You got Greinke'd by Jared Carrabis
It was over before it even started


The Sox lost again to the Royals? Oh, Zack Greinke pitched...against Paul Byrd? Oh, all right; that makes sense.

Unfortunately, this thing was over before it even started, folks. After Kevin Youkilis struck out to conclude the top half of the first, waving at a 90mph slider, the Royals went to work on Byrd on the bottom half of the inning.

Byrd allowed back-to-back singles to open the frame, followed by back-to-back walks to walk in the game's first run. After a visit to the mound by John Farrell, Byrd served up yet another base hit, allowing the first five batters to reach base.

Trailing by two, Byrd got his first out of the inning on a ground out by Mark Teahen, but in from third to score was Billy Butler, as the Royals continued to tack on to their lead.

Later in the inning with two outs, Alex Gordon poked a single to left to knock in two more runs, upping Kansas City's lead to 5-0.

From there, the Red Sox didn't have a chance until Greinke was done doing his thing. Trailing by five, Boston patiently awaited the arrival of the Royals' bullpen, while Cy Young candidate carved his way through the Red Sox lineup for six innings of a two-hit shutout.

When it was all said and done, Greinke hurled 91 pitches and his five strikeouts against Boston raised his K total on the season to 229. The six shutout innings that the right-hander turned in lowered his ERA to a league-leading 2.08. Needless to say, if I had a Cy Young vote, it would go to Greinke.

"He had everything," said Terry Francona. "That's impressive. Velocity. Maybe the best slider in the game. Occasional changeup. You see it on TV, and we've certainly seen it before. Seeing it firsthand, that was impressive stuff."

On the other side of the ball, Byrd, to his credit, buckled down and did not allow an earned run after yielding five in the first inning. Manny Delcarmen made back-to-back appearances last night, but only for a third of an inning, as Michael Bowden pitched a scoreless inning of relief with one strikeout.

Boston's lone run was scored in the top of the eighth, when Jacoby Ellsbury, who saw his seven-game hitting streak come to a close, walked on four pitches with one out. With Dustin Pedroia at the plate, Ellsbury moved up to second on a balk call against Roman Colon.

The Sox continued to manufacture a run when Ellsbury swiped third base for his 64th bag of the season. When Victor Martinez became the inning's second out on a ground out to the right side, Ellsbury came in through the back door with Boston's only run of the game.

However, had it not been for that first inning, one run would have been enough.

"I'm frustrated. I'm not going to get any sleep," said Byrd. "I thought I had great stuff tonight. I just overthrew it a little bit in the first inning. I couldn't get the outs. Against Greinke, you don't want to be down, 5-0. It just deflates the team. I'm real frustrated with myself. I'm glad I came back and threw some innings and helped the bullpen out, but I'm not really here to eat innings. That's not my job. I'm here to get on the mound and give our team a chance to win. Tonight, I didn't do that, and it's a little frustrating."

Final Score: Royals 5, Red Sox 1

Thursday's pitching match-up:

Josh Beckett, who had an atrocious month of August (5.03 ERA, 12 HR, 39.1 IP), has pitched well of late. In his last three starts, the right-hander has limited the home run damage to just one, with 15 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.15. In three career starts at Kauffman Stadium, Beckett has a record of 2-0 with a 2.55 ERA. His opponent, Luke Hochevar, is 1-2 with a 7.13 ERA in his career against Boston.

Eye on the scoreboard:

Yankees 6, Angels 5
Rangers 1, Athletics 9

Result: Even though the Red Sox dropped their second straight to the Royals, the Rangers' loss knocks Boston's magic number to clinch a postseason spot down to six. After a comeback out in Anaheim, the Yankees' victory over the Angels made the Bronx Bombers the first team in '09 to clinch a postseason berth. We'll see ya in October.

-Jared Carrabis

To order my debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on September 23, 2009

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