to cut the deficit 6-5. Kalish followed with his 3rd hit of the night to put the tying run on base but Bill Hall flied out to end the inning.

Lost in all of this was the shut-out pitching of birthday boy Tim Wakefield (2 innings, 0 runs, 2 k's) and Daniel Bard (1 inning, 0 runs, 1 K) to keep the game in reach. In the 9th, closer Chris Perez worked around a single to Marco Scutaro to get Jed Lowrie to end the game with David Ortiz standing in the on deck circle.