At this point, the Boston Red Sox in 2011 are the car crash of Major League Baseball. You can't help yourself but look at the carnage as this superstar-laden team is still winless going into the second week of the regular season.
If all goes right, in the dog days of summer, we'll all sit back over our Fenway Franks and Sam Adams beers and laugh about this nightmare start. However, at the moment, there's nothing funny about a team that's now 0-5 (only three winless teams left in MLB-Tampa Bay and Houston) after an 8-4 loss last night at Progressive Field.
Like Josh Beckett the night before him, Red Sox fans were forced to abandon all rational thought (not a tough concept for us) and pretend that Daisuke Matsuzaka would spin a gem against a bad Cleveland (3-2) team.
Instead, Dice-K was exactly as maddening as you remember. He lasted only five innings (like Beckett) and departed after giving up six hits, three earned runs, three walks and two strikeouts. Congratulations to him since he only needed 96 pitches and about four hours to get that far.
Indians starter Mitch Talbot wasn't any better (4.1 innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts) since he left after 102 pitches.
It turned into a battle of bullpen's and Boston's JV trio of Dennys Reyes (3 earned runs), Dan Wheeler (earned run) and Tim Wakefield (earned run) predictably couldn't get the job done.
Another loss overshadowed nice games from Carl Crawford (2 hits, 2 steals) and Adrian Gonzalez (double, two-run homer).
Shin-Soo Choo gave Cleveland a 2-0 lead in the first with a two-run bomb.
Boston tied it up with a pair of runs in the second: Marco Scutaro's chopper scored David Ortiz and Jacoby's Ellsbury groundout drove in J.D. Drew.
Asdrubal Cabrera put the Indians back on top with an RBI single in the second.
Michael Brantley's fielder's choice in the sixth scored Travis Buck but it was all Jason Varitek's fault as he made a Little League type brain cramp. Kevin Youkilis got the force at third base and tossed it to Varitek covering home. He forgot he had to tag Buck so he just harmlessly stepped on the plate.
That run looked big at the time but it didn't matter as Wheeler allowed a three-run homer to Cabrera in the next at bat.
Gonzalez cut it to 7-4 with his first homer for Boston. A two-run shot to right that scored Crawford. Should be the first of 35+ this season for Adrian.
Matt LaPorta tacked on an insurance run with a solo homer off Wakefield in the eighth.
The Red Sox are off to their worst start in 15 years. They'll look to avoid a disastrous 0-6 start this afternoon as Jon Lester gets the ball for his second start of the season. Fausto Carmona opposes him and ironically both got shelled on Opening Day.
Needless to say, Boston needs a win to salvage some pride. Otherwise, Opening Day tomorrow afternoon at Fenway against the New York Yankees could be rough.
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