Matt Clement is Negative in the Impressive Range

Manny on 2nd, Varitek on 1st. No outs. So Mike Lowell strikes out. Okay, still only one out. And then Dustin Mohr strikes out. Not good, but still...oh, no, it's Pena coming up! You guessed it, another strikeout. Man. Not good.

Matt Clement was very eh tonight. As if I needed another reason to complain about Bronson's absence. Clement pitched so well last Friday, and then he gives up a grand slam and eight hits tonight. For the second night in a row, the starting pitcher left in the 5th inning.

Clement's early exit led to the first appearance of Julian Tavarez. And boy, was I eager to see what he would do. And wouldn't you know, he did a pretty good job. Clement left him 2 men on, and Tavarez allowed a single but got his outs without anyone scoring. Well, not until his next inning of work, where another run was tacked on to make it 8-1.

What's that? Another David Ortiz homerun? Oh, yes, that's 4 now. He had a good night offensively, unlike Lowell, Mohr, Pena, Loretta...okay, the rest of the team. Timlin pitched an inning and continued his 0.00 ERA, and Foulke came in for the 8th and 9th and allowed zero runs. However, it didn't really matter at that point, as the score was 8-3 and Lowell (SO), Mohr (Snow PHed and walked), and Pena (he really worked the count and walked on 8 pitches) were due up in the 9th. But surprise surprise, Youkilis hit a 2-run double with 2 outs to make it 8-5. But then B.J. Ryan came in and whoa! Mark Loretta gets a hit and Youk scores! At this point, I'm getting excited but it's subdued because there's still 2 outs and then Ortiz made the final out because he swung on the first pitch.

Another loss. Ouch.