Another late night, another lousy loss

LA of A Angels 10, Sox 4
WP: Saunders (6-0)
LP: Wakefield (13-10)
HRs: BOS-Mirabelli(5); LAA-Matthews (14)

SUMMARY
For the second straight night the Sox were outhit, outhustled and generally outplayed by the Angles, who countered Boston's three-run fifth inning with a 5-spot of their own, and combined with New York's win over Toronto their lead in the East is now down to five games.

#1 STUNNER Gary Matthroids Jr. 3-5, 2B, HR, 3R, 4BI
His 2-run single in the 5th put the Angels back on top, 5-4, and his homer in the 8th capped the scoring, but it was his home run-robbing catch of a Coco Crisp drive in the 4th that will make all the highlight reels--again.

Someone please check his urine.

PAN'S FAUN Wakefield 4IP, 7H, 7R, 6ER, 3BB, 2K
Handed a 4-2 lead after Boston's 3-run fifth, Wake gave it right back when he agve up two walks, two hits and three runs in the bottom of the inning which allowed the Angels to take control of the game.

RECAP
I swear if I have to stay up for another one of these late night horror shows I'm going to lose my fucking mind.

At least when they lose on the East Coast you can go to bed at a decent hour.

For the second consecutive night a game that looked promising for Boston early on ended in a disgusting mess of a loss, and once again fielding miscues, bad calls and
boneheaded decisions led to the Sox demise.

All this on a night when Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron for the all-time home run record, and the Stanks beat the Jays despite Clemens and Torre getting ejected in a beanball filled affair.

And then the lead was five.

One of the most frustrating aspects of these past two 'L's is the fact that in both contests Boston's two veteran starters were given early leads to work with, yet neither Schill nor Wake could hold on to them.

Tonight the Sox jumped on young lefty Joe Saunders (5.1IP, 8H, 4ER, BB, 2K) when they pushed a run across in the first inning thanks to a singles by Dustin Pedroia and Youk (2-4, BI) and a pair of fielder's choice groundouts by Ortiz and Manny.

Not exactly earth-shattering offense, but hey, a lead is a lead.

But the Angels answered back in the third when the Sox committed the first of several blunders on the night.

Casey Kotchman, the pride of Seminole High, blasted a drive over Wily Mo's head in right for a gift double and then last night's hero, Maicer Izturis, singled off the mound, scoring Kotchman with the tying run.

Luckily it didn't matter that Coco overthrew the cutoff man, allowing Izturis to take second base, but it was yet another example of the head-up-ass disease that has plagued Boston in this series so far.

Things have been going so bad for the Sox out in the land of fake breasts and drunken celebutards that when LA of A scored another run in the 4th on (another) single by Izturis (damn that pesky little fucker!) and a double by Jeff Mathis to take a 2-1 lead, I half thought the game was over right there.

But the Sox had other plans, and when they put three runs on the board in the 5th, it looked as if maybe, MAYBE, they would be able to pull off a win after all.

Wouldn'tcha know Wily Mo (1-1, R, BB) would get the rally started when he doubled hard off the right field wall to lead off the inning. Three pitches later Doug Mirabelli crushed an offering from Saunders deep into the left field seats for the go-ahead 2-run homer, and when Pedroia singled and Youk drove him home with a double down the third base line to run the score to 4-2, I half thought the game was over right there. Again.

Wrong again, jackass.

The Angles immediately struck back in the bottom of the inning with a scoring outbust that was as quck as it was effective.

Spark plug leadoff man Chone Figgins (1-4, R), who leads the league in hitting since June 1st, started it all off with a four-pitch walk, stole second mere moments later, then came around to score when old friend Orlando Cabrera doubled to the rightfield gap two pitches later.

Still, at 4-3 Boston had a chance to escape the inning with its lead intact if Wake could get that knuckler to do some serious dirty dancing.

No such luck. After walking Vlad Guerrero (1-3, 2R, 2BB) thanks to a couple of questionable non-calls, Wake got Garret Anderson to hit a routine grounder to short that could have been a rally-killing double play.

Except Julio Lugo bobbled the ball for his 12th error and everyone was safe, and the Halos had the bases loaded with no outs.

Tito yanked Wakefield and handed the ball to Manny Delcarmen, and the suddenly shaky reliever quickly poured gas on the fire when he surrendered Matthew's single to center that scored OC and Vladdy and gave LA a 5-4 lead.

Unfortunately it got worse from there.

After Kotchman's groundout advanced the runners, Izturis bounced one to Pedroia, who came home firing. But like very other play in the series the Sox were a day late and a dollar short, and Anderson scored run #6, and suddenly i KNEW the game was over right there.

Just for good measure the Angles rubbed the Sox faces in their own feces when Mathis executed a perfect suicide squeeze, and when Delcarmen fumbled the ball, everyone was safe and I turned my PIP over to the Giants game just in time to watch Bonds' historic at bat.

While squinting at the minimized screen I saw Julian Tavarez surrender three doubles in a span of three batters to bump the lead to 9-4 in the 6th, and by the time Kyle Snyder gave up Matthews' dinger in the 8th I was in full blown Bonds media mania, anything to avoid watching the disgusting display being put on by our boys at the Big A.

There were other awful events, like Matthews' aforementioned robbery of a ball Coco earmarked for the left field stands and Mike Lowell getting nailed at the plate on a Coco drive that went all the way to the wall in the 6th, but none of it mattered.

All that matters is that now we've got what every Sox fan knew & dreaded would happen come August--a full blown pennant race with our hated rivals.

Let the (real) games begin.