If you're a Red Sox fan, you're more than used to August swoons and September slides, but all of that past history can't prepare you for what's going down now: another possibly monumental collapse.
Boston (85-60) lost its fourth straight, 6-5 to Tampa Bay (80-64) in 11 innings tonight at Tropicana Field. The Rays have climbed within 4.5 games of the wild card lead (5 head-to-head matchups left).
About the only glass half full thing I can muster is that the Yankees are in a similar downward spiral, losing four straight as well and dealing with countless injuries of their own. The bad part is that New York is ahead of Boston by 2.5 games.
After Jonathan Papelbon was excellent, throwing the very rare two innings of relief (no hits, 14 of 16 pitches were strikes), Daniel Bard (2-7) came on and had his second straight meltdown. He gave a lead-off triple to Desmond Jennings (2 hits, 2 runs), got B.J. Upton to ground out but then Evan Longoria (2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 walks) hit a walk-off single.
In a market filled with so many clown Red Sox writers, it's hard to tell sometimes when to panic since some are known to constantly fan the flames (cough, Shaughnessy) but this has gotten serious my friends. Boston's starting rotation is a shell of itself, meaning the bullpen is taxed and the lineup isn't what it used to be with Youk out and Pedroia not himself.
The Sox actually rallied in the ninth from down 5-3 as Jarrod Saltalamacchia (16th of the season) and Jacoby Ellsbury (26th of the season) hit back-to-back homers off Rays closer (and former Yankees scrub) Kyle Farnsworth; the eighth time the team has done that this season.
It didn't look good early for Boston as rookie Kyle Weiland (making his third MLB start) loaded the bases with no outs in the first. He somehow escaped and just allowed one run in that frame on a ground out. He lasted four innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits with three walks and a strikeout.
His short outing meant that Alfredo Aceves had to come in earlier than usual. He wasn't as good as he usually is but you can't complain about four innings, two earned runs, three hits, one walk and three strikeouts. With those type of numbers, he could be the number two starter at the moment. Sadly, that is kind of true.
Rays rookie Jeremy Hellickson bolstered his case for AL Rookie of the Year with a quality start: six innings, three earned runs, five hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
Boston tied it in the second on Jed Lowrie's ground out but Tampa Bay added a run in the second (on Jennings' ground out) and in the third on Casey Kotchman's (2 hits, 2 RBIs) sacrifice fly.
Adrian Gonzalez tied it at three with his 25th homer of the season, a two-run shot. Ellsbury's single earlier in the inning increased his latest hit streak to 15 games.
Kotchman took Aceves deep in the fifth and Longoria had a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 5-3 in favor of Tampa Bay.
An interesting side note to the game is that the winning reliever for the Rays was none other than Brandon Gomes (2-1) who is a Fall River, Mass native and Tulane graduate. He got the last four outs for what I'm going to assume was his most memorable MLB win.
Jon Lester vs. James Shields is the juicy pitching matchup tomorrow afternoon in the series finale. Unfortunately, the ratings should be terrible since tomorrow is the first Sunday of the 2011 NFL regular season. I'll be checking my phone, Twitter and the gamecast while also peeking at the game between commercials or when I need a break from the Red Zone.
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