I don’t know about you but that was some exciting baseball the past three nights at Fenway Park. Unfortunately for us Boston Red Sox fans, we came out on the short end of the stick the past two nights.
Some will argue that the umpiring cost the Red Sox the game last night but when you leave 18 runners on base, you’re not going to win ballgames. And that’s exactly what happened to the Red Sox last night. When you have bases loaded in the 14th with no outs and can only score 1 run, something’s not going right at all. The Red Sox didn’t get the clutch hit when they needed it.
One thing they did get last night was some great pitching out of the bullpen with the exception of Mike Timlin who gave up the 3-run bomb on a good sinker that was down and away. Before Timlin gave up the homer to Carlos Peña, the bullpen (Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson, Manny Delcarmen and Javier Lopez) had thrown 7 1/3 scoreless innings after taking over for Josh Beckett.
No matter what though, it’s a tough loss to swallow as the Red Sox fell to 2.5 games out after having a chance to take over first place on Tuesday night. The lead in the wild card is 5 games over the Minnesota Twins and 7 games over this weekend’s opponent the Toronto Blue Jays, who will be in Beantown for a 4-game set that starts on Friday with a day-night doubleheader on Saturday. The Red Sox will enjoy the day off today to get some much needed rest, especially after a 5 hour 14 inning affair last night.
Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe talks about the crowded Red Sox outfield.
The Rays have flipped James Shields and Matt Garza in their rotation.
The Red Sox are not concerned about Jed Lowrie’s falling off at the palte.
Dan Johnson’s character and approach has payed off big time for him.
Josh Beckett showed he was back in form last night for the Red Sox.
J.D. Drew was deemed available before the game but his back acted up as the game went on.
The Red Sox were frustrated by the 3 bad calls that went against them.
After ripping New York fans, Curt Schilling got one fan to admit he was right.
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.
And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times websites.
