Letdown

The five-game winning streak that I hoped would go on at least a game or two longer is over thanks to an excruciating outing from Dice-K, questionable umpiring, and a tired offense. After nearly throwing a no-hitter last Saturday in Philly, Dice-K reverted to that maddening nibbling habit, no doubt exacerbated by a home plate ump with an ax to grind with the Red Sox. The Kansas City Royals, going into tonight's game were the team with the least walks on the season. One would THINK that would help Dice-K, but it seemed to have the exact opposite effect, as they all turned patient, to the tune of 8 free passes in 4 .2 innings. Doesn't Joe "I Hate Long Games and Teams Who Play Them" West realize that he only makes the game LONGER by calling so many balls? By going public with his disdain for Red Sox-Yankees games, it's hard to imagine he can be impartial when the two teams are playing anyone other than each other.

That said, the loss can't be blamed solely on the ump, even if he and his crewmate at first base Angel Hernandez made some egregious calls against the Red Sox. Hernandez called Tek out at first in the third inning when he was clearly safe and West called a pitch well off the plate strike three to Papi. However, Dice-K clearly had no command of his pitches, especially in the fifth inning, when the Royals put 3 on the board. One of those was a walked-in run. The offense had scored 11 runs last night and had to board a late night flight back to Boston. Fatigue may have mitigated their attack on a Royals starter with an ERA nearing 5.

A silver lining in this loss is the strong performance of the Sox bullpen. Joe Nelson came in to get the final out of the fifth on one pitch, then got two quick outs in the sixth before a blown call on a pitch right over the plate that should have been strike three extended the inning and led to the fourth Royals run. Manny Delcarmen retired all six batters he faced over two innings. Ramon Ramirez retired the side on 6 pitches. Some excellent D kept the damage done against Dice-K by Royals bats to only 3 runs. Without those catches on lineouts in the fourth with the bases loaded, it could have been much worse.

Tomorrow, Wake tries to befuddle the Royals with the knuckler. He faces Kyle Davies, another starter with an ERA north of 4. The bats need to show up tomorrow and give Wake some run support, like they did in Philly against Halladay. We don't want to see Soria again in the ninth inning.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! SHAKE IT OFF AND WIN TOMORROW!!!