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Little Trop Of Horrors by Jared Carrabis
Sox lose in extras, drop to 2-12 at the Trop in last two seasons

Remember the good ol' days when Tropicana Field used to rise to their feet to give Red Sox pitchers a standing ovation after a great outing? I sure do.

Those, of course, were the days way back when the Sox fan to (Devil) Rays fan ratio was about 12:1. Oh, how things have changed. Cowbells and all, Jon Lester took the mound looking to keep pace with the division leading Yankees and to drive the Tampa Bay Rays further down in the AL East.

Boston's second ace in their deck pitched brilliantly and well enough to guide his team to victory. The innings weren't what we're used to seeing out of Lester, but after 110 pitched, 10 K's, three hits and an earned run over six innings, it was time to call it a day. When the Sox' southpaw walked off the mound on Tuesday night, he left with a 2-0 lead, which was provided by solo jacks off the bats of Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia.

It was Hideki Okajima to come in from the pen in relief of Lester, but he would allow his one inherited runner to score before his day was done. The RBI single by Jason Bartlett slimmed Boston's lead down to 2-1.

In the eighth, manager Terry Francona elected to go with what seems to be his new setup man, Daniel Bard. Leading off the frame was Evan Longoria. Before he had stepped to the plate, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year had been 0-for-3 with 3 strikeouts at the hands of Jon Lester. Against Bard, it was a whole different ballgame. Little did Bard know, he was being matched up against a right-handed hitter who was hitting Boston pitching at a .375 clip in 2009 with 5 HR and 21 RBI. Please keep in mind, that small sample of domination is only in ten games (40 at bats).

"We've seen him at his best," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "I know he's a great player. We seem to bring out a lot in him."

Bard's first pitch to Longoria was a 96 MPH fastball that wouldn't be coming down any time soon. The solo blast for Longoria tied the game at two and set the stage for five more grueling innings of baseball between the American League Champions and the runner-up.

Both teams dodged bullets left and right in the late innings, as the Sox loaded the bases in the tenth with one out, but a Dustin Pedroia double play killed the Sox' chances of scoring, and the Rays had also loaded the bases in both the eighth and tenth innings with no outs and failed to plate a run.

When the game reached the bottom of the thirteenth, Takashi Saito working on completing his second inning of work when he allowed a walk to Michel Hernandez, who would later make his way to third after a sacrifice bunt and a ground out to the right side. With two outs and first base open, to the plate came Evan Longoria.

Now, I've never criticized Terry Francona's managerial decisions in print, but I honestly think that out of every fan that was watching this game, at least 80% of them either thought this in their head, or leaned over and said this out loud to their buddy, "They're going to walk him here, right?"

In his career, Longoria was hitting .500 off of Saito with a home run. Now, I'm no big league manager, nor will I ever be, but that stat says something to me, especially when it's not a fluke situation where a certain player has a certain pitcher's number. The Sox were dealing with one of the elite bats in the league, not to mention he had already tied this game with a deep shot earlier in the night.

So, again, with first base open, the Red Sox elected to pitch to Longoria, and boy did they pay for it. Saito's 31st pitch was a 1-0 fastball that was launched off the bat of Longoria that was a no-doubted from the point of contact. Admittedly, Saito later shared with the press that the pitch that catcher Jason Varitek called was not the pitch that landed in the seats to end the game.

"Actually, [Jason Varitek] wanted something else, but I shook my head and decided myself to [throw a fastball]," said Saito.

In Francona's defense, you have to look at the big picture here. Saito was the last pitcher available in the Red Sox bullpen. Clay Buchholz was warming up in the bullpen and he is scheduled to start against the Yankees on Saturday. When you get deep into extra innings, with each inning that gets added on, the more you want to win, but again, you have to look at the big picture.

With a four-game series looming in the Bronx this weekend, Francona decided to take a gamble; a gamble in which he and his team lost. The Sox skipper went on to justify his decision to pitch to Longoria which makes perfect sense.

"We're getting into a situation where, at least with the open bases, we can maybe have some room to make some pitches," Francona said. "We back him into a bind, then you've got [Ben] Zobrist next. If you want to go all the way to the bases loaded, you're looking at a guy who's thrown 40 pitches. That's putting him in an unfair position. I wish the ball wouldn't have gone out. I don't think that would have been the right thing to do."

When asked if he was surprised that the Red Sox chose to pitch to him in that situation with first base open, Longoria responded by saying, "A little bit. I didn't want to go up there with the mind-set that I was going to give up the at-bat and concede the fact that they were gonna walk me or pitch around me. I've done that before and then I get out and I'm walking back to the dugout going, 'Why did I do that? Why wasn't I ready to hit?' It was in the back of my mind. I actually thought they might walk the bases loaded to get to Joe [Dillon] and give themselves an opportunity to get an out at every base. But I had to prepare myself the best I could to go up there and get a hit."

This one certainly stings, but the Sox will have to shake this loss off as soon as possible. In this brief two-game series, Boston will look to break even with the Rays on Wednesday before heading to New York for four.

Final Score: Red Sox 2, Rays 4 / 13 innings

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

Despite losing in crushing fashion, Kevin Youkilis is undoubtedly the hottest hitter on the team. After going 1-for-5 with a HR on Wednesday, Youkilis is hitting .533 (16-for-30) with 3 HR and 8 RBI in his last seven games.

After racking up 10 K's on Wednesday, Jon Lester notched his fifth game of the 2009 season with ten or more strikeouts. He's struck out ten twice, eleven twice and his career high of twelve once.

Thursday's pitching match-up:

In the final game of this two-game set, it's Brad Penny against David Price. Penny has not pitched well at Tropicana Field (0-2, 5.73 ERA) and his numbers against the Rays overall aren't much better (2-3, 5.06 ERA), but as far as 2009, Penny's numbers (7-5, 5.07 ERA) give him the slight advantage over Price (4-4, 5.10 ERA) in this match-up. Price will be making his first career start against Boston on Thursday.

-Jared Carrabis

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