When You Can't Get Brent Lillibridge Out, It's Time To Forfeit The Rest Of The Season

You know the Red Sox are a joke when they let a complete scrub like Brent Lillibridge (a member of the team for 10 games earlier this season) tear them up. In 16 at bats with Boston, he had two hits (both singles).

Tonight, he went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs as he fell a triple short of a cycle in Cleveland's (53-61, 30-28 home) 5-2 win vs. Boston (56-59, 27-25 away) at Progressive Field. A part of me just died writing the first part of that sentence.

The Red Sox are 33-45 against right-handed pitchers this season, the second worst mark in the American League. That troubling trend continued as the legendary Zach McAllister (5-4) spun a gem against them. He went eight innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Closer Chris Perez got his second save (31st overall) in three games with a clean ninth inning.

Boston did their part to hand over the game by running into two crucial outs. Dustin Pedroia was thrown out at home by a mile in the fourth inning after Adrian Gonzalez's two-run double. All the runners were bunched up, not sure how that happened or why third base coach Jerry Royster decided to send him with one out in the inning. Then Jacoby Ellsbury (2 doubles, run) led off the sixth with a double that he tried to stretch into a triple. He was hustling so you can't hate on that too much but you never want to commit the first out especially in a tie game (2-2).

Franklin Morales (3-3) was alright, his biggest flaw was racking up a Dice-K-esque 108 pitches in 5.1 innings. His stuff wasn't bad since he allowed three earned runs on two hits with six strikeouts and four walks.

Lillibridge hit his first home run in over a year, a no-doubter to left field in the third which gave the Indians a 1-0 lead. He tied it in the fifth with an RBI single which was followed by single runs for Cleveland in the sixth, seventh and eighth. Michael Brantley had a sacrifice fly, Lou Marson sacrificed to the pitcher and Ezequiel Carrera added an RBI single.

Boston goes for the four-game split tomorrow afternoon (1:05 p.m., NESN) and Cleveland attempts to win the series (3-1) as Jon Lester (5-10) opposes rookie Corey Kluber (0-0). If this Red Sox team has taught us anything, it is to expect the absolute worst in any situation both on and off the field. So yeah, that is where my head is at.

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