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If this play happened in the playoffs, Lowell would be known as Billy Buckner the 2nd
SUMMARY:
Julian Tavarez pitched a terrific ballgame-for four innings.
Seattle sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs in a disastrous fifth inning, the debacle compounded by an error by Tavarez and a curious non-play by Mike Lowell. The teams each put a couple more runs on the board later, but this one was over after that nightmare fifth.
HERO: Weaver 5.2IP, 6H, 1ER, 2BB, 3K
Once again the Sox get smoked by a stiff. Weaver joins the ranks of Lenny DiNardo, Joe Kennedy, Jeff Francis and Josh Fogg as hurlers who have come from piles of shit to near no-hit against Boston this season.
GOAT(s): Tavarez-Snyder-Timlin
This was an equal opportunity shellacking as all three of these hurlers displayed horrific pitching tendencies on the hill.
Tavarez got into a jam and that he could not get himself out of, Snyder compounded said jam by walking two runs in, and then Timlin avoided near decapitation only to suffer complete evisceration at the hands of the Mariners bats.
RECAP:
My son is gone on his trip, but unfortunately my memories of this morning's defeat are still here.
Let me clear one thing up first:
Raise your hand if you're guilty.
You know what I'm talking about. Don't play dumb.
Raise your hand if you are one of the many members of RSN who drank the Julie Kool Aid thanks to his recent hot stretch, someone who believed that Tavarez had indeed transformed himself from a volatile, erratic long reliever to a dependable fifth-no make that fourth-starter.
(I raise my hand)
Good. Don't you feel better knowing that you're not alone in times like this?
Yeah after a stellar stretch of seven games in which Tavarez had not lost, won four times, and lowered his ERA over a full run per game from 5.60 to 4.50, we all started to believe that this was the real Julian Tavarez.
He wasn't that temperamental gascan the Sox got to shore up the weak bully and spot start in 2005. No, he had become what Tito, Theo and the rest of the Boston hierarchy had hoped he would become when they switched him to the rotation full time towards the end of last season: a serviceable fifth starter.
And it's funny, but as Julie settled into the role this season, and he went head-to-head with some of the best pitchers in the game and held his own, then ran off this winning streak, his moodiness and peculiarities were seen as competitiveness and cute, quirky character traits.
Everyone forgot how as soon as he entered a game for most of the 2006 season the flames could be seen for miles around as he lay waste to another lead, or gave up enough runs to make a Sox comeback impossible.
Suddenly it was "Ha ha ha, did you see Julie roll the ball to first? How quaint." Or "oh boy, look at the way he points to his teammates to signal a nice play. He's so competitive." The best might have been last week in Atlanta as he had enough tics and fidgets to make Rain Man jealous, which prompted the Braves announcers to exclaim "Hey, do you Julie doctoring the ball" since he rubs his scalp more times than a strung out heroin addict?"
"Nah, that's just Julie Being Julie."
Well guess what fellow Jule-Aid drinkers, the real Julian Tavarez was on the mound last night. And much like his persona, the pitching aspect of Julie's life also contains plenty of good, bad and ugly.
For four innings Tavarez (4.1IP, 6H, 6R, 3ER, 3BB, 1K) danced around the Seattle lineup, allowing a couple of hits and a run in the second, notching 1-2-3 innings in the first and third, and escaping a self-inflicted mess when he walked two with two outs in the fourth.
Boston meanwhile scored a couple of fortuitous runs themselves in the third. Weaver allowed a leadoff single to Coco (2-3), then for some unknown reason he threw the ball into left field trying to nail Crisp at second on Lugo's sacrifice attempt. Thanks, Jeff.
One play later J.D. Drew dropped another grounder to the right side that the second baseman couldn't handle (second game in a row that's happened) allowing both runners to score, and Boston had a 2-1 lead thanks to the multiple Mariner miscues.
But those gifts were returned tenfold by Boston in the fifth when multiple Sox miscues compounded the four hits and three walks that were earned by the Mariners in the inning.
Adrian Beltre (2-3, 2R, 2BI), whom I ripped in my series preview as being a money-stealing one-year wonder, decided to earn some of his $$ jack when he ripped a double to deep center to begin the frame. Then, incredulously, Julie decided to match Weaver's boneheaded blunder when he threw errant of first base on Yuniesky All Name Team Betancourt's sacrifice bunt.
It was only thanks to a heads up play by Pedroia, who backed up Tavarez' toss, that the runners had to hold at second & third, but thanks to Julie's pitching, they wouldn't be there long.
Leftfielder Willie Bloomquist smoked Juile's second offering into center for a single that scored Beltre and tied the game, and after walking Ichiro (0-4), Jose Lopez dropped a single to left that scored two runs and gave Seattle the lead it would not relinquish, 4-2.
Unfortunately that wouldn't be all they'd get as the Gascan got too hot for its contents and finally melted down. After Youk made a dynamite play to nail Ichiro going to third on Jose Vidro's sac bunt, the baseball gods rained on Boston's parade on one of the oddest plays I've ever seen during a game.
Richie Sexson, another guy I slammed who had a big night, got sawed off by a Tavarez fastball and as his bat head went one way, the ball piddled down to Lowell at third; all he had to do was scoop it up and step on the bag and a big inning could have been averted.
But in a play eerily reminiscent of a left-handed version of the Buckner play, Lowell scooped and turned with ease, but Lopez, who was a good five feet away from the bag still, somehow raced into the base and beat Lowell's attempted force out.
It was that kind of night.
That bit of misfortune got Tavarez out of the game and brought in Kyle Snyder, who instead of throwing gas on the fire merely fanned the flames slowly & gently to achieve maximum burn.
To say Snyder couldn't find the plate would be an understatement, as he got the first batter out but then proceeded to throw eight balls in his next 12 pitches, walking home two runs to make it 6-2 and rendering a comeback, if not impossible, then highly unlikely.
Snyder settled down to retire four of the next five batters, but the damage was done. And although Boston made Weaver look like, well his brother Jered, the game was still close enough and early enough for the Sox to scrape back.
Alas Mike Rubber Arm Timlin, who is really starting to show his age, barely escaped the seventh with his brains intact but made sure the game was out of reach on his way to the clubhouse.
After walking Sexson (2-3, R, 2BB), Ben Broussard ripped a ball up the middle that took the splintered end of his bat with it, and Timlin had to make like a soldier in a fox hole in order to avoid the sharp spike of wood making him look like an extra for Hostel III.
Timlin quickly tried to clear his mind of such gruesome thoughts but before he could get his head in the game Johjima and Beltre blasted back-to-back jacks to put the cap on the terrible night for Sox hurlers and a weird opening game in the Pacific Northwest.
So today Kason Gabbard will make his second start this season and try to put the memories of last night's debacle behind them.
We might have to put the memories of the "New & Improved Julie" behind us, too.
NOTES:
- Boston tallied 8 hits, half of them by Coco and Pedroia
- Meanwhile Seattle rapped 10 hits, eight (2 each) from Sesxon, Beltre, Lopez & Bloomquist
- Speaking of Willie, he started in place of Seattle's RBI leader Raul Ibanez, who's nursing a slight hammy problem; Jose Volcano Guillen was also a scratch
- Naanaanaa19: not on the Seattle hit list was Ichiro, who saw his 19-game hit streak end with his 0-4 night. He did draw a walk, but who cares
- Drew's second infield dribbler in two games was ruled a hit, again, and it raised his average to a nice round .250; he had a couple of ribbies and scored a run as well
- Youk (1-3, 2BI, 2BB) got his first start in three days and made a couple of nice plays in the field and belted a two-run 9th inning double to extend his hit streak to seven games (9-26, .346)
- Hitless wonder: Lugo-fer's (0-3) skid has now reached 0-29 and the frustration is starting to show, on both sides: he slammed his bat to the ground after fouling out in the fourth, then was pinch hit for with the bases loaded in the 8th; he's now down to .191.
- Javier Lopez threw a 1-2-3, 13 pitch 9th
- Have a ball (or a dozen): of Snyder's 36 pitches in 1.2 innings, half of them were balls
- Boston has now lost six in a row at Safeco
- Sexson, aka the Human Windmill, not only walked twice and had two hits, but he's batting a robust .305 (11-36) with 4 homers, 6 RBIs and five multi-hit games in his last 10 contests
- Timlin's ERA is now 6.48, and his blood pressure is probably sky high,too
QUOTES:
"It hurt a little bit, you know, my hamstring. But ... it didn't affect me at all. Things just went wrong."--Tavarez on a slip off the mound; silly Julie, escuses are for losers
"He's fine," Francona said. Thank you, Tito.
"I don't think the [broken] bat had anything to do with it. It was the location of the pitches." --Timlin on his horror movie moment
RECORD: 48-27
AL EAST: Up 10 on TOR
STREAK: L-1
LAST 10: 7-3
UP NEXT: Tue @ SEA 10EST
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