Too Little, Too Early

It was fun while it lasted.  You can’t win them all, but it sure would be nice to string some together.

Allen Webster got the start and had quite the rocky first inning.  He gave up two singles and a walk followed by a strikeout.  Then he gave up a grand slam.  I don’t know what’s worse: walking in a run or making a massive mistake in the worst possible situation.  Either way, the Tigers scored four runs on one swing.  He settled down after that; even the run he gave up in the fifth thanks to a single-single combination wouldn’t have been so bad had it not compounded the fact that we were already losing.

He was replaced one out into the sixth by Morales.  But Morales also proceeded to have an initial breakdown.  He issued a walk, and then an RBI double, and then an RBI single.  And like Webster, he also settled down after that.

Until the seventh.  That was when he issued a walk, admittedly followed by two strikeouts, but then also allowed a home run.  He was replaced by Alex Wilson, who ended the seventh fine but then loaded the bases with a walk and two singles in the ninth.  At least he got a double play out of it, but also allowed a run.  Honestly, if you have to allow a run in a bases-loaded situation, that is most definitely the way to do it.

Ellsbury and Victorino singled to start the game.  Ellsbury scored on Pedroia’s double play, and then Papi hit a massive solo shot on a fastball that ended up beyond the right field fence.  It was a great display of scoring runs humbly and not-so-humbly.  But by the time the ninth inning started, we were already down by eight.  The best we did was shrink that deficit down to seven.  Papi singled but was out in a fielder’s choice; it was Carp who scored on a single by Salty.  So we lost, 10-3.

In other news, the Bruins find themselves in a bad position.  We lost last night, 3-1, and now we’re one game behind in the series.  Obviously, to put it extremely mildly, this is not good.  We need to win.  Now.  We need to wrap this up and get the cup back.

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No Relief

I say this every single time the relief corps loses games for us.  Granted, all else being equal, we still would have lost because Dempster gave up one more run than we scored by the time he left, but still.  The relief corps did just as much damage as he did, which is basically the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to do.  I mean, they’re called relievers for a reason.  They are supposed to provide relief.  They are not supposed to make the situation even worse.

Dempster put us in a hole before we even sent a batter to the plate.  With one out in the first, he gave up a solo shot.  He then gave up two consecutive singles, made worse by a missed catch by Iglesias, and allowed another run thanks to a sac fly.  He later gave up a third run thanks to a single-single combination.  All told, he lasted six innings.

Even with his mediocrity, we would have been better off.  The relief corps matched his damage in the seventh.  En route to securing the inning’s first two outs, Breslow gave up two singles, one run, and one double.  He was replaced by Wilson, who allowed two runs on another double.

Morales pitched the eighth, and Beato pitched the ninth.

Papi doubled to lead off the second and scored on a single by Gomes.  We more or less repeated that performance in the fourth, except that it was Salty who doubled then.

At the time, those runs tied the game at two.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t do any better than that, and we ended up losing, 6-2.

In other news, the Blackhawks managed to pull even with a 6-5 sudden-death win.

Boston Globe Staff/Yoon S. Byun

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Wasted Effort

We’ve had our fair share of good outcomes after playing extra innings lately, even after some really long games.  And every time we win in extras, the longer the game is, the more I think about how devastating and crushing it would have been to have lost after all that baseball.

Last night, I found out.

We finally got on the board in the fourth, and in a big way at that.  Papi and Carp smacked back-to-back jacks.  Papi’s count was 1-1, and he got a fastball and powered it to right center field.  Carp’s count was 2-2, and he got a forkball, if you can believe it, and powered it to center field.  It was an interesting pitch that was obviously not done correctly.  Had it been done correctly, it obviously would have been more difficult to hit it out of the park.  Then again, Carp has shown his keen eye at the plate on more than one occasion.  Suffice it to say that the Orioles tried to close the deal and failed miserably.

Doubront turned in a decent effort that would have been stellar had it not been for his terrible third.  He started it by giving up a solo shot.  Then he gave up a double followed by a sac bunt that moved the runner to third.  He gave up an RBI single, another single a force out, and another RBI single.  Aside from that, he was solid.  But he never presided over a lead.  The Orioles had scored first, and they augmented their total in the fifth, when Doubront hit a batter who went on to score on a single.  One walk later, Doubront’s night was over.

Morales was the first up.  He ended the fifth and pitched through the sixth.  Miller, who took the mound for the seventh, didn’t preside over a lead either, but he was our first pitcher since the second inning to at least preside over a tie.  In the top of the frame, Nava, Salty, and Middlebrooks hit back-to-back-to-back singles.  Drew’s sac fly scored one, and Ellsbury’s force out scored another.  And then Ellsbury got caught stealing, because apparently he is human after all, and that ended that.  Clearly it was not the best-case outcome after a bases-loaded situation.  But it did tie the game at four.

Miller held that tie through the eighth.  Tazawa held it through the ninth and the first out of the tenth.  Breslow held it through the tenth.  Wilson held it through the eleventh and twelfth.

But not the thirteenth.  With two out, he issued a walk and gave up two consecutive singles, the latter of which scored the winning run.  We didn’t score in the top of the inning, and we were in Baltimore, so that was pretty much it.  After thirteen innings, we lost, 5-4.

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Double The Value

I sure do love a good drama.  And what’s more dramatic than a come-from-behind win? Which, by the way, we totally beasted yesterday.  It was epic.  It was a classic spend-the-whole-game-thinking-that-you’re-going-to-lose-and-wouldn’t-it-be-great-if-we-won-in-the-end-and-then-we-just-do-it kind of contest.  Love it.  So much insanity.

Like I always say, it’s best to always be in a winning position.  But if you’re in a losing position, it’s better in the end to win somehow.

We were down by two before we even got to the plate.  Doubront gave up a single, which turned into a double thanks to a steal.  Then Ellsbury made a fielding error that allowed another runner to reach.  Doubront finally recorded the inning’s first out, gave up a single, recorded the second out, and gave up a single of sorts that scored two.  Aside from Pedroia’s walk in the bottom of the first, we didn’t do much of anything.

Neither team scored in the second, despite the fact that Doubront issued two consecutive walks.  Doubront had a one-two-three third, while Drew led off the bottom of the inning with a double, Iglesias got hit, and after Ellsbury grounded into a double play, Nava singled in Drew and was thrown out at second.

Both teams went down in order in the fourth, and Doubront gave up a solo shot with two out in the fifth and another one leading off the sixth.

That was it for Doubront.  All told, he pitched six innings and gave up four runs, only two earned, on five hits while walking two and striking out eight.  He threw 112 pitches, seventy-three of which were strikes.

Wilson pitched the seventh, and Breslow gave up a double, a single, and a successful sac fly in the eighth.  Drew led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple and scored on a sac fly by Iglesias, making the score 5-2.

Breslow’s ninth was pretty nasty.  Three up, three down on twelve pitches, and it only took him one pitch to secure the second out.

Fortunately, our bottom of the ninth was equally nasty, if not more so.  It began innocently enough with a walk by Pedroia.  Then Papi doubled, and Pedroia scored on a groundout by Napoli.  Papi stole third base, which was fun, and scored on a groundout by Salty; taken together, that was some very intelligent hitting, running, and scoring.  Those are the type of runs that nobody else gives you; you have to give them to yourself, and only real dirt dogs can do it.

Anyway, Gomes walked after that, and Drew singled to put runners at the corners.  Drew then stole second base, and Iglesias walked to load the bases.

That was when Cleveland made a pitching change.  Huge mistake.  They needed a pitcher who could enter a bases-loaded situation and end the threat.  Apparently they didn’t have one.  On a 2-1 count, after receiving a steady diet of four-seams, Ellsbury got a sinker and smacked a rocket of a double to center field.  It was quite the line drive.  It left the bat in a hurry.  More importantly, it brought two runs in.

In the ninth inning alone, we scored more runs than we had during the entire rest of the game.  Four, to be exact.  The final score was 6-5.

It was amazing.  It was the biggest walkoff frame since the Mother’s Day Miracle of ’07.  We hadn’t even had a lead until the ninth inning rolled around, and all of a sudden we won.  Ellsbury was rightly mobbed.  Now, that is what I call a walk-off win.

Boston Globe Staff/Jim Davis

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Silver Lining

That was close.  That was way too close for comfort.  We were no-hit through seven innings.  I mean, we walked a few times.  But we were no hit through seven full innings.  It was awful.  It was awfully, awfully awful.  If Big Papi didn’t start the rally that never was in the seventh, who knows what would have happened? I don’t even want to think about it.

This was, by far, Doubront’s best start of the year.  It was certainly one of the best starts he’s had in recent memory.  Unfortunately, it was Doubront who caved first.  With two out in the fifth, he gave up a single followed by a two-run home run.  It was the first pitch of the at-bat: a fastball that missed.  He then gave up a double but then ended the inning, luckily.

He gave up two runs on five hits while walking only two and striking out three.  That home run was a sign of a bad pitch; it was one mistake.  Sure, he pitched only six innings, and we usually think of a stellar start as lasting at least seven.  But he only threw eighty-five pitches in total; at that rate, he could have easily tossed the seventh and perhaps even come out for the eighth.

As for us, we didn’t really have much in the way of opportunities until the seventh.  And that was when we had the opportunity.  Pedroia popped up to lead it off, but then Papi, Napoli, and Nava hit back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases.  But Middlebrooks and Drew provided the last two outs of the frame.

Wilson pitched the bottom of the seventh and held the fort.  We did manage to cut the deficit in half in the eighth; Salty walked, Ellsbury singled, Carp flied out, and a home run would have put us on top.  Instead, a wild pitch moved the runners along, and it was a fielding error that allowed Pedroia to reach and Salty scored.  (I particularly enjoyed the fact that the ball rolled through the shortstop’s legs.) Papi grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Wilson allowed the Other Sox to restore their earlier lead; with two out, he gave up a run via a single-double combination.  After issuing a walk, Miller came on and ended the inning.  We went down in the ninth and lost, 3-1.

In other news, the Bruins are now up three-zip on the series, having taken last night’s game, 3-1.

AP Photo

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