Blown Game
Watching the Red Sox lose 1-0 last night was incredibly frustrating. Yes, Fausto Carmona is pitching well this year, and yes, he was throwing the ball well last night. But the Red Sox never should have lost that game. How can a team of professionals make so many mistakes in one game? Especially in a close game like that one! Don’t they realize that every run counts? There were several instances where players just simply weren’t paying attention and it cost us the game.
- Alex Cora taking a pitch with Jason Varitek running at first. “I missed the sign,” he says. Yes, Alex, we all know you missed the sign. It was obvious. If this were little league, I’d bench you. Since this is the pros, I’ll blog about you. Alex Cora is supposed to be the guy who always does the little things to help you win, not the guy who misses signs.
- Manny Ramirez - where the hell were you when Coco Crisp was coming home? Say what you want about sending him there - maybe it was a good idea and maybe it wasn’t, but either way, Manny, as the on-deck hitter, has to be up next to the plate and serve as the home plate coach. The third base coach can’t tell you to slide or stand up, and you can’t expect the runner to be turning and looking for a throw. It is strictly the on deck batters job to coach the running in from third. Again, if this were little league, I’d probably call your Mom and tell her you weren’t taking the game very seriously and bench you.
- This was a bit more overlooked, but when Julio Lugo tried to steal second, he got an awful, awful jump. And if you watch him running down to second on the replay, you can see him staring at the batter with his head turned for some reason. This is not a hit and run play, where you need to see where the ball is going. He is on base to steal on his own, and he should be thinking about nothing else other than hitting second base. That head turn probably cost him half a step, which, coincidentally, is what the throw beat him by. If he were more focused on the bag, he probably would have seen the throw come in inside of the bag and would have been able to slide to the back side rather than straight in. Even if the call was wrong, the throw still beat him and again, its another example of poor fundamental baseball.
In conclusion, mistakes like these simply can’t happen. If this team really thinks they are going to go deep in the post-season, its games like this that they are going to have to win. With the Yankees hitting the crap out of the ball right now, this 6.5 game lead has a chance to get even slimmer, and if the Sox keep losing tight games like this, especially when they are winnable, we may have a much more interesting September than was initially planned.
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