Wasteful Red Sox Squander Chances

By Jon in Featured, Red Sox, Top Story ⋅ July 18, 2009 at 9:31pm ⋅ Post a comment

Brad Penny might want to try wearing this hat during his next pitching appearance.

It was the kind of matinee you’d rather not take the kids to see.

The Red Sox were poor in all phases of the game today, losing 6-2 at Toronto. The bats? Boston was 1-12 with runners in scoring position. The pitching? Brad Penny was woeful, giving up eight hits and six earned runs through five innings, and should have been pulled earlier than he was. The defense? Jed Lowrie inexplicably failed to heed Mike Lowell’s call for a fly ball and clumsily knocked it away from the third baseman, who had the angle. George Kottaras also gave up an embarrassing passed ball.

Things looked hopeful early on, as the Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a single from Rocco Baldelli, starting for Jacoby Ellsbury, who was out of the lineup with what Terry Francona vividly described as “intestinal turmoil.” But the Jays would tie it up in the same inning on a bases-loaded double-play grounder by Kevin Millar.

Toronto took the lead on a single by Alex Rios in the fourth inning and never looked back, Jose Bautista adding a two run double in the same frame, and Adam Lind taking Penny deep for two more in the next inning. Boston got a consolation shot from Jed Lowrie, but that was all, as Marc Rzepczynski (seriously) and the Toronto bullpen held the Sox to six hits.

There’s every reason to have hope for tomorrow, however, with Josh Beckett starting and this Red Sox team proving earlier in the season that they know how to bounce back from bad losses.

Sox Stud of the Game

Justin Masterson came on for Penny and pitched two perfect innings of relief.

Sox Dud of the Game

Even though he scored one of the Sox’ two runs, Jed Lowrie’s error in the eighth was a real howler.

That’s What He Said

“I think he was kind of effectively wild,” said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, straining his rationalization bone. (Source: MLB.com)

Notes

WP — Rzepcynski
LP — Penny
Scott Rolen is ugly as sin.
I’m pretty sure Youkilis was jawing at the plate umpire — totally deserved, by the way, the guy was crap — and I’m pretty sure that NESN broadcast the audio of said jawing. Scavenger hunt, SoB readers!