San Diego 6, Sox 1
WP: Young (7-3)
LP: Wakefield (7-8)
HRs: SD-Greene, 2 (11), Bard (3)
The Bard served up a bit of poetic justice to his onetime teamates and the man he just couldn't catch, Tim Wakefield
SUMMARY
Chris Young was dominant for seven innings; Tim Wakefield, not so much.
Young fanned 11 batters and allowed one hit in seven innings while Wake allowed six runs and three longballs in less than six innings, including a controversial 2-run shot to his onetime catcher Josh Bard, and only a late 9th inning rally prevented the Sox from getting shutout for the fifth time this year.
HERO(es):
- Young 7IP, 1H, 2BB, 11K--what more needs to be said?
- K. Greene 3-4, 2R, 2BI, 2HRs--ditto
- Bard 2-4, 2R, 3BI, 2B, HR--an ex-Sox player kills his former mates-shocking!
He's taken home this dubious honor enough times this season to be considered for a lifetime achievement award.
RECAP:
Not much went right for our Sox tonight in San Diego.
They got schooled by a pitcher who was as close to unhittable as Boston has seen all season.
Their former catching prospect Josh Bard, who was thrown at the Padres in order to get Doug Mirabelli back to catch Wakefield, torched his former team with an RBI double and a two-run bomb.
And Boston manager Terry Francona got tossed for the second time this season when not one but two calls were reversed against the Sox, a trap/catch by Manny and the other a fair/foul switcheroo on the homer by Bard.
Didn't even matter that the umps got both calls right.
It turns out none of the shit that came later really mattered because for all intents & purposes the game was over after Bard singled in Mike Cameron, who had led off with a bunt single, for the Padres' first run in the second inning.
Because the way Young was straight dealing, the rest of the game was just for padding his gaudy stats.
Coming into the game the 6'10" Princeton grad (!) was sitting pretty at third in the NL in ERA but also sitting on pins & needles awaiting an appeal of a five-game suspension resulting from a fight with the Cubs Derek Lee last weekend.
And the guy pitched like a man on borrowed time.
Young decimated the Boston lineup for four innings, allowing just a walk to Pedroia in the first while retiring 7 of the first 13 batters on strikeouts, but he did get into trouble in the fifth when he gave up a leadoff single to J.D. Drew and Lowell reached on a muff by rookie third baseman Kevin Flying Kouzmanoff, setting up a potential rally.
Ah, what rally? Young proceeded to mow down the next three batters like Lindsay Lohan snorting rails, striking out Mirabelli, Lugo and Wakefield on 11 pitches to escape the would-be jam.
Alrighty then.
With that kind of firepower on the mound all San Diego had to do was put a couple three runs on the board and it would be time for the supersized contingent of RSN to hit the Gaslamp District to drown their sorrows, and in the bottom of the inning it would do just that.
Khalil Thabit Greene got the party started when he launched Wake's third pitch of the inning deep into the seats in left center for a 2-0 Padres lead. After Wake got Termell Sledge to strike out, Kouzmanoff dropped a ball into left that Manny appeared to make a spectacular shoestring catch of, but after an umpire conference they (correctly) ruled it a trap and awarded Kouzmanoff first base.
Young sacrificed him over and then Marcus Giles (2-4, RBI) roped a double over Manny's head to plate Kouzmanoff and make the score to 3-0, and with the way Young was pitching it might as well have been 10-0.
Just to make things really interesting the Pads would score three more, initate another ump conference and get Tito run from the game all before the sixth inning was over.
With one out Mike Cameron needed just one pitch to line a double to left off Wakefield, and just one pitch later Bard hit the shot heard round Red Sox Nation.
The brief batterymate of Wakefield sliced drive down the left field line that at first was ruled foul, but upon further review of the "quirky" layout of PetCo Park, the umps convened and (correctly) ruled the ball hit off the foul pole that faces sideways along the balcony of the old warehouse and was indeed a homerun.
This second reversal, combined with the blitzkrieg by Young, caused Tito to blow his top for the second time this month, and with the way the game was going and the fact that both calls were correct I'm positive the ejection was planned so he could get a head start on tomorrow's game.
Ironically after all the hubub died down (Tito nearly got hit by a bottle during the arguement), Greene blasted his second homer of the night as if to say "enough-this game is OVER!"
Young left after seven (thanks, NL rules) and the only saving grace for Boston was that they prevented San Diego from recording a major league-leading 12th shutout when callup David Murphy lined a triple to the gap and Mike Lowell brought him home with a double off Justin Hampson in the ninth to spare the indignity of being shutout.
But that was small consolation on this night as Boston was given a full dose of what it's like to go up against the best pitching staff and bullpen in the majors.
And up next is the NL leader in wins & ERA, Jake Peavy.
Gulp.
NOTES:- Boston managed just four hits off three Padres pitchers, Drew's single, Murphy's triple, Lowell's double and a pinch hit double by Eric Hinske in the 8th; that hit was only Boston's 2nd of the game at the time
- Drew returned from his quad strain and broke up what was looking like a possible no hitter by Young with his 5th inning single. He also attempted to steal and made a nice play in the field, although he was pulled after seven (hurt or not?)
- Murphy was just recalled yesterday from Pawtucket when Schill was officially put on the DL; he got into yesterday's game in the ninth, then smoked the three-bagger for his first hit of 2007 tonight
- Wake, who once upon a time was leading the AL in ERA at 1.79, saw his number bloom to 4.52, while Young's ERA is down to an awesome 2.08 and an ML-best 0.94 at home. Wow.
- Green has 4 homers and 14 RBIs in his last 11 games
- One night after 13 Padres fanned, Boston batters turned the baker's dozen; eight players struck out at least once, and five fanned twice
- WARNING!WARNING!: Lugo-fer went 0-3 (his latest such streak is at 0-22) and is now batting .196. Yikes.
- San Diego rapped 11 hits, and four guys (Giles, Cameron, Bard, Greene) had at least two hits apiece
- Lowell, who had sat out three games in a row with a minor thumb strain, snapped a 1-19 skid with his 9th inning blast, a ball that might have gone out if not for a great effort by Cameron
- Speaking of great efforts, Manny made a nice sliding grab in the second inning, then nearly sold that rolling trap play in the 5th; who says he can't play defense?
QUOTES:
"I have a feeling they probably ended up getting both right. But you get frustrated."--Tito, proving my point about the early exit
"I feel I pitched better than the numbers showed. Every ball I made a mistake on, they hit hard. With the stuff I had, no way I give up six runs."--Wakefield. Uh, okay Tim. Dude, you got hammered like chopped meat, get over it.
"I'd only faced him one time, in '02, and it was a time when I was swinging the bat pretty good left-handed and he really gave me a tough time, so I was thinking why not give it a shot right-handed and thankfully it worked out." --Bard, on his decision to bat righty against the righty Wakefield
RECORD: 47-26
AL EAST: Up 10.5 on NYY
STREAK: L-1
LAST 10: 6-4
UP NEXT: Sun @ SD 4EST
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