Red Sox - 300 410 002 - 10 14 1 Blue Jays - 112 000 15x - 11 8 0Daniel Bard, entrusted with an 8-6 lead in the bottom of the eighth, hit Brett Lawrie with a 1-2 pitch, allowed a first-pitch single to Orioles-pitcher-turned-Blue-Jays-outfielder Adam Loewen, and walked J.P. Arencibia (after being ahead 0-2). With the bases loaded, he overpowered Dewayne Wise with three fastballs and then froze Yunel Escobar with a full count slider for the second out - although Bard may have caught a break on his 3-1 pitch, a belated strike call from plate umpire Jeff Kellogg.
Bard got ahead of Eric Thames 0-2, but ended up walking him on eight pitches (cffbbfbb) to force in a run. Then he walked Jose Bautista on five pitches (bfbbb) - forcing in another run to tie the game 8-8. During the walks, Terry Francona had Matt Albers warming up, not Jonathan Papelbon. You know Papelbon, the dude who has not allowed a run since mid-fuckin'-July (18 innings) and has recorded 10 strikeouts in his last five innings? Why not give him a shot at getting four outs?
Once the game was tied, Tito pulled the plug on Bard and brought in Albers. Edwin Encarnacion worked the count full, then smoked a three-run double to right-center, giving him five RBI for the night.
Boston rallied in the ninth, as Adrian Gonzalez homered and David Ortiz singled. With two outs and Tiz on second, Marco Scutaro (who drove in two runs in the first inning) singled to center to bring the Sox within one run. Mike Aviles pinch-ran for Scutaro, and was easily thrown out trying to steal second with Josh Reddick at the plate. In fact, Aviles barely reached the base on his slide, and Escobar was waiting for him to arrive.
I didn't have a great jump, for one. Two, that was probably the best pitch to get thrown out on. It wasn't a pitchout, but it was up and out. It just didn't work out well.And after Scutaro's hit, guess who started warming up in the pen? ... Yeah.
Francona's bullpen management in the eighth was atrocious, and defied explanation. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, this was clearly his worst game of the season. Bard was bad, but he's not going to pull himself, signal for a replacement, and walk off the field. It's the manager's job to monitor that sort of thing.
Francona, on Bard:
We just couldn't get the last out. After the last walk, I thought it was just enough pitches [for Bard]. We go to Albers, we give up the big three-run hit, and it ends up being too much. ... I guess it proves [Bard]'s human. We kind of fought to get to there, but once you get to him, you feel pretty good.And then you sit back and let him face seven guys and throw 33 mostly-shitty pitches.
(Also: Wakefield (5-3-5-3-3, 91) must be seriously pissed off. He didn't pitch all that well, but he left with an 8-5 lead. And Jacoby Ellsbury went 4-for-5, with a three-run homer.)
Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, 3B
Crawford, LF
Scutaro, SS
Reddick, RF
Saltalamacchia, C
Boston pitchers have limited the Blue Jays to only one run and 10 hits in 20 innings in the series.
Game thread. And Orioles/Yankees at 1 PM.
18 comments:
PeteAbe, Twitter:
Wakefield on not getting to 200: "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't change what I've done."
***
And what I did was take a dump in Bard's locker.
Still not so sure Lawrie was actually hit by the 1-2 pitch. He sure didn't look like it hit him on replay.
@Kyle
..not so sure Lawrie was actually hit...
The Blue Jay radio announcer Jerry Howarth (no TV last night in T.O.) said later in the game that Lawrie was "hit in the shirt", a cryptic way a Blue Jay employee might say what you said.
As I said above, in T.O. there was no TV of the game last night. As it was related on radio by Alan Ashby, I couldn't understand the play in bottom 3rd where Scutaro picked up the error and Bautista stole home. And the MLB play by play (quoted below) doesn't describe the play for me either.
How did the ball get to Scutaro so that he could then get the error that allowed the base runner Lawrie to advance to 3rd? Did Bautista do a straight steal of home on the pitch, or was it a double steal and Salty threw down not seeing Baustista coming? Or was it a delayed double steal? Or was it a 1-6-2? What? WHAT?! Somebody tell meeeeee!!!! :)
MLB's Play by Play
Bottom 3
1.Eric Thames hit by pitch.
With Jose Bautista batting, wild pitch by Tim Wakefield, Eric Thames to 2nd.
2.Jose Bautista hits a ground-rule double (23) on a line drive down the left-field line, on fan interference. Eric Thames scores.
3.Edwin Encarnacion pops out softly to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
4.Kelly Johnson strikes out swinging.
5.Brett Lawrie walks. Jose Bautista to 3rd. Jose Bautista steals (7) 3rd base.
With Adam Loewen batting, Jose Bautista steals (8) home. Brett Lawrie steals (6) 2nd base. Brett Lawrie advances to 3rd. Throwing error by shortstop Marco Scutaro.
6.Adam Loewen called out on strikes.
That was a distressing game to listen to.
That was a distressing game to listen to.
I was getting score updates on my phone during a meeting - then went to a pub - then listened to the 8th and 9th innings while driving home.
Somehow with beer + game I still made it home in one piece.
It was indeed distressing.
Tonight we have Tim-Allan-Laura-at-the-game mojo.
As I said above, in T.O. there was no TV of the game last night.
It wasn't on TSN?
NO TV :( unless you purchase the higher priced package that has SportsNetOne in it. Rogers' owned team, both sportnet stations and radio station; TSN has 0 games this year.
Michael Holloway--here's what happened (as I remember it):
First and third. Runner on first is going. On the throw to second, the runner on third breaks for home. Scutaro sees this, moves up to take the throw so he can fire home. He would have had him, but the throw was way wild.
On the wild throw, the guy who stole second went to third easily.
So they gave each guy a stolen base, and the advance to third was on Scutaro's throwing error.
NO TV :( unless you purchase the higher priced package
Right, not no TV, no TV on the level you and I subscribe to.
I also don't get TSN, only basic cable. Wish I didn't have to get that, but it's the only way to get the MLB Extra Innings package.
Thank you Jere. That's the way I scored it - with the exception of Scutaro's 'move up'.
This is my scoring:
(even though the radio guys described none of this)
2-6 safe
#3 3,H
6-2
E6th #6 2,3
My 'safe' notation (my way of indicating the umpire made a call on a play) was, by your concise narrative, wrong.
Thanks again.
I checked three sources (ESPN, MLB, BBRef) for clarification - they all had the same in-concise narrative. The automatic push button inputs that MLB advanced media has enabled (via retrosheet?) through out the majors doesn't allow for enough flexibility in many situations - imho.
That was a distressing game to listen to.
It may have been better than watching it. Crawford's 9th inning AB sounded like one of his worst of the season.
@laura k,
Yes me too. I'm running as fast as I can to keep player salaries down (by not feeding the revenue side). :) If I didn't pay for basic cable I would get 0 games on TV (worth a thought - retro baseball experience?).
Just a few years ago you could get all the weekend games over the air on CBC - no more.
Just a few years ago you could get all the weekend games over the air on CBC
Maybe you could. CBC doesn't broadcast Red Sox games.
@laura k:
When they played Toronto they did. :)
still fuming, this post does not help me!
'..a distressing game to listen to...'
I didn't find the radio broadcast of the game distressing - but it was upsetting. :)
I've been re-reading Marshal McLuhan of late and so some new thoughts (for me) on the media of radio.
I grew up with radio. My parents took our TV out of service after I showed a predilection to catatonia in front of it.
TV, Marshal McLuhan says, has no frames like a film does - no on, off - it is a constant flow, each pixel refreshing 60 times a second - it overwhelms, mesmerizes. The 'simultaneous ear' on the other hand creates a particular acoustic space, or universe.
Proculas (Greek Philosopher 450AD) said god is something that the centre of which is everywhere and the border of which is nowhere. (McLuhan at John Hopkins University (1967)- http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL260C63CC9717CE6E)
This perfectly describes the acoustic universe one immerses oneself in when one listens.
McLuhan, "The world of the ear is more embracing and inclusive than that of the eye can ever be.").
I find that the radio experience of a ball game has many qualities that picture story telling media doesn't - ethereal, magical qualities - while in the opposite way, TV is good for gathering 'facts' (the pictures we remember that we tend to interpret as 'facts'). On the other hand TV doesn't capture 1/10 of what is going on on the field - so TV broadcasts are as much a matter of faith as a radio broadcast. In both media you have to rely on a third media, the play-by-play announcer, the ancient spoken word media - we put our faith in them, suspend our incredulity and go along for the ride.
Me, too, Tim. This one really, really pissed me off.
I am usually a big fan of Francona, but for this game, he sure was FrancoMa.
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