Red Sox News & Notes – 9/8

Jose Molina(notes) #8, Edwin Encarnacion(notes) #10, Brett Lawrie(notes) #13 and Frank Francisco(notes) #50 of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrate the win against the Boston Red Sox during MLB action at the Rogers Centre September 7, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Before we get going here, I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish my father a happy birthday.

While baseball is a team game, the winners and losers are usually determined by individual performances. You’ll hear the players say they don’t care about individual stats as it all comes down to whether or not the team wins.

So who would you blame in last night’s 11-10 for the Boston Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays?

For starters, we can rule out the offense with one small exception you’ll see below. They did their job last night.

Do we place blame on Tim Wakefield? Or does it go to Daniel Bard? Perhaps it could go to manager Terry Francona for leaving Bard out there and not having Jonathan Papelbon but rather Matt Albers warming up during Bard’s meltdown? Or could it go to Francona for giving Mike Aviles the green light to steal down one run in the 9th inning?

The blame last night goes collectively to all of them. Hence how the outcome of a game comes down to the individual performances.

Wake was given 3-0 lead before he even stepped foot on the Rogers Centre mound last night. But by the end of the 2nd inning, the game was tied at three after a J.P. Arencibia two-run blast. By the end of the 3rd inning, the Red Sox found themselves trailing 5-3 after the Jays pulled off a double steal including home plate by Jose Bautista.

The offense bailed out Wake in the 4th culminated by Jacoby Ellsbury‘s three run blast that put them up 8-5. Dan Wheeler gave them a run back in the 7th to cut that lead down to 8-6.

And in the 8th, the combination of Bard and Albers put them in a hole they wouldn’t recover from. They would get two more runs in top of the 9th to get to within a run but Mike Aviles, pinch-running for Marco Scutaro, was thrown out trying to steal second and that was the end of the ballgame.

So case in point, you really can’t blame one individual but rather the whole collection. And wouldn’t that make the saying of win as a team, lose as a team, the correct statement to make about last night’s game.

I know there are people out there pissed at Bard for not helping preserve Wake’s 200th win. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. Bard showed us last night he’s human and has a bad game once in a while. Unfortunately it came on Wake’s turn.

But please don’t blame Bard alone.

How many times has he saved our asses out there?………. Yeah that’s what I thought.

We’ll be back in a later with tonight’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. But for now, enjoy the overnight links below by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

Red Sox knuckle under [Boston Globe]

Bard outing (5 ER) was lacking finish [Boston Globe]

Beckett able to rejoin team [Boston Globe]

Monboquette, still a fan favorite, regaining health [Boston Globe]

No relief for Tim Wakefield [Boston Herald]

Doubting Big Papi gets old [Boston Herald]

Josh Beckett’s ankle better [Boston Herald]

Daniel Bard walks on wild side [Boston Herald]

Bullpen blows lead, Sox fall 11-10 [CSN New England]

1-2-3 Inning: Dan Wheeler [CSN New England]

Scutaro not guaranteed to start in postseason [CSN New England]