A Chance, Wasted

Let me begin by saying how awful the Cincinnati bullpen is. Once again, Bronson Arroyo left the game winning, and 4 pitches into Coffey's relief appearance, the game was tied. Bronson was pitching on 3 days rest, too, and he did a fine job. I think those pitchers must hate him or something. At least they won.

The Yankees lost yesterday and the Sox knew it going into the game. Would they capitalize?

First off, a very different lineup was shown last night, with Manny DHing, Ortiz at 1st ("I'm an employee here, I do what they tell me, you know what I'm saying. We're going through a situation here with guys injured, so I do what they tell me to do."), Kapler in right, Pena in left, and Youkilis at 3rd. Good thing Youkilis used to play 3rd, now that Lowell is hurting (the MRI was negative, he could be back soon). Unfortunately, Ortiz' inexperience at first was evident as he bobbled a ball that should have been a double play in the 4th. Later on, one of the runners scored, the other rounded third too hard and was thrown out. 3 more runs in the inning put the Rays on top. All because of that error!

Gabe Kapler got hit twice by the same pitcher. What's up with that?

David Ortiz bunted in the 8th. And I laughed, and I laughed...it was actually a perfect bunt, too. And then Manny hit his 31st home run and the Sox were only down by one! Gabe Kapler had a really great AB, working a walk after 11 pitches. The Gonz hit one right to the second baseman so no one else scored. But it set up the 9th to make sure Ortiz would be batting.

Hansen pitched the 8th - strikeout, single, walk, 2-RBI triple, does it matter anymore? I told Francona to put Delcarmen in! I would like to apply for the job of One Who Suggests Which Pitchers to Put In, because I think I would be really great at that position. Of course, I didn't win the 2004 World Series.

Another run would score, so it was 8-4 going to the 9th. And Ortiz was the 3rd batter, so he couldn't win the game this time. Crisp - out. Loretta - double! Papi - RBI single (Why did Hansen have to give up three runs? It could have been tied)! Ramirez - base hit! Youkilis - walked to load the bases with one out. Lopez - (I want Tek back) swung on the first pitch and grounded into a double play. STOP SWINGING ON THE FIRST PITCH!!

That is NOT how you thank your new team for taking you on.

So if Ortiz hadn't been playing first, and Youkilis had been there to get the double play (or even one out, really), all those runs wouldn't have scored in the 4th and the Sox probably would have won. I guess it was a bad day to try something new. Of course, losing one game because of an Ortiz error isn't so bad when you consider all the games they've won because of his bat.