Flashback

After the final out of the game, I thought two things.  First, I thought it looked and felt eerily similar to Game Seven of the 2008 ALCS, when Drew was at the plate with the game on the line, and he struck out looking.  No swing.  He just watched the ball go by.  And second, there was the classic, obligatory, and completely warranted “No!”

Lester got rocked.  Last night was not an example of his best work.  If you look up the word “ace” in the dictionary, you will usually see Lester’s picture, but last night it wasn’t there.  In six innings, he gave up four runs on eleven hits, a new career high, while walking two and striking out seven.  He threw 116 pitches, and two of those hits were home runs, both by Peralta.  The first one was hit on a changeup that Peralta dug out.  The second one was hit on a pitch that was absolutely disgusting.  The Tigers didn’t waste time either; they scored their first run in the first, no thanks to Cameron, whose glove provided a springboard for the RBI hit.

Lester’s cut fastball was sharp, but his offspeeds, his sinker, changeup, and curveball, weren’t working.  He didn’t really have one particularly bad inning; he threw at most twenty-one pitches in the fifth and at least thirteen in the sixth.  That’s not a huge disparity, and he was pretty consistent count-wise.  So that wasn’t the issue.  The issue was that the pitches he threw weren’t good.  He just didn’t have it.  He never settled in or found any sort of rhythm.  It happens sometimes.  It’s particularly inconvenient when you’re trying to dig yourself out of an enormous hole in order to get to the playoffs.  But it happens sometimes.  He took the loss for the third time since the All-Star break.

Believe it or not, that’s not even the point.  Sure, if Lester had been his usual dominant self we probably would’ve won the game.  But that is not the point.

The point is the offense, which did almost nothing for the first eight innings of the game.  Scutaro hit a solo shot in the fifth, but that was it.  After Scutaro’s shot, Youk bounced a hard liner off Galarraga’s right ankle, chasing him from the game.  This after hitting Dan Haren with a liner in the arm that chased him from the game.  It’s just ironic that Youk is probably one of the most frequently hit batsmen in the game.  Anyway, Papi walked after that, and V-Mart hit what looked like something for RBIs and possibly extra bases, but it was caught for a flyout in front of the Monster.  That’s a shame.  It was a tough play.

Ramirez pitched the seventh, with a little help from Patterson’s right-on-the-money throw home to get Boesch out at the plate, and Wakefield pitched the eighth after ten days of rest.  In accordance with his summer of milestones, he officially passed Eck to become the oldest Red Sox pitcher to pitch in a game.  He’ll turn forty-four on Monday and might not want to remember this appearance; the Tigers took two against him, one on a wild pitch.  Also, Youk’s missed tag was not helpful.  Kind of reminds me of a less terrible version of Mike Timlin’s thousandth appearance, during which he was horrible.

Now we get to the bottom of the ninth.  Valverde loaded the bases with three walks, and Big Papi hit a grand slam.  That’s four runs on one swing.  I felt like I was back in October 2004 again.  Bottom of the ninth, game on the line, bases loaded, Big Papi steps up and completely unloads them.  It was crazy.  It was a fastball middle-in and it wasn’t staying in the park.  It really doesn’t get much better than that.  The ball ended up in the first row of seats right in the heart of right field.  And just like that, the Tigers had only a one-run lead.

Beltre doubled to left.  Drew pinch-hit, intentionally walked, and made way for Hall to pinch-run.

Cameron stepped into the batter’s box.  At this point you’re thinking it’s not possible that we just came all the way back only to lose now.  It’s only one run; we have the tying and go-ahead runs already on base.  Cameron needs to do something here.

Instead, he did nothing.  He worked the count full and waited for a fastball but got a splitter instead and struck out looking.  Kind of like Drew in 2008.

Of all our wins this season, this one would have been the most improbable and therefore one of the biggest.  And Valverde was laboring.  He ended up throwing a career-high sixty pitches.  That’s an obscene number of pitches for a closer to throw.  He was really struggling.  And that mound slap at the end just made the whole thing worse.

Of all the ways to open a homestand, it doesn’t get much lower than this.  Your offense does nothing for most of the game, all of a sudden you’ve got life in the bottom of the ninth, you climb all the way back to within one run, the table is set, and the batter just looks.  It’s agonizing.  But I guess there’s nothing to do now but hope Dice-K gets something going today.  Every game now is a must-win.  So let’s win this one.

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Thankfully Rare

Does anyone remember the last time Lester lost at home? April 18 against the Rays, with an ugly final score of 7-1.  We haven’t lost a series at home since May.  Yesterday afternoon marked our six hundredth consecutive sellout at Fenway Park.  More than thirty-seven thousand people turned out to see what we all expected to be a sendoff for the Rangers in the form of a rousing defeat.  I mean, Lester hasn’t lost at home since April, right?

Wrong.  He lost yesterday afternoon.

It’s not like he tanked.  He actually pitched well.  He tossed eight innings, gave up three earned runs on nine hits, walked three, and struck out six.  His pitch-count was decidedly Lackey-like at 118.  His change and curve were as effective as ever; his cut fastball wasn’t as effective as ever but was still effective.  He threw eight pitches in the first, but the game wasn’t fated to be that easy.  He threw at most twenty-one pitches in the fifth and around there for the rest of his innings.  He let go of only one pitch outside his release point.  His strike zone was excellent. He just, for some reason, didn’t have it.  He threw his usual tricks at them but they hit the ball anyway.  His walk total was appropriate, so command wasn’t an issue.  He didn’t give up any home runs, so it’s not like he was making all sorts of mistakes.  He just got read, that’s all.  It’s rare, I know.  Thankfully.  I didn’t even know it was possible for batters to read him at all.

Lester did have a fourth, unearned run to his credit, or rather to who but Beltre’s credit.  Cruz took a breaking ball for a double, and we tried to throw out Hamilton at the plate, and when that didn’t work, Dusty Brown fired to first to contain the runner, but Beltre couldn’t handle the throw, and the runner scored.

We also have the added embarrassment of the double steal in the fifth.  While Young was busy striking out, Andrus was busy stealing second and Borbon was busy stealing home.  You read right.  It was awful.

As if that weren’t frustrating enough, in the eighth, Andrus scored on a single and was tagged before he reached home plate even though home plate umpire Gary Darling ruled him out.  I was furious.  I’m still furious.  The tag was clearly applied before Andrus’s foot touched the plate.  If that run doesn’t score, Cameron’s long ball brings us within one.  Maybe we still don’t win, but at least it’s closer and the call was right.  Plays like this are exactly why the call that ruined Armando Galarraga’s potentially perfect game won’t be overturned.  Because if you overturn that one, you have to overturn all these other ones that aren’t correct, and I don’t think Major League Baseball is too keen on opening that Pandora’s box.

On the other side of the game, the offense tried to come back but didn’t.  Speaking of more humiliation, Wilson established a new career high of ten strikeouts for himself.  Youk, fresh off his impact on Saturday night, led off the second with a single and scored on Beltre’s subsequent double.

We had some nice plays in the field, too.  Scutaro repeated his nice pivot catch from yesterday in the fifth, and Hall tried it on in the sixth.

We had our opportunities.  In the sixth and seventh, we had two runners on with two outs, but those opportunities ended with a strikeout and a popup, respectively.

Cameron did lead off the ninth with a powerful homer on a letter-high fastball into the Monster seats, cutting their lead in half.  Kinsler bobbled a ball in the infield and Hall reached.  But then of course Scutaro had to line out to short.

We designated Molina and called up Bowden as a reliever.  And Beckett is officially starting Friday.  Hold on to your hats.

Our July is quickly becoming April, Version 2.0.  I hate to say that, but it’s hard to ignore.  What is this? We just can’t have decent starts out of the gate? The All-Star break threw everyone off? I don’t get it.  We start our ten-game road trip today, and usually I dread our trip out West, but we just lost at home, and I guess if we can’t do it at home, we need some sort of change of scenery.  That’s just sad, isn’t it?

Boston Globe Staff/Jim Davis

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Keep the Streak

I don’t think it’s physically possible for Jon Lester to lose to the Baltimore Orioles.  And not just because Lester is an elite pitcher and the Orioles are playing some of the worst baseball I’ve ever seen.  Also because he’s never lost to the Orioles.  Ever.  Meanwhile, the Orioles are now on a ten-game losing streak.  Ouch.

Lester pitched six and a third shutout innings, giving up four hits and three walks while striking out four.  He fired 102 pitches in that time; we’ve seen him be much more economical, and he would’ve had himself a nice seven-inning start if it weren’t for his sudden but ultimately harmless implosion in the seventh.  All three of his walks were consecutive, after he recorded the first out in the seventh, which was why he was removed.  So he didn’t walk a single batter until right before he left, and then he walked all of the batters he faced after that point.  He walked Jones and Atkins on five pitches each, and he walked Lugo on four.  It was mostly because he stopped throwing his fastball and cutter for strikes.  Luckily, Bard induced two popups and bailed him out of possible bases-loaded damage.  He used ninety-nine mile-per-hour fastballs and ninety-one mile-per-hour changeups.  Ridiculous.  Kid doesn’t mess around.

If those three walks were the only problem he had, I’ll take it.  For the majority of his start, his cutter and fastball were located perfectly, as usual.  His sinker, slider, and curveball were fantastic.  He was low on the changeups.  He mixed them well, and he put good movement on them.  He used all parts of the strike zone and didn’t throw below it.  His best inning was the fourth, in which he threw only eight pitches.  But he needed between twelve and seventeen pitches to complete his other frames.  He fired twenty-one before he was taken out in the seventh.  The batters just made him throw and created opportunities; they left nine on base but only went one for nine with runners in scoring position.

Nobody scored any runs until that frame.  Then, Youk led off the seventh by clobbering the first pitch of his at-bat for a 378-foot home run, his twelfth of the year, after Pedroia broke Guthrie’s streak of fifteen consecutive retirements in the sixth.  It was a fastball he left up, and he just lined that ball out.  He’s now batting .320.  Incidentally, Youk started at third for the first time this year, while V-Mart started at first and Tek caught.  In the first, V-Mart showed he still got it with a fantastic diving catch in mid-air that robbed Patterson of a base hit.  Honestly, I saw that play and I thought it was Youk out there making that grab, because he’s the only one who can make those plays.  Apparently not.  It was awesome.

In the eighth, Reddick tripled and scored on Scutaro’s single.  Atchison was optioned, and Reddick was called up because Hermida was out for the day.  And in the ninth, McDonald ripped a double to bring in two.  Hall and Youk both followed suit.

Scutaro went two for five, but Youk went three for five with two doubles, that home run, and a grand total of three RBIs.  Collectively, the offense went five for eleven with runners in scoring position, collecting a total of nine hits while leaving only six on base.

The final score was 8-2; it was Nelson who allowed two runs on two hits and two walks in the ninth, the first two runs of Samuel’s career as interim manager of the Baltimore Orioles.  Ramirez pitched the final two outs of the game perfectly.

Despite Beltre’s pleading, Tito sat him yesterday to be extra cautious about his soreness from the collision.

I’d like to commend Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce on their composure and professionalism.  Especially Jim Joyce.  Rarely do you see an umpire both admit a mistake and lament it.  Cue another instant replay debate.

Thus, we continue to climb! We’re only three and a half games out of first now, still tied with Toronto for third but only one and a half games out of second and coming on strong.  I bet we’ll see some shifts in the standings before the All-Star break.  Ah, the thrill of the chase.  It’s pretty exciting stuff! We turn to Lackey this afternoon to make it happen.

The Boston Globe

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Lack of On

We followed Saturday night’s loss with a similar one yesterday afternoon, except that yesterday afternoon’s loss wasn’t the bullpen’s fault.  It was the starter’s fault.

The scary part is that this is very reminiscent of the losing streak we had at the beginning of the season.  We were starting to actually play well up to this point.  We moved within five and a half games of first place, and we were coming on strong.  Only to suffer losses like this, where one aspect of the team is on while the others are off.  You’ll lose ballgames every time you play an incomplete style of game.  It would be a different story had the opposing pitcher been dominant or our starting pitcher turn in a good performance.  But these were failures of a nature that makes it hard to determine whether we would in fact have come out on top.  I suspect we would have, especially on Saturday, as I said.

Lackey takes the loss and all the blame that that entails in this one.  Baseball theoretically shouldn’t be discussed in terms of faults and blame, but every once in a while you know who’s responsible, and that makes a difference in how you interpret the loss.  Had Lackey been as dominant as we’ve seen him be, our lack of offense either would’ve resulted in a loss anyway, which would’ve been more respectable and healthy for the team as a whole because we would’ve been playing our whole game but got beat by a team that happened to be better at that particular moment, or our lack of offense wouldn’t have mattered.  Maybe Lackey would’ve allowed no runs, or maybe he would’ve allowed one and we would’ve gone into extras.  It’s hard to say.  But it’s not hard to say with the performance he actually gave yesterday.

The final score was 5-1 in favor of Detroit, and all of those runs were given up by Lackey, who stayed in the game for seven innings because our bullpen was entirely shot.  He gave up five runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and four walks.  All four walks occurred in the first two innings, and the third was the result of a twelve-pitch at-bat that loaded the bases.  Then a minor leaguer making his Major League debut broke his bat on a dribbler that he beat out because Lackey missed the bag with his foot.  The fourth walk was yet another bases-loaded walk awarded to Johnny Damon, of all people, but if you ask me that was yet another umpiring mistake.  Lackey, Tek, and Tito agree with me; Tito spent two whole minutes “discussing it” with home plate umpire Lance Barksdale.  (Tek also made a very strong throw and caught Damon stealing second.  It was great.) The final blow was a two-run shot in the fourth on a curveball that didn’t curve.

I’ll say this for him: eight of the nine hits he allowed were soft singles, so it wasn’t like Detroit truly had his number all the way.  But sometimes those are hard to deal with as well; you need to be in exactly the right position defensively to convert those into outs.  Boesch snuck one by Youk somehow.  Then, Scutaro flashed leather in the third when he dove for Inge’s ball; he fired well to first but wasn’t in time.  So those can be tricky.

He threw mostly curveballs and cutters, which weren’t outstandingly effective.  His two-seam was, but he only threw eight of them.  He needed only eight pitches to finish off the sixth, but fired at least thirteen in every other frame, using at most thirty-eight in the second.  He varied speeds well and kept his release point together, and his strike zone was more concise than Barksdale would have you believe; it just included some extra area on each side.  It was at least heartening that not many of his balls were way off the plate, but there were pitches thrown outside the zone on all sides.  Eventually he did recover some semblance of command, retiring ten of his last twelve batters.  But not before we were firmly in a position to lose.

That also has to do with the fact that somehow Galaraga was on.  We collected seven hits on the day but left ten men on base.  Again with the squandering of opportunities.  Van Every doubled to lead off the third; Hermida doubled him home two batters later.  That was our only run.  We loaded the bases in the seventh, but Drew struck out, which has been a theme over the course of the past few games of which I’m really not a fan.  Youk went two for four, and McDonald went two for two.  I venture to guess that it didn’t help that Beltre, V-Mart, and Pedroia all had the day off, Pedroia for the first time this year.  Pedroia may have had a sore knee and should be back in the lineup tonight.  Hall took his place at second, which was interesting to say the least.

Schoeneweis pitched a quality eighth.

Ellsbury begins rehabbing in the minors today, which means he’s on the final stretch back to the Majors.

So that’s that.  We’re going to the Bronx tonight without momentum.  And to make matters even more uncertain, Dice-K is starting.

AP Photo

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Bidding Error

Josh Beckett had a no-hitter bid going into the seventh inning.  Plain and simple.  He was so incredibly on his game that it was scary to watch.  Everything was efficient.  Everything was clean.  Everything was precise.  He crushed.  He absolutely dominated.  He was like a wolf hunting for the kill.  No-hitter bid into the seventh inning.  Fastball, curveball, changeup.  Out, out, out.  I’m telling you.  That was, without a doubt, his best outing of the season.  Hands down.  No questions asked.  Ridiculous.  Honestly, it’s only a matter of time before Beckett takes a bid all the way.  But we all know how it ended.  With two outs in the seventh inning, Curtis Granderson slapped a 94 mile-per-hour fastball through the gap into right field.  A clean single.  Hey, at least it wasn’t a questionable play.  Through six, he threw only seventy-four pitches and faced one batter over the minimum.  That speaks for itself.  Over 7.2 innings, Beckett walked two, struck out ninte, and allowed no earned runs on two hits.  Think about that for a second.  Take away those two walks, and Beckett isn’t bidding for a no-hitter.  Beckett’s bidding for a perfect game.  By the way, this is his sixth quality start in a row.  He’s now six and two with a 4.09 ERA that keeps dropping at an alarming rate.  In his last three starts, he’s allowed just one earned run in 22.2 innings and has a 0.40 ERA in that stretch.

And speaking of the seventh inning and no earned runs, the final score was 10-5.  All five runs were unearned.  It was disgusting.  We’re a Major League ballclub, but during those plays we fielded like minor leaguers.  Beckett “gave up” three unearned runs, and Bard “gave up” two.  None on Saito’s watch.  But that’s just cruel.  You have a starter bidding for a no-no, he loses one of the no’s, and then he has to lose the other no because of the fielders.  And it wasn’t even Lugo.  It was Pedroia, it was Lowell, and it was Green.  Fine, Green isn’t that much of a stalwart in the field, but Pedroia and Lowell? I thought I was seeing things.  Then I realized I actually was.  And what I saw wasn’t pretty.  Pedroia made his fourth throwing error of the season.  Lowell made his sixth fielding error of the season.  Green made his ninth fielding error of the season.  By our standards, the team’s fielding percentage is in the dregs right now, and this most definitely wasn’t helping.

And that’s the end of that, I guess.  What more can I say? Beckett was a beast as usual, he gave up a clean single which was very unfortunate, and he gave up zero earned runs.  But no perfect game, no no-hitter, and no shutout.

But we can still be happy about the 10 in 10-5.  We out-hit Detroit (obviously) 13-3, we went five for eleven with runners in scoring position, and we left only four men on base.  It’s interesting that no-hitters are usually slugfests for the bidding team.  And in this case, our fielders are very lucky that’s true.  Drew hit a four-hundred-foot home run in the first with Pedroia on base (who then made an error).  Looks like Drew will have a hot June after all.  That was the 200th long ball of his career, and the one-two punch of Pedroia and Drew could turn out to be some of Tito’s best lineup work yet.  In the fifth, Ellsbury reached and scored on a double by Green (who then made an error).  Then Pedroia hit to score Green, who rounded third but was obstructed by Galarraga.  Green stumbled, got up, and started to run home, but by the time he got there the ball was waiting for him.  Luckily, the umpires called obstruction on Galarraga and gave Green a free ride home.  Then we had a six-run eighth inning, during which David Ortiz drilled a very hard-hit double to right to plate two.  Tek drilled a hard-hit double of his own to left to also plate two.  Youk had himself an RBI, and Green collected another.  Lowell did nothing of note except make an error.  Pedroia and Youk both stole.  Youk sustained an ankle contusion after he was kicked by Josh Anderson while turning a double-play.  Did I mention we made three errors?

You have to love Beckett’s flair for competition.  Like I said, he’s a wolf on the hunt, and if an opposing batter does something cheap, like bunting to break up the bid, the opposing batter will pay for it later.  Sure enough, Gerland Laird laid down a bunt in the sixth, and in his next at-bat Beckett drilled him with the count two and two.  Beckett doesn’t mess around.

This just in: our victory on Tuesday was Tito’s 500th Red Sox win! I think I speak for all of Red Sox Nation and for the team itself when I say he definitely deserves that milestone.  Keep up the great work!

So that makes two bids this year for our staff, both lasting longer than seven and a third.  Sooner or later, somebody’s going to actually throw one.  Anyway, this win ties us with New York for first.  And today the Tigers will try their luck against Wakefield, and personally I like having Beckett and Wakefield next to each other in the rotation.  Detroit will come off of nine full innings of fastballs and power pitching only to face a dancing knuckleball.  It’ll be very disorienting, which plays directly into Wake’s hands.  So Beckett makes Wake much more effective when both pitch in the same series.  Let’s see if we can win our fourth in a row.

Boston Globe Staff/Jim Davis

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