Season's over: Sox lose a game

As quickly as the bandwagon fans and brain-dead media get hyped after a relatively easy opening day win, it takes roughly the same amount of time to get down as the Red Sox came back to earth last night with a 7-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway.

In a duel of great lefties, Tampa's Scott Kazmir (1-0) came out on top of Boston's Jon Lester (0-1). Kazmir went six innings, allowing one run on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Lester was gone after five innings of work. He gave up five runs on eight hits, with two walks and five strikeouts.

Lester is thought to be a top contender for the AL Cy Young this season so seeing him start out really well (all five strikeouts in the first two innings) then completely unravel was surprising to say the least.

The Rays pushed across their first run in the third on a throwing error by Kevin Youkilis.

He atoned for that mistake with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning which scored Dustin Pedroia. Youk finished with three hits, the only bright spot in a Sox lineup that struck out eight times and left nine on base.

Tampa Bay (1-1) showed it can play any style of baseball in the fifth inning. First, Jason Bartlett (three hits) executed a perfect safety squeeze, which scored former Sox player/minor league manager/bodybuilder Gabe Kapler. Lester got Evan Longoria to ground into a double play but a run still scored.

The most damaging play of the game was later in the fifth when Carlos Pena hit a two-run bomb to center, giving Tampa a commanding 5-1 lead.

Longoria hit a solo shot in the eighth off Takashi Saito (making his Red Sox debut) and Boston responded with one in their half of the inning when Jason Bay doubled home David Ortiz.

Carl Crawford's infield single in the ninth accounted for the last run of the game.

The series wraps up this afternoon with a day game pitting Matt Garza against Dice-K.

Mike Timlin shouldn't be on the ALCS roster, let alone in a close game

For a playoff game that lasted five hours and 27 minutes over 11 innings, it might be surprising to hear that one decision made all the difference in the final outcome. With only Paul Byrd and Mike Timlin left in the bullpen heading into the bottom of the 11th, Red Sox manager Terry Francona made the wrong decision: he put Timlin in over Byrd (who hasn't appeared yet in the playoffs).

At that point, I knew it was over (most likely in that inning). I'm not that cynical but after watching Timlin completely lose his stuff the last two seasons, I felt like it was impossible that he'd be able to hold off the ultra-resilient Rays. Lo and behold, he walked three (one intentionally) and B.J. Upton hit a shallow sacrifice fly to right that scored pinch runner Fernando Perez. Tampa Bay won game 2, 9-8, evening the series at one game apiece.

You can't really say the Red Sox deserved to win. A couple players were outstanding and it's not like Tampa was that much better, however the law of averages had to tell you that there was no way Boston would take the first two games at the Trop.

Neither Josh Beckett nor Scott Kazmir were anything like they're capable of showing. In 4.1 innings, Beckett gave up eight earned runs on nine hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Kazmir lasted 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts. The two supposed aces each allowed three home runs.

The loss for Boston did spoil amazing performances by Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. Bay had three hits (including a double and homer), a walk and four RBIs. Youk had three hits (homer), two runs and an RBI. Finally, Pedroia cranked two homers off of Kazmir, a single, four runs, two RBIs and a walk.

Other than that, the Red Sox had some black holes in the lineup. Jacoby Ellsbury was 0-for-6, Mark Kotsay was 0-for-6, Jason Varitek was 0-for-3 before he was lifted for a pinch hitter. Jed Lowrie and David Ortiz didn't get a hit but they both walked three times and Coco Crisp added three hits.

Evan Longoria was the headliner for the Rays. He was 3-for 5 (2 doubles, homer) with three runs and three RBIs. Upton had a homer, two RBIs, two runs, walk and steal. Carlos Pena had two hits, two runs and an RBI while Carl Crawford had two hits and two RBIs.

Bay put Boston up 2-0 in the first with a two-run double which scored Ortiz and Youkilis. Longoria responded in the bottom of the first with a two-run blast off Beckett, scoring himself and Pena.

Pedroia hit his first homer in the third while Upton tied it back up with a moonshot of his own in the bottom of the third. Crawford gave the Rays the lead later in the inning with an RBI single.

The most unforgivable mistake by Beckett was in the fourth when Cliff Floyd hit a solo homer to center, making it 5-3 Rays.

Boston hit three homers in the fifth, retaking the lead at 6-5 and knocking Kazmir out of the game. Pedroia, Youkilis and Bay did the honors.

Hoping to get one more inning out of Beckett, Francona left him in there to start the bottom of the fifth. Pena touched him up for an RBI single, Longoria had an RBI double and Crawford took Beckett out with another RBI single.

Bay cut it to 8-7 in the sixth with an RBI single and Boston tied it in the eighth when Pedroia scored on Dan Wheeler's wild pitch.

Wheeler was the unsung hero of the game for the Rays as he went 3.1 scoreless innings (48 pitches), with four strikeouts. Think the Rays wanted this one?

The fact that David Price, the No. 1 pick in 2007, was the last reliever that Tampa used (he got the win), is funny when you think about who the Red Sox were forced to use. No idea why Francona went to Timlin vs. Byrd who could go multiple innings and has great control (he wouldn't have walked all those hitters).

Both teams used all their best arms out of the bullpen. Delcarmen, Okajima, Masterson and Papelbon for the Sox. Balfour, Howell, Bradford and Miller for Tampa Bay.

The series shifts to Fenway tomorrow afternoon for game 3, followed by games 4 and 5 which will also be in Boston. The Sox need to take at least two out of three. They can't go back to Tampa down 3-2 and forced to win two elimination games at the Trop. Jon Lester goes against Matt Garza in what should be much more a pitcher's duel than game 2.

Sox tied for AL East lead

The Tampa Bay Rays had been sitting pretty in first place in the AL East since July 24. Not so much anymore. The Red Sox smoked the Rays, 13-5, last night behind six home runs and the teams are now tied.

For a team that hadn't won in Tampa all year, the Red Sox (89-61) made last night a laugher pretty quickly which was appreciated with the Cowboys-Eagles game on Monday Night Football. Boston led 11-1 going into the bottom of the fourth and 13-1 going into the bottom of the sixth before the Rays (88-60) woke up.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, king of the fraud pitchers, continued to pile up impressive numbers despite less than masterpiece quality starts every time out. Five innings and 101 pitches later, Dice-K was 17-2, the most wins for a Japanese-born pitcher in MLB. He allowed one run on three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

The Sox' lineup pounded Scott Kazmir (11-7) and a host of Rays relievers for 11 hits and nine walks. David Ortiz (2 hits, 4 RBIs) started it off with a three-run bomb in the first, knocking in Coco Crisp (3 walks, 2 runs, hit) and Dustin Pedroia (run, hit, RBI, walk) who had both walked to begin the game. Kazmir was knocked out after three innings, allowing nine earned runs on six hits with four walks and two strikeouts.

Two batters later, Mike Lowell hit a solo shot. Tampa Bay got one back in the third when Akinori Iwamura hit a solo homer but Boston exploded for seven in the fourth. Bay got it going with a solo homer, Jason Varitek hit a two-run bomb which scored Jed Lowrie (3 walks), Pedroia knocked in Ellsbury with an RBI single, Crisp came home on Ortiz's fielder's choice and Kevin Youkilis brought home Ortiz with another homer.

Ellsbury homered in the fifth and Youkilis added an RBI double in the sixth, putting the Red Sox ahead 13-1. After that, the benches were emptied as both teams put in the scrubs that were called up when the rosters expanded.

Justin Ruggiano and Dan Johnson each had two-run dingers for Tampa Bay in the sixth and seventh respectively.

Tonight's the big night where the Sox can finally pull ahead in the AL East. Who better to take the ball than Josh Beckett (who should be able to reach 100 pitches after having abbreviated starts recently while he returned from injury)? Andy Sonnanstine tries to save the Rays' division hopes which are quickly fading.

a pride win for a young team

Barring any crazy collapses, the Tampa Bay Rays are going to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Your defending World Champion Boston Red Sox should be there as well.

Last night, the Rays (86-57) refused to lose and survived to post one of the biggest wins in Rays history, 5-4 over the Red Sox (85-59) at Fenway.

Jason Bay hit a two-run rope over the Monster in the bottom of the eighth off Dan Wheeler, putting Boston up 4-3 going into the ninth. Jonathan Papelbon had to loosen up quickly but everything seemed to be aligning perfectly for the Red Sox. If they could hold on, they'd regain first place in the AL East for the first time since June 28.

Instead, the Rays rallied to tie it on Dan Johnson's pinch hit homer to right and took the lead on Dioner Navarro's RBI double which knocked in Fernando Perez. Papelbon (5-4), pitching for the third straight day, was ineffective and charged with the blown save, his fifth of the season.

Injury-prone, over-the-hill closer Troy Percival nailed down the final three outs for his 28th save of the season. Mark Kotsay led off the inning with a lenghty at-bat which led to a walk. Jacoby Ellsbury pinch ran. Jason Varitek struck out looking, David Ortiz gave it a ride to right (but this is not the Ortiz of '03-'07) but it fell just short for an out and Coco Crisp popped out to end the game. Ellsbury had stolen second (his 45th steal of the season) and advanced to third on a throwing error on the same play so all Coco had to do was get a hit.

The game was extremely slow, due to the two starting pitchers: Scott Kazmir and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Kazmir was a little more successful: six innings, two runs on five hits, three walks and four strikeouts. Dice-K went 5 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

Boston's bullpen before Papelbon was lights out. Javier Lopez threw a scoreless sixth, Manny Delcarmen got five outs and Hideki Okajima struck out the only batter he faced.

Kevin Youkilis doubled in Dustin Pedroia in the first, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. The Rays came back with two in the third. Dice-K hit Cliff Floyd with the bases loaded and Willie Aybar hit a sacrifice fly.

In the fourth, Jason Bartlett doubled which scored Gabe Gross. Mike Lowell homered in the bottom of the inning for the Red Sox, setting the stage for Bay's clutch homer.

Josh Beckett faces Andy Sonnanstine tonight in the series finale. After the Rays finally won its first game at Fenway this season, Boston will need a strong outing from its big game ace. Papelbon shouldn't be available so the late innings could be a nightmare for Boston.

A week can make a big differnce in baseball

Last weekend the Sox were swept in Tampa Bay (16-15) so this past weekend they returned the favor by taking all three games at Fenway.

Yesterday, two young left-handers (Scott Kazmir and Jon Lester) started and Lester came out on top as Boston won 7-3.

Despite reaching 58 pitches in the second inning, Lester (2-2) gave Boston six innings of four hit, one run baseball. He gave up three walks and struck out five.

Kazmir (0-1) was making his first start of the season and he was limited to 90 pitches. He's usually a Red Sox killer but he gave up four runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Kevin Youkilis did everything for the Sox (20-13) bats. He had three hits (including two doubles and a home run), four RBIs and scored twice.

Reliever Manny Delcarmen continued to struggle as he gave up two runs while only recording an out.

Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon (9th save) each got four outs without allowing a run to sew it up for Boston.

Boston now departs on a grueling 10-game road trip, covering Detroit, Minnesota and Baltimore.