Matt Garza pitched well yet again for the Tampa Bay Rays, who now lead the Red Sox by 2.5 games in the AL East. And yet again, Tim Wakefield received the tough loss. It has become a constant trend to see Wake get no run support from his Boston teammates. Most of the Red Sox hitters seemed lost up at the dish tonight, none more evident than one at bat from J.D. Drew. With one out and runners on 1st and 2nd base, Drew looked at three straight strikes without taking the bat off his shoulder. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in a 2-1 game in the top of the 8th inning, you need to get at least one of those runs across. Situations like this is a reason why many don’t believe, or even have enough confidence in J.D. Drew.
On a somewhat positive note, Jacoby Ellsbury went 2-4 with a couple garbage hits. Ellsbury’s at bats were quite peculiar tonight. The Rays committed three, yes three errors when Ellsbury came to the plate. Two of his “hits” consisted of a chopper in front of Dioner Navarro and a throwing error by shortstop Jason Bartlett. Jerry Remy made a case about a possible third hit of the game for Ellsbury in which J.P. Howell ranged over to the first base side of the infield to field a ground ball, but mishandled it.
The Red Sox seem absolutely lackadaisical in all aspects of the game. The bullpen sucks (Tampa added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th due to a couple Craig Hansen walks followed by a Navarro base hit to right field off Manny Delcarmen), the offense is cold, we have guys pushing front-office personnel, and we can’t win on the road for the life of us.
Something is certainly wrong when a bullpen allows a guy like Dioner Navarro to add another insurance run. It’s Dioner Navarro……..who? DIONER NAVARRO, the same guy who batted .227 last year in a full workload.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Sox tomorrow night as they go against lefty Scott Kazmir who has absolutely torched the Red Sox throughout his whole career. Kazmir is 6-6 with a 2.82 ERA and has 123 K’s in 105 innings verse the Red Sox. And forget about Manny tomorrow, he 7 for 41 against Kazmir which turns out to be a .171 average.
If the Sox want to keep this close they must stop the bleeding. It’s Dice-K’s turn to take a crack at it, let’s see if he can take the hill and not walk the house tomorrow night.
