Unlucky 13: Paps blows game in extra innings

Detroit 3, Sox 2 (13)
WP: Grilli LP: Papelbon
HRs: BOS- Ortiz (14)

At first I was upset with myself when I forgot to set the DVR before I went out for dinner & drinks with the wife after spending a few hours at the beach today, causing me to miss most of the game.

Hey, our son is away, I can't spend every night watching baseball.

Then when I got home and turned on the tube and saw it was 2-2 in the 8th I was really pissed, realizing I probably missed out on a great game (Murphy's Law, of course.)

But after witnessing the Sox blow five scoring chances from the 8th to the 12th innings, and then seeing the Tigers, who had also squandered some terrific scoring opportunities, pull out a gut-punch win against Boston's All Star closer in the bottom of the 13th, well then I was just sorry that I caught any of the game at all.

From what I gathered Papi (2-2, R, 2BI, 4BB) had a big game, blasting a two-run homer in the first (perhaps that day off did him some good) for the only damage done to Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman (7IP, 7H, 2ER, 1BB, 9K) in his seven solid innings.

I also see that Kason Gabbard (6.1IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, 3K) had a good outing as well, matching Bonderman by allowing a 2-run double to Craig Monroe in the fifth for his only blemish. He's now put two decent starts together since that debacle in Seattle.

After the starters departed nine relievers on both sides combined to throw all zeroes on the board, at times having to escape tight, tense situations: Detroit had the bases loaded in the 10th but All Star Okajima worked out of it, and Boston had two on in the 10th, one in the 11th, and the bases loaded in the 12th but could not get a run home.

Ugh!

But when Tito was forced to go to Papelbon in the 13th, it looked as if Boston would at least get one more shot at the win.

Except Paps had one of those rare bad outings, which was obvious from the get-go when he plunked Gary Steroidfield with his first pitch of the inning.

Sure enough, after he got MLB leading hitter Maggs Ordonez to fly out and Carlos Guillen to whiff, Ivan Rodriguez sliced an opposite field drive that just eluded Coco's diving try (hey, the guy can't catch everything!), and Sheff, who had stolen second, jogged home with the winning run.

And just like that, one night after getting trounced to break a four-game winning streak the Sox suffered a soul-crushing, one-run, extra inning loss and now own a two-game losing skid.

See, that's why I'm glad I missed (most of) it.

Just one more game left to play before the break, and thankfully the Sox will have Dice-K on the hill, so maybe they can stop this mini-skid and head into the hiatus on a positive note.

Oh one other small, coincidental consolation: the Stanks lost in 13 innings today too, 2-1 at home to the Angels.

So we got that going for us.

RECORD: 53-33
AL EAST: Up 11 on TOR, NYY
STREAK: L-2
LAST 10: 5-5
UP NEXT: Sun @ DET, 1:05

Go Dice!