The Rangers were doing fairly well on Saturday, up until the sixth inning. We actually took the lead first, going up 1-0 on a double by Sosa, and a single by Marlon Byrd who was called up for this game. Boston took the lead, 2-1 in the top of the fourth, partially helped by a fielding error by Mike Young.
We retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth, with a three spot powered by a Gerald Laird double. The scoring was topped off with a sac fly by Kenny Lofton. But as I saw on one national report, the “wheels fell off” for Vicente Padilla in the sixth. In fact, it was so weird, I’ll just cut/paste the play by play for that inning.
– K. Youkilis singled to center
– D. Ortiz flied out to deep center
– M. Ramirez tripled to deep right, K. Youkilis scored
– M. Ramirez scored on wild pitch
– J.D. Drew walked
– M. Lowell singled to left, J.D. Drew to second
– J. Benoit relieved J. Benoit
– C. Crisp singled to center, J.D. Drew scored, M. Lowell to third, C. Crisp to second advancing on throw
– D. Mirabelli walked
– A. Cora hit sacrifice fly to center, M. Lowell scored, C. Crisp to third
– J. Lugo walked, D. Mirabelli to second
– K. Youkilis walked, C. Crisp scored, D. Mirabelli to third, J. Lugo to second
– D. Ortiz grounded out to first
Obviously Joaquin Benoit didn’t relieve himself (no pun intended) there. The triple by Manny Ramirez is apparently not a typo, but you get the point. Was an ugly inning for both Vicente & Joaquin. Blech. That cost us the game. CJ Wilson & Aki followed up with scoreless relief, but we couldn’t get any more scoring.
The game wasn’t as “flat” as we’ve been for a lot of the season, but just another loss to stick on the pile. Sigh.