For the Boston Red Sox, the past few games and pretty much the entire Texas series losses could be contributed to one or two guys a game. This time however, no one was safe as bad pitching, bad defense and lost focus concluded in a totally bawful 5 to 3 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Twins.
John Lackey (1-3, 2.82) got the start in the top of the first inning. Brian Dozier and Joe Mauer both whiffed before Josh Willingham took strike three to end the inning, good start. Kevin Correia got the start for Minnesota and got Jacoby Ellsbury to ground out to start the bottom of the first. Shane Victorino singled but Dustin Pedroia flied out. David Ortiz flied out to end the inning.
Lackey cruised in the top of the second inning. Justin Morneau flied out, Trevor Plouffe struck out and Ryan Doumit flied out to end the inning. Correia nearly matched Lackey in the bottom of the second inning. Mike Napoli grounded out and Daniel Nava flied out, but Will Middlebrooks doubled. Stephen "PU" Drew grounded out to end the inning.
Lackey's no hitter was broken up in the top of the third. Oswaldo Arcia flied out and Lackey snared a lined drive off the bat of Aaron Hicks, but Pedro Florimon singled. Pedro stole second but Dozier grounded out to end the inning. The Sox struck first in the bottom of the third. David Ross hit one up the elevator shaft and Ellsbury lined out. Victorino doubled and Pedroia singled him home to give the Sox the lead. Ortiz grounded out to end the inning but the Sox were up 1-0.
Lackey kept the Sox on top in the top of the fourth inning. Mauer struck out and Willingham grounded out, but Morneau singled. Plouffe flied out to end the inning. The Sox struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning. Napoli grounded out but Nava singled. Middlebrooks grounded out but Nava moved to second. PU Drew singled home Nava although Ross struck out to end the inning with the Sox up 2-0.
The Twins struck back in the top of the fifth inning. Doumit grounded out but Arcia motored around the bases for a triple. Hicks doubled him home but Lackey recovered to strike out Florimon and Dozier to end the inning with the lead cut in half, 2-1. The Sox failed to get the run back in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ellsbury grounded out and Victorino flied out, but Pedroia hustled out an infield single. Ortiz grounded out to end the inning.
The wheels fell completely off in the top of the sixth Mauer singled to center but Willingham flied out to Ellsbury. Then Justin Morneau walked to put the go-ahead runs on first. For a brief moment, the Sox appeared to be out of the inning when Trevor Plouffe grounded right back to Lackey. At this point you're thinking double play or at worst, out at first with runners on second and third but with 2 out. Lackey made the throw.....into center field. Even though he had time to set and toss, he threw the ball into center field allowing Mauer to score and move Morneau over to third. What should have been an inning ending double play turned into a tie game with runners at the corners.
The Sox still had a chance to get out of the inning when Ryan Doumit lofted a ball into shallow right. Shane Victorino caught it and Morneau was off for home. Victorino gunned it to catcher David Ross and the throw beat Justin to the bag which meant.....safe! Turns out Ross missed the tag and replays confirmed it. Instead of going into the bottom of the 6th tied, the Twins now led 3 to 2 on back to back defensive miscues (although this wasn't technically an error).
Still, the Sox were only down 1 run after all of that so all they needed was one more out and they still had a chance right? Well Oswaldo Arcia had other ideas. John Lackey threw the first pitch right down the middle which Arcia belted out of the yard just over the head of Victorino for a 2 run home run as the boos rained down at Fenway. Hicks lined out to end the inning but what was a 2-1 lead was now a 5-2 deficit just like that. Bawful!
The Sox got a run back in the bottom of the 6th. Napoli doubled to lead off and Nava singled him home to cut the lead to 2 and bring the tying run to the plate. Middlebrooks erased Nava with a fielder's choice and chase Correia from the game. Brian Duensing got the call and got Drew to line out and Ross to strike out to end the inning but the Sox had crawled back in it.
Lackey returned for the top of the seventh and actually pitched a clean inning. Florimon tried to bunt his way on but was thrown out at first. Dozier grounded out and Mauer struck out to end the inning. Lackey went 7 innings to save the bullpen and 4 of the runs were un-earned meaning his ERA LOWERS after this stinkbomb.
More unclutch hitting occurred in the bottom of the seventh with Eduardo Escobar in at short. Ellsbury struck out and Victorino popped up, but Pedroia worked a walk. Representing the tying run....Ortiz lined out to end the inning. Damn.
Koji Uehara came on to pitch the top of the eighth. He managed to whiff Willingham, Morneau and Plouffe in short order. Very impressive. The Sox best chance came in the bottom of the 8th against Jared Burton. Burton fanned Napoli to lead off the inning but Nava worked a walk. Middlebrooks then hit a double play ball to short but Escobar misplayed it, allowing Will to reach. Now the tying runs were aboard and they were a bloop or a blast from taking the game. Stephen Drew then looked at strike 3, shades of his brother. Then pinch hitter Mike Carp (for David Ross) was served a fastball down the middle.....swing and a miss strike 3 inning over. More boos from the fans.
Craig Breslow was brought in to pitch the top of the ninth with Jarrod Saltalamacchia now catching. Doumit hit a ground ball to Middlebrooks who fumbled the ball for yet another error. That sound you just heard was Jose Iglesias throwing his Sony Trinitron out the window. Breslow recovered to get Arcia, Hicks and Escobar to ground out to end the inning. The Sox blew their chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth against Glen Perkins. Jacoby Ellsbury worked a leadoff walk but that's as good as it got. Tempers boiled over when Shane Victorino took a borderline strike 3 and Pedroia was also called out on strikes, only this ball was no where near the strike zone. Pedroia nearly went nuclear on umpire Lance Barksdale and John Farrell almost had to pull Pedroia away from him.
5-7 years ago David Ortiz in the bottom of the 9th with a man on would mean either an intentional walk or a tie game....unfortunately yesteryear is far away as Ortiz grounded out meekly to first to end the game. The Sox have now lost 6 of 7 since Jack Morris accused Clay Buccholz of cheating and the Randy Quaid's will be out in full force surely.
Jackass of the Night honors goes to John Lackey. He did manage to pitch 7 innings to give the depleted bullpen a rest and was great for the first 5 innings, but the error and the two run bomb in the 6th led to the defeat. Both of which could and should have been avoided by just maintaining focus.
The Good:
Shane Victorino was 2 for 5 with a run scored.
Dustin Pedroia was 2 for 4 with a walk and an rbi.
Daniel Nava was 2 for 3 with a walk, rbi and a run scored.
Koji Uehara struck out the side in the 8th inning.
Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
The Bad:
David Ortiz was 0 for 5
David Ross was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts
Mike Carp pinch hit for Ross and struck out.
The Ugly:
Jacoby Ellsbury was 0 for 4 but walked.
Mike Napoli was just 1 for 4 with a run scored.
Will Middlebrooks was just 1 for 4.
Stephen Drew was just 1 for 4 with an rbi.
Honorable Mention:
Jarrod Saltalamacchia caught the top of the ninth inning
Final Thoughts:
Quite simply, they suck right now. They're taking too many strike three calls, they're not pitching well, they're not hitting that great and they're committing errors at an alarming rate. Its like the switch was flipped back to September 2011-October 2012 just like that. Injuries are mounting as Joel Hanrahan was placed on the SIXTY day disabled list which means he can't come off until at least July 8th, if he ever does. To take his spot on the roster, the Sox sent down Allen Webster (better luck next time) and brought up Jose De La Torre, the 27 year old reliever they got from Cleveland last year for the utility infielder they got for Kevin Youkilis. Yup, the last link to Youk is now on the Sox roster. He's got great stuff as shown in the World Baseball Classic but still being in the minors at 27 is a little bit concerning. Still, they need another arm in the bullpen and if they don't want to bring up Daniel Bard, Alfredo Aceves or Stephen Wright....we will have to wait and see what De La Torre does. As for the game, I don't even want to go into it much further. Lackey totally came apart after the Ross misplay and that's another bad sign for if he struck out Arcia to keep the game 3-2, the Sox may have had a chance with the way Uehara and Breslow pitched. Still, on offense they had the tying run on first in the 9th and couldn't get the job done. Things seem to be falling apart and its only early May! Who knows where they go from here. The loss drops the Sox to 21-14 on the season, in second place in the AL East. The Sox look to regroup tomorrow against the Toronto Blue Jays with Jon Lester going for the Sox.
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