Lugoh-No! by Jared Carrabis
Meltdown In Ninth Inning Cost Sox The Game

Tonight’s box score will hand the most dominant Red Sox closer in recent history a loss. But the question is, was it deserved? You be the judge. In a wild contest on Wednesday night that saw the Boston Red Sox come from four runs down on more than one occasion, the Detroit offense was just too feisty to handle. In a game that the Red Sox were just about ready to steal, an unfortunate (and bizarre) series of events in the bottom of the ninth inning took their potential sixth straight win right out from under them.


A power surge from both sides set the stage for a ninth inning comeback that had Red Sox Nation yelling at their television sets for sure. Statistically, Clay Buchholz is a far better pitcher at home than he is on the road and he would continue to follow that trend in the third game of this series. The Tigers attacked early and grabbed a 4-0 lead by putting a four-spot on the board against Buchholz in the bottom of the third. Kevin Youkilis was playing the role of Manny Ramirez on Wednesday night and hit his first of two home runs in the top of the fourth inning with Mike Lowell aboard to cut the Tiger’s lead in half.


However, the relentless Detroit offense would turn around in the bottom half of the inning and take a run right back on an RBI single by Magglio Ordonez. The Red Sox would get right back to work in an attempt to keep this game from getting out of hand by knocking in two runs of their own to keep pace with the big cats from Detroit. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Jed Lowrie and an RBI single by David Ortiz would contribute to Boston’s second consecutive two-run inning to make it a 5-4 ballgame.


But before the Sox could take a breath, the Tigers would compile three runs in the bottom of fifth to create yet another four run deficit. The never say die Boston Red Sox went back to work in the top of the sixth and got a run back thanks to the second home run of the night courtesy of Kevin Youkilis.


Detroit rookie Armando Galarraga (pronounced Gah-Lah-Rah-Gah, say that ten times fast. After about three times it’ll just sound like you’re gargling) would give up five runs and make his exit after five and a third. Clay Buchholz would last a mere four innings and Julian Tavarez surrendered those three runs in just one inning but the Boston bullpen would actually trot out some real relief in the form of David Aardsma. Aardsma blanked the Tigers in the bottom of the sixth to give Boston the chance to play catch up and catch up they did.


In the top of the seventh inning, Jacoby got things going with a single to lead off the inning and he swiped his lucky number thirteenth bag of the season to put a man in scoring position for Jed Lowrie. Lowrie got the start to at second base to give Dustin Pedroia the night off but we’ll get to him later. Lowrie would ground out and David Ortiz would follow with a groundout of his own but the inning would stay alive for Mike Lowell thanks to a walk to Manny Ramirez to put two men on. With the chance to tie the game, Mike Lowell cranked a 2-1 fastball high, deep and gone to knot up the game at eight runs a piece.


The Red Sox were thinking comeback and they were hungry for the win. JD Drew began the eighth inning with a walk and the bases would continue to fill when Julio Lugo drew a walk with one down. Ellsbury would strikeout to bring 0 for 3 Jed Lowrie to the plate with a runner in scoring position. Francona would wisely call for Dustin Pedroia to pinch hit in his place. Pedroia would hammer a 3-2 fastball through the left side to bring Drew around from second to give Boston their first lead of the night. Hideki Okajima would continue the lights out relief out of the Red Sox bullpen by blanking the Tigers in the bottom half of the eighth. Boston would fail to score in the top of the ninth and put a goose egg on the board for the first time since the third inning.


Manager Terry Francona would motion to the bullpen for the closer, Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon felt good and he felt that his stuff was working but sometimes baseball can be very unpredictable. Matthew Joyce began the inning with a check swing that acted as a bunt single to put the lead runner on for Detroit. Edgar Renteria dug in against Papelbon and rolled a grounder out to Julio Lugo. Lugo would rush in an attempt to turn the double play and in turn would boot the ball and get no outs. "I thought I had a chance to go to second, and I was trying to be aggressive with one out and get the lead runner" Lugo said.


Pudge Rodriguez would square his bat and lay down a textbook bunt to move both runners into scoring position with just one out. Curtis Granderson would get his job done and ground out to Dustin Pedroia but in from third came the tying run and Papelbon’s first blown save of the season came with it. Here’s where you the reader play manager. Placido Polanco comes to the plate, he entered the game hitting at a weak .238. Here’s the catch, he’s 4 for 5 and the winning run is just 90 feet away. Do you pitch to him? I mean his run doesn’t really matter at this point so why risk it? Carlos Guillen was on deck and 2 for 5 on the night hitting .315 so it was a “pick your poison” situation for sure.


Francona elected to pitch to Polanco and on a 3-2 pitch, he shattered his bat and blooped his fifth hit of the night just over the outstretched glove of Julio Lugo and Renteria came into score, game over. A crushing loss indeed. The two teams combined for 19 runs on 30 hits during the nine innings of back and forth baseball. Not as crushing knowing that Josh Beckett will be on the hill for the series finale with the chance to take three games out of four against the Tigers.


Final Score: Red Sox 9, Tigers 10

Published on May 07, 2008

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