Seattle sweeps Sox with extra inning loss

Seattle 2, Sox 1 (11)
WP: J. Davis (2-0)
LP: Pineiro (1-1)
HRs: None

SUMMARY
This time the Sox got great pitching for 10 innings-including a brilliant eight from Daisuke Matsuzaka-but former Seattle starter Joel Pineiro returned to the scene of his greatest career moments and gave the Mariner fans reason to smile again.

Pineiro allowed two hits including the game-winning double by Jose Lopez in the bottom of the 11th to send the Sox to a disappointing sweep in the land of Starbucks and Supersonics.

HERO: Matsuzaka 8IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 8K
On the heels of 17 runs & 14 walks allowed by Boston pitchers in the last two games, this performance by Dice-K was nothing short of epic.

If only his teammates could have rewarded him for it.

HON MENTION: Lopez--his hit won the game today, and his stellar play all series long was a key factor in Seattle's sweep

GOAT: Ortiz 0-5, 7 LOB
The most clutch hitter in Sox history (arguably) could not come through when his team need him most, and he had plenty of chances; three times in five at bats Ortiz had ducks on the pond but couldn't bring any home, including a miserable groundout with the bases loaded to end the fifth. Ay, Papi!

(dis)HON. MENTION: Pineiro 1/3IP, H, BB, R, L--welcome back, jackass!

RECAP
Well at least it wasn't a sloppy, run-filled walk-a-thon that ended after 1:00am.

That's about the only bright side from this one, a game that was just as long the previous two early morning messes-3 hours and 46 minutes, I believe-and had just as painful an end result: another heartbreaking Sox loss.

In fact as brutal as the first two contests were, a confounding mix of terrible pitching, timely hitting and did I mention terrible pitching?, this game was by far the more painful of the trio.

Because as good as Matsuzaka pitched today (and he was damn good, no sign of those pesky control problems that have plagued him most of the season), the way Boston was leaving men on base and making another nobody pitcher look like the next Cy Young, you just knew it was going to end badly for Dice and his mates.

Sure enough it did.

But what's a good horror movie without a lot of suspenseful moments that lead up to the grisly climax, huh?

Let's take a look at the trail of carnage the Sox left behind before the bloody finale in the late Seattle afternoon sunshine.

Boston had runners on base in each of the first three innings off Mariner rookie Ryan Feierabend, who had been shelled in his last outing against the Reds, but despite the Sox hitters spraying deep flyballs all over the outfield against the 21-year-old lefty, they couldn't get any runs across the plate against him.

Dice was just as hot, but most of his early outs were coming via the strikeout: four of the first six Mariners batter whiffed, including Ichiro on three pitches to open the bottom of the first.

In the bottom of the third Matsuzaka got into the only real trouble he would have all day, and wouldn't you know former Japan League and new MLB rival Suzuki would factor in the equation.

Backup catcher Jamie Burke (what's with the Sox getting burned by backstops and Irish guys lately?) started the rally with a one-out double to center that Coco ran & dove for but barely missed coming up with another great grab.

(side note: many will criticize Coco for diving in that situation, but when a guy makes spectacular catches look routine on a near nightly basis, nobody should say a word about that play. Nobody. Besides, he missed it by about a 1/4 of an inch.)

Manny backed the play up and held Burke to a double, but it didn't matter anyway as Ichiro finally got a hit off his old enemy when he blooped a single to shallow center to plate Burke with the first run of the game and the last for either team for a while.

Both hurlers traded 1-2-3 fourths, then the Sox got back to what they are becoming master craftsmen at- leaving runners on base, thus squandering precious scoring opportunities.

Feierabend quickly retired Tek (1-5) and Wily Mo, who started in place of the lefty Drew, to open the top of the fifth, but things came unraveled from there as Coco (2-4, RBI) sandwiched a double to left around walks to Lugo and Pedroia.

With Papi coming up, it looked like Boston would get at least one run home, if not more. But that's when Ortiz began his string of non-clutch at bats, and the shaky youngster got the experienced vet to tap out to second to end the threat.

Did you forget lefties were hitting only .167 against Ryan?

While Dice-K was methodically mowing down the Mariners, retiring 11 straight batters after Ichiro's single, Feierabend exited after five quality innings (5H, 0R, 2BB, 3K) with a chance at a win if his bully could hold the slim 1-0 lead.

Lucky for Boston that wouldn't be the case.

The Sox finally cracked the scoreboard in the seventh off reliever Sean Green, and Drew got it all started with a pich hit single to center. Then for the third straight game a pitcher made an error on a sacrifice bunt when Green tossed Lugo's bunt attempt wide of first that allowed Drew to scoot to third.

Okay, now we got us a full-fledged explosion coming, right?

Right?

Wrong.

Although Coco hit a booming sac fly to center (that Ichiro was lucky to basket catch on the track) to tie the game, and Pedroia walked, Hargrove once again used his bullpen like a virtuso conducting a concerto.

Grover brought in George Sherrill, who got Papi to fly out to deep center, and then called on Brandon Morrow, who induced Manny into an inning-ending fly out to-who else?-Ichiro, who made all three putouts in the inning an 11 in the game.

So even though the score was tied, it felt like a defeat because once again the Sox failed to burst a game wide open when they had the chance, and the perfect men at the plate to do so.

Boston would again get two men on base in the seventh off Morrow, but the embattled reliever got the embarrassing Lugo (0-2) to strike out to end the inning. Meanwhile Dice ran into a nip of trouble in the bottom of the eigth, but a double play erased his only walk of the day, and after eight brilliant innings his job was done.

Grover brought closer J.J. Putz in the ninth despite the score being tied, another move that turned out to be a stroke of genius. The league's saves leader quickly dispatched Coco and Pedroia on groundouts, then got Papi to whiff for the fifth time in five career at bats against him.

Tito showed some good bullpen judgement himself when he tapped Okajima to start the bottom of the ninth, then after Oki allowed Ichiro and Jose Vidro to reach on singles, Francona brought in his closer, Jonathan Papelbon, to put out the fire.

One pitch later hot-hitting Richie Sexson (0-4) fouled out to second base, and then paps got Ben Broussard to ground out to Pedroia to stave off the game-winning rally, at least temporarily.

Jason Davis came in for Seattle in the 10th and tossed a 1-2-3 frame, and Papelbon matched him in the bottom of the inning, fanning Jason Ellison & Adrain Beltre before getting Betancourt to ground out.

Unfortunately for Boston, the Sox were clear out of good reliever after that point.

After another opp went by the wayside in the 11th, Tito had no choice but to bring in the former Mariner Pineiro, who has been hobbled by an ankle he rolled on Eric Hinske's foot a few days ago and was making his first appearance in the park he pitched in for the first seven years of his career.

Pineiro got Burke to ground out to open the inning, but when Ichiro drew a walk on a close 3-2 pitch, the lumps began forming in the throats of every member of RSN. Like a horror flick, everyone in the theater knew what was going to happen, they just didn't know exactly how.

It wouldn't take long to find out as Lopez, who had torched Boston with his slick glove and hot bat (8-14) all series, lifted a high fly to right center that Manny chased and tried to catch at the wall, but he couldn't come up with it and the Mariner's stormed the field when Suzuki crossed the plate with the series-sweeping run.

Okay, I can't take any more. After three games and three excruciating losses, Boston will get a day off tomorrow before taking on the lowly Rangers at Fenway Friday night.

That off day is much deserved, for players and fans alike.

NOTES

• House of horrors: Boston has now lost eight in a row at Safeco
• Lugo-fer's hitless streak has now hit 31 at bats and his average is down to .190
• Ichiro had been 0-6 against Matsuzaka before his RBI single
• His 11 putouts were one shy of the ML record, and he made them in a variety of way-long runs, basket catches, and a circling maneuver on a Lowell popup that he lost in the sun in the 8th
• Manny & Papi were a combined 0-10
• One day after snapping a 19-game hit streak, Ichiro went 2-4 with a walk an RBI and a run scored
• Coco remains crispy, notching his fifth multi-hit game in his last 10 and raising his average to a season-high .262
• Oki lowered his ERA to 0.95 while Paps' is now at 1.55; Pineiro's climbed to 5.04

QUOTES

"I'm not going to make excuses. I hung a pitch." --Pineiro, rightly accepting the blame for the loss, although he did go on to cry about his poor twisted ankle

"Seems like we've played more than our share of this type of games here and ended up not feeling good."--Tito on Boston's doldrums in the Pac NW

"Given Ichiro's great batting skill, I have no regrets about the pitch. And it is really a testament to his hitting skill that he hit the ball."-- the always respectful Matsuzaka


RECORD: 48-29
AL EAST: Up 9 on TOR
STREAK: L-3
LAST 10: 5-5
UP NEXT: Thu- Off; Fri vs. TEX