Slip Sliding Away

By Andrew Lipsett
I was vaguely tempted to title this post “Please Shoot Rudy Seanez”, but it’s a bit early in the season to overreact. Still, this was a winnable game – this was a won game – and to then see it fall to a tie, and be extended into the 12th by some great Sox relief… only for Tito to lift a highly effective Keith Foulke for the worst reliever the Sox have… I’m not even sure this is a sentence anymore.
There were so many storylines in this game it’ll be hard to put them all down. The first – and early on, the biggest – was the duel between the former Marlins aces Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett. Beckett had the upper hand early; he didn’t allow a hit until Vernon Wells’ 4th inning, 2 run homer. Burnett, meanwhile, ran into a speed bump in the 3rd, allowing a line-drive hit to center to Loretta followed by two straight dingers – Ortiz’s 7th and Manny’s 1st.
Manny Ramirez has been threatening to break out for a couple games now; he’s clearly been seeing the ball well, going the other way with increasing authority and clanging some balls off the Monster in the TB series. Tonight, he busted out in a huge way; the homer in the 3rd vanished between the wall and the bleachers in right, while his second homer – of the game and the season – landed just above, in those same right-field seats. When it was over, Manny was 2-6 with 3 RBI, raising his season BA to .267. Also hitting his first homer of the season was Jason Varitek; those three accounted for all four Sox homers and all 6 Sox runs. Manny’s first homer also put him in an august club: only 3 other players have ever hit 200 homers for two different teams. Manny joined Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox), Mark McGwire (Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals) and Rafael Palmeiro (Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles) in the mix.
The first 6 Jays runs were all scored on homers too. Vernon Wells was at the center of it; he blasted two homers, for a total of 3 RBI between them, and his final line – 2-6, 3 RBI – mirrored Manny’s. Troy Glaus and Russ Adams also homered for the Jays. Only their final run did not emerge from a big fly; the final hit was an authoritative double off the bat of Lyle Overbay off of Rudy Seanez.
Which brings us back to pitching. It’s unclear what happened, either to Burnett (who left after the 4th with elbow pain and will head off now to meet with Dr. James Andrews – a bad sign for the Jays) or Josh Beckett, who fell apart in the 8th after throwing only 78 pitches over a dominant first 7 innings. For Beckett, apart from Wells’ homer, the first 7 innings were stellar. He walked only one, while striking out 2 (a strangely low total, which may have something to do with the fact that he really didn’t have great command of his curve today). He allowed only 3 hits in the first 7. To open the 8th, however, he hit Aaron Hill with a pitch; this coming an inning after Alex Gonzalez was hit – probably unintentionally – led the umpire to warn him and both benches. Something about this, perhaps, took Beckett off his game; Russ Adams followed Hill with a no doubt dinger to left, and Vernon Wells drove one out to right a batter later. That spelled the end for Beckett, and the beginning for the Sox pen.
Timlin was first out of the gate, and clearly didn’t have what he needed. The first batter he faced was Troy Glaus, and Glaus crushed one out to left. Timlin did not retire a batter, though he got an out when Jason Varitek threw out Overbay trying to steal second on a failed hit-and-run. After a Mike Lowell throwing error – a throw that likely should have been handled by J.T. Snow – and a walk to Bengie Molina, Timlin left the game with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. Jonathan Papelbon came on.
Papelbon got out of the jam thanks to a nice little play by Mark Loretta, and then proceeded to shut the door on the Jays for two additional innings, allowing only a hit and striking out none over 2 1/3. Keith Foulke replaced Papelbon in the 11th, and was – until the end – just as good. Foulke went 1.2 innings before walking Troy Glaus and being lifted for Seanez. And now we’ve come back to the beginning.
It was a whirlwind of a game; at first a pitchers’ duel, later a nearly sure win, and then finally a tough extra-inning loss. It has left Beckett with his first ND of the year and a spike in his previously miniscule ERA, and it has left the Sox pen severely depleted. Most importantly, it’s left the Sox in a position where they have to beat Roy Halladay – behind SP Lenny DiNardo – to salvage a win from this series and a .500 record against the division rival Jays this season. In the end, though, it’s just a loss. We’ll have more, and we’ll win more. Doesn’t take the sting away from losing a game that had been so well in hand, but it’s a start.