Remember The Good Old Days: When The Red Sox Could Beat The Orioles?

It's a very sad state of affairs when the Baltimore Orioles look like a dominant team against you.

After tonight's 2-1 win at Fenway Park, the Orioles (32-24, 18-11 away) improved to 5-0 in Boston this season and 6-2 so far in 2012 vs. the Red Sox (28-28, 13-16). Baltimore has won the first two games of the series and will go for the sweep tomorrow night. Dating back to last season, the O's have beaten the Red Sox 12 of its last 15 games, they're also 7-0 in their last seven games at Fenway (a franchise record). Haha good lord, this is getting absurd.

With the result, Baltimore gained sole possession of first-place again in the American League East while Boston remains in the basement after falling back to the .500 mark with three consecutive losses.

Of course to top it all off, the Red Sox wasted what will probably end up as Josh Beckett's (4-6) best outing of the season. He went eight innings (5th straight start of 7+ innings), allowing two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

Wei-Yin Chen (5-2) lasted one less inning than Beckett but that doesn't matter since the Orioles have one of the top setup man/closer combinations in baseball: Pedro Strop and Jim Johnson. Seriously. Chen allowed one earned run on seven hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Strop worked around two walks in the eighth to record his 11th hold while Johnson had a 1-2-3 ninth including two strikeouts for his 18th save of the season (after blowing the save last night but recovering for the win in the 10th inning).

It was a strange but fast game (2:31) that featured a combined 12 hits but only one of the extra-base variety (an RBI double by Darnell McDonald).

Boston scored its lone run in the third inning when Mike Aviles drove in McDonald with a sacrifice fly. The Red Sox left eight on base and they were just 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Baltimore's two runs both came in the sixth on Robert Andino's RBI single and a ground out by Endy Chavez that plated Portland, Maine native Ryan Flaherty with what turned out to be the winning run.

Clay Buchholz (5-2) is probably the last Red Sox starting pitcher you'd pick to help avoid a sweep but that will be his difficult task tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) while we sit around and wait for Celtics-Heat Game 6 to start. Brian Matusz (5-5) will get the ball for the Orioles.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

Red Sox Lose In 17 Innings, Orioles Pick Up 1st Sweep At Fenway Since 1994

It's a given that I will always root for the Red Sox, that's part of the deal from growing up in Beverly, MA. Still, if I'm being honest, I have to admit that since last September and now particularly at the start of this season I am finding some sort of sick pleasure in watching them fall flat on their faces over and over again. I am naively hopeful that maybe if they are this terrible, some big changes (trading some of these bums or ownership leaving) will occur. I realize that the only way the latter will happen is if we all stop paying attention and that's not an option right now because like a car crash, you can't look away from this epic shitshow.

The franchise literally cannot do anything right these days, on or off the field. After losing in 13 innings on Friday night and getting blown out yesterday afternoon, today Boston (11-16, 4-10 home) topped those by losing 9-6 in 17 innings (!) to the Baltimore Orioles (19-9, 11-5 away) at Fenway Park.

Both teams burned through every available reliever so it ended with Darnell McDonald (0-1) facing Chris Davis (1-0) in the 17th. Adam Jones (3 hits, 2 runs) hit a three-run homer over The Monster in the 17th and if that wasn't bad enough, McDonald grounded into a double play to end it. Davis might have been 0 for 8 at the plate with five strikeouts but he can tell his grandkids that he shutout the Red Sox for two innings.

Where do you want to start with the horrific/depressing numbers? The Red Sox have lost five straight games for the second time already this season. This was the first time that the O's swept a series at Fenway since 1994. Boston has lost 10 of 11 at Fenway and Baltimore is 8-2 against the Red Sox dating back to last September.

The Orioles have won five straight games and they woke up today with the best record in MLB (a huge step for that awful organization).

After seeing the Orioles this week and the Blue Jays Opening Week, I can make the case that the Red Sox could honestly finish in fifth-place in the American League East this season. That sounds crazy unless you've watched all these games. It's not, at all. Boston's starting pitching is a joke, their bullpen is very shaky and there are some huge holes in the lineup. Other than that, they are rock solid.

I would say that Clay Buchholz (at least five earned runs for his sixth straight start) needs to be sent to Pawtucket or put on the DL with a classic Red Sox fake injury but who else do they have to stick in his place, Andrew Miller (recalled today)? In 3.2 innings, Buchholz allowed five runs (all earned) on seven hits with four strikeouts and four walks. He can't stop serving up homers when he constantly throws pitches right down the middle with no movement on them.

J.J. Hardy had solo homers in the first and third (his 5th and 6th of the season) over The Monster before noted Red Sox killer Robert Andino (2nd of the season) hit a three-run bomb over The Monster in the fourth.

Baltimore starter Tommy Hunter couldn't hold the 5-0 lead as Boston tied it up with Ryan Sweeney's (4 hits) RBI single in the fourth then Will Middlebrooks cleared the bases with his first MLB home run, a grand slam onto the Landsdowne Street parking garage in the fifth inning.

Mark Reynolds (2 hits, 4 walks) had an RBI double in the eighth but Jarrod Saltalamacchia made up for his two errors earlier in the frame with a sacrifice fly that tied it in the home half of the eighth.

Both teams used seven relievers in the never-ending (6:07) extra innings game before finally turning to position players.

Mike Aviles was 3 for 8 with a run but there is one Red Sox hitter that needs to be singled out in the loss: Adrian Gonzalez. He was 0 for 8 with two strikeouts (including one against Davis) and worst of all, he swung at the first pitch (something he never does) in all three extra innings at bats. What the hell is going on with him? He feels like the most unclutch hitter in MLB this season. Every time he comes up with a runner on base, it seems like an automatic weak ground out.

Similar to when Boston had to slink out of town after getting embarrassed by the Rangers and Yankees two weeks ago but falsely gained confidence by beating AL Central scrubs (Twins, White Sox) on the road, they have the same scenario this week as they leave town to play three in Kansas City. The Royals (9-18) are the second worst team in the AL, behind Minnesota with Boston not far behind in third.

If the Red Sox can't take at least two out of three at Kauffman Stadium against what has to be the worst pitching rotation in MLB, I think my head will explode. Felix Doubront (1-1) faces Jonathan Sanchez (1-1) tomorrow night (8:10 p.m., NESN), Daniel Bard (2-3) gets Danny Duffy (2-2) on Tuesday (8:10 p.m., NESN) and Jon Lester (1-2) closes it out against Bruce Chen (0-4) on Wednesday (8:10 p.m., NESN). Needless to say, after playing 39 innings over three games this weekend, these three guys have to go seven or eight innings. Pitch counts be damned. The whole team must be dead based on the recent results and the fact that they had to travel tonight (much later than expected) with no off-day tomorrow.

It probably won't but this wretched series should set ratings lows for NESN however I don't think people can resist seeing these train wreck games.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate

So I Guess The Season Is Truly Over For The 2011 Boston Red Sox, Good Riddance!

No matter how long any of us live, I guarantee that we'll never see a final day of an MLB regular season like the one we just witnessed tonight.

With both Wild Card spots up for grabs and four games going on simultaneously, it was baseball porn for a sport that desperately needs more moments like that. At the end of it all, the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals-two teams that came back from historical deficits-captured the Wild Cards while the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox likewise suffered catastrophic collapses.

Baltimore (69-93) had a walk-off win at Camden Yards, 4-3 on Robert Andino's single which mercifully ended Boston's season. Moments later at the Trop, Evan Longoria hit a walk-off homer in the 12th for an 8-7 Rays win over the Yankees, ensuring that there would be no one-game playoff on Thursday vs. the Red Sox.

Good lord, where to begin with this train wreck of a month that was capped off by tonight? The Yankees led the Rays 7-0 at one point while the Red Sox were ahead 3-2 on the Orioles before a rain delay of one hour and 25 minutes during the seventh inning.

Bottom line, the two teams that most deserved to make the playoffs made it. New York will host Detroit and Texas hosts Tampa Bay beginning on Friday. In the NL, Philly hosts St. Louis and Arizona travels to Milwaukee on Saturday.

This was a game that the Red Sox (90-72) shouldn't have lost but given the way September unfolded-tying the worst Sept. mark in franchise history-the end result was entirely predictable for anybody that was paying attention.

Jon Lester wasn't great but he gave them a decent enough start on three days rest. He went six innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

In possibly his final game with the Red Sox, closer Jonathan Papelbon (4-1) blew the save in crazy fashion. He was down to the last strike with the bases empty before Chris Davis doubled, Nolan Reimold tied it with a ground-rule double and then Andino hit a sinking liner which most people not named Carl Crawford might have had a chance on. Don't ask me how a guy who won a Gold Glove last season could become this much of a liability in one year.

Alfredo Aceves had pitched a scoreless 1-2-3 seventh (his fourth consecutive day of work) while ultra-shaky setup guy Daniel Bard had a clean eighth to get it to best closer in franchise history.

To blame Papelbon is short-sighted and dumb. This was a teamwide failure on so many levels; it should have never gotten to this point. As GM Theo Epstein pointed out after the game, if they had only won two more games (9 instead of 7 out of 27) in September, they'd be in the playoffs.

Firing Terry Francona is probably the most likely option since who would ever take on Crawford, John Lackey, etc. at this point? However, while Francona's approach of not calling out players didn't help, ultimately it's the players that get the job done or not. Rumors of Theo going to the Cubs make sense and I wouldn't blame him for wanting a new challenge at this point in his career. Winning World Series championships in 2004 and 2007 changed everything for the Red Sox, the team and the fanbase just doesn't have the same passion and I don't that they ever will again.

The only positional players that showed up tonight for Boston were Dustin Pedroia (3 hits) and Marco Scutaro (2 hits). Pedroia had an RBI single in the 3rd (1-0) and solo homer in the fifth (3-2 Red Sox; 21st of the season). Scutaro scored on a balk in the fourth (2-2) and the pair also combined on a sick double play to get out of trouble in the sixth.

As every Red Sox fan thought during the slide, if only we had a couple more guys with the heart and desire of Pedroia. His energy and enthusiasm for the game can only go so far though. He's a winner and hopefully he plays for Boston his entire career.

Scutaro is a free agent and he figures to move on from here but he is also guilt-free as him and Jacoby Ellsbury (who should be AL MVP) basically tried to will this team offensively in September when every other bat flat-lined and any form of pitching was a disaster.

J.J. Hardy got the O's on the board with a two-run shot in the third which put Baltimore ahead 2-1.

Starter Alfredo Simon was pulled after 4.1 innings (3 earned runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts) but Troy Patton (2.1 innings), Willie Eyre (1 out), Pedro Strop (1 inning) and Jim Johnson (6-5; 1 inning) combined to close the door on Boston's ill-fated season.

This loss should serve as a painful reminder to both the team and fans that getting to the playoffs and winning a World Series isn't a birthright by any means (in case we forgot). The Red Sox haven't won a playoff game since 2008 and this marks the second straight season that they've missed the playoffs (something they hadn't done in consecutive years since 2001). Hell, they only had one more win this season than last year's joke of a campaign. And please don't start with the injury excuse, in baseball everyone has a ton of injuries after the grueling 162-game regular season.

Let's remember that winning the offseason like the Miami Heat in the NBA or Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL doesn't mean anything. The results are all that matters and right now, this team has dissolved into one that lacks character and substance. We can only hope that this bitter end gets things turned back into a winning direction moving forward.

Follow @RichSlate


Tweet

Just Calmly Admit To Yourself That It's Over And Life Will Be So Much Easier

There are two games left in the 2011 MLB regular season with the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays tied for the AL Wild Card.

Those are the facts but I'm here to tell you that's it over for the Red Sox (89-71) after tonight's 6-3 loss at Camden Yards to the Baltimore Orioles (68-92) which frittered away the last game of Boston's lead. Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 5-2.

I've never found myself basically rooting against one of the four Boston pro sports teams but that's what is has come to with this miserable operation. I want their season to be over so we can just get away from this team and hopefully make some big changes in the offseason (dumping John Lackey, Carl Crawford, etc.). They're mostly unlikable, they have no pulse and now, they're about to pull off one of the great September choke jobs in MLB history.

For the second time in less than a week, Josh Beckett (13-7) was not up to the task of beating the O's. The fraudulent Texas toughguy went six innings but he allowed six earned runs on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

Boston staked Beckett to a 2-1 lead in the fourth, following Jacoby Ellsbury's RBI double in the second and Jed Lowrie's solo homer in the fourth (his sixth of the season).

Chris Davis (2 hits, 2 RBIs) tied it with an RBI single in the fifth and put his team ahead for good with an RBI double in the sixth. The biggest blow was an inside-the-park three-run homer by Robert Andino. For a team that has found new and different ways to lose since the calendar changed to September, this was a unique one even for them.

Jacoby Ellsbury had the ball in his glove in center field but it popped out as he ran basically full speed into the wall. That's the play all the old-timers will be talking about for years to come, that is assuming they are still watching this bunch of losers.

Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, walk) had an RBI single in the ninth as the Red Sox tried to rally but Adrian Gonzalez flew out for the second out and Lowrie struck out to end it when he represented the tying run with two runners on base.

David Ortiz and J.D. Drew each had two meaningless hits in the latest disastrous setback.

Matt Wieters tied it in the second for the Orioles with a solo homer. Tommy Hunter outdueled Beckett once again, proving that Beckett's big-game reputation doesn't really fit anymore. Hunter went five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts.

Troy Patton (2-1) got five outs for the win and four other Baltimore relievers followed him.

I would say this was a soul-crushing defeat for the Red Sox but that would be incorrectly assuming this team had one to begin with. They're an overpaid, underachieving bunch that should rightfully be taken apart this winter. Good riddance.

On the bright side, Erik Bedard faces Zach Britton tomorrow night as Boston tries to stave off all the negative momentum you could ever possibly imagine one team facing in the regular season.

Who knows who will be catching Bedard since Jason Varitek was a late scratch last night with a bruised knee (he was hit by a pitch on Sunday in New York) and Jarrod Saltalmacchia had to leave in the eighth inning after taking a foul ball off his collarbone.

Keep in mind that no MLB team has ever blown a nine-game lead (what Boston had) in September but then again, this squad hasn't won two games in a row since a day-night doubleheader vs. Oakland on August 27.

Follow @RichSlate


Tweet

I Guess It Was Papelbon's Turn To Blow It

You know where this is all leading don't you? The Red Sox will back into a playoff spot say next week in Baltimore as the Tampa Bay Rays run out of gas and finally hand over the AL Wild Card to an undeserving Boston squad.

Tonight it was closer Jonathan Papelbon's turn to blow a game-giving up his first run in 21 games (July 16)-as the Orioles (64-90) won 7-5 over the Red Sox (88-67) at Fenway Park.

Terry Francona is scared to death of making Papelbon work more than an inning so this was only his fourth save opportunity of over one inning. Naturally, summoned with one out in the eighth Papelbon gave up a bases-loaded double to Robert Andino (3 hits, run), who is a shoe in for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This result was dulled by the fact that a few minutes earlier in the Bronx, the Yankees blanked the Rays 5-0. As it stands, Boston leads Tampa Bay by two games (one in the loss column) with the regular season ending next Wednesday.

Erik Bedard returned from his fake injury (lat), not to be confused with my favorite solider Carl Crawford who bravely put his name in the lineup tonight after missing yesterday's doubleheader with a stiff neck, and as usual, Bedard worked slowly and ineffectively.

Bedard went 2.2 innings (really), allowing four runs (one earned) on five hits with two walks. For the second game in a row, Scott Atchison was great. This time he threw 2.1 scoreless innings and even Matt Albers pitched in a 1-2-3 sixth. Sadly, the usually reliable duo of Daniel Bard (2-9) and Papelbon didn't get it done. Bard was charged with two runs that crossed home against Pap.

Did I mention that a Dutch pitcher started for Baltimore? Yup, none other than Rick VandenHurk made the stoners in Amsterdam smile. He went three innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

Adrian Gonzalez's (3 hits, 3 RBIs) RBI double in the first got the Red Sox out to a good start, it felt like they hadn't scored a game's first run since August.

Luckily the Orioles piled on four runs in the third as Nick Markakis (3 hits) had an RBI double, Vlad Guerrero reached on Josh Reddick's error (scoring Markakis) and Mark Reynolds (2 hits) drove in two with an RBI single.

However, no lead is safe with Baltimore's Double A caliber rotation and bullpen. Gonzalez crushed his MLB-leading 12th opposite field homer of the season (27th overall), a two-run blast in the third. The Red Sox went ahead with a pair of runs in the fourth on Mike Aviles' (2 hits) RBI single and a fielding error by Reynolds (his 30th of the season; what a five-tool player).

For the second time in three games, the O's new closer Jim Johnson got a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save of the season.

Josh Beckett and Tommy Hunter square off tomorrow night in Boston's regular season home finale. It makes me sick to write it but the Red Sox need to win to earn the series split with the AL East's sisters of the poor. Tampa Bay and New York have a day-night doubleheader tomorrow. Fun times, baseball!

Follow @RichSlate


Tweet