Frustrated Francona Ejected, Red Sox Drop Third Straight

By Brian Moller in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ May 7, 2011 at 1:49am ⋅ Post a comment

Terry Francona having a word with Joe West and Angel Hernandez (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

The streaky Red Sox dropped their third straight Friday night. Tim Wakefield struggled in the spot start and the Twins never looked back.

Manager Terry Francona is the lucky one in all of this: he missed most of the game after being tossed in the top of the second for arguing a balk call.

Adrian Gonzalez hit his third home run of the season and JD Drew had a solo job of his own, but that would be it for the Sox offense in the 9-2 loss.

GAME SUMMARY

Wakefield handed a lead to the Twins early when he served up a homer to Trevor Plouffe.

Things wouldn’t get much better for Wake in the second when Denard Span singled to right to send two runners home. Then came trouble. Wakefield stepped off and faked a pickoff to third and caught Span napping, or so we thought. Home plate ump Angel Hernandez ruled a balk and Terry Francona wanted to talk things out. He’d be treated to an early exit after a few chest bumps with Joe West.

Terry had this to say about the exchange with West:

“Joe, as we all know, always wants to be in everybody’s business that was me and Angel. Joe didn’t have anything to do with it. Didn’t appreciate what he did. I think he was wrong.”

A couple of solo homers from Drew and Gonzalez in the second and fourth inning made it a game, but that wouldn’t last.

In the fifth, the Twins added four runs to their scorecard and a balk in the sixth from Alfredo Aceves sealed the deal.

Wakefield’s line was 4.1 innings, 9 hits, 8 runs, 6 earned runs, 4 walks and only one strikeout.

The Sox are now 14-18 and in the basement of the AL East, five games behind the Yankees.

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Hi I'm Brian Moller and I am addicted to sports. I love everything that involves my Boston sports teams. I'm pursuing a career in sports journalism. I've been lucky enough to have done internships at Comcast SportsNet New England and WHDH 7 News in the sports department. During those internships I've been in the locker room and on the field talking to some of Boston's biggest stars. I also host my own ridiculous sports talk show on my town's local access channel called Sports Ch@t. Hope you enjoy my writing and hopefully I'll be coming through your TV someday.

Tags: Adrian Gonzalez, Denard Span, J.D. Drew, Red Sox, Terry Francona, Tim Wakefield