Sox save face but still lose game to Rays

Tampa Bay 6, Sox 5
WP: Sonnanstine (2-8)
LP: Matsuzaka (13-9)
SV: Reyes (18)
HRs: BOS-Varitek (10)

SUMMARY
For six innings the Sox were being humiliated at home, shut out by the lowly Rays, and even though a late scoring outburst and 9th inning rally made the score respectable, the result was still the same: an embarrassing loss to one of the worst teams in the league.

#1 STUNNER Andy Sonnanstine 6.2IP, 4H, 3ER, 2BB, 3K
Don't let the mediocre linescore fool ya, the kid was brilliant for six innings until faltering a bit in the 7th. But for a guy with a 1-8 mark coming in, I'd say he did pretty damn good.

PAN's FAUN Matsuzaka 6IP, 8H, 6ER, 3BB, 5K
Coming off a month's worth of quality starts it's hard to get too down on the rookie, but when the Rays light you up like a fine Cuban cigar you deserve to wear the goat horns.

RECAP
As my son and I sat on the sofa while the Red Sox 9th attempted a 9th inning rally that fell just short, we debated on what's worse: getting shut out at home by a team like the Devil Rays, or mounting a furious late inning comeback only to come up a run short.

He was of the opinion that it's much more humiliating to get shut out by a Rays team that has one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball and was beaten by the Stanks by scores of 17-5 and 21-4 a few weeks ago.

Very true, I admitted, but it seems to me that it hurts a bit more when you've already resigned yourself to the fact that the better team is not going to win, only to have your boys come so tantalizing, agonizingly close to pulling off the comeback before melting down at the finish line.

Either way you look at it, we agreed, the loss sucks.

Boston found itself down by six runs after six innings today thanks to a lackluster start by Daisuke Matsuzaka, and only a batch of five runs in the final three frames saved the best team in baseball from on of its worst losses of the season.

Stop me if you've heard this before, because it's almost the exact same refrain I used yesterday.

The difference between that game and this one was, obviously, last night's comeback was complete when the Sox overcame a much slimmer deficit (1-0) to pull off the miraculous 9th inning win.

Today there would be no such heroics as a combination of four Rays pitchers allowed a few cracks to show but prevented the dam from breaking in helping Tampa Bay earn its first win at Fenway since last Sept. 27th.

The troubles began early for Matsuzaka as he was touched for a run before the game was even ten minutes old when former Japanese League foe Akinori Iwamura led off with a single, went to third on a single by Carl Crawford and scored on a groundout by Carlos Pena.

Things didn't get much better for Dice-K when he allowed a single, a walk and a stolen base in the second but he was bailed out by a caught stealing and a strikeout before any damage was done.

But he wouldn't be so fortunate in the 3rd as the Rays sent 8 batters to the plate and four of them scored, the big blow being a 2-run double off the base of the Wall by Pena which plated Iwamura and Crawford, who had both singled again for the second time in three innings.

Adding insult to insult two more runs would come home thanks to a shot off the mound by Delmon Young that Dustin Pedroia couldn't corral and a beautiful bunt down the 1st base line by Brendan Harris that brought Pena home from third with the Rays' 6th run of the game.

In case you weren't scoring at home, after three innings Dice's linescore read 3IP, 7H, 2BB, 2K, 6ER.

Meanwhile Rays rookie Andy Sonnanstine was looking like the second coming of Andy Messersmith, mixing a variety of off speed pitches with an occasional fastball to befuddle the Boston batters into an assortment of pop ups, grounders and lazy fly balls.

Unlike a lot of the Sox recent contests they didn't miss a boatload of opportunities early in this one, because Sonnanstine didn't give them any. In fact the 24-year-old righty allowed just 3 baserunners in the first six innings: a two-out double off the monster by Lowell in the 2nd; a two-out single by Cap'n Tek in the 5th; and a one-out walk to Pedroia in the 6th that featured Sonnanstine's first 3-ball count of the afternoon.

In the 7th Boston's fortunes would finally change as the rookie, who hadn't made it through five innings in his last two starts, finally began to falter.

After retiring the first two batters of the inning, last night's hero, Mike Lowell, scorched a drive down the third base line that Iwamura somehow managed to snag in foul territory, but the long throw was a bit high and he couldn't get Lowell at first base.

Three pitches later Varitek (2-4, R, 2BI), a.k.a Captain Clutch, wrapped a ball down the right field line that made it into the stands for a shutout-breaking, momentum-making two-run homer, and after Sonnanstine walked Coco on five pitches manager Joe Maddon did what every member of RSN was waiting for: he went to his bullpen.

On came Gary Glover for his 3rd appearance of the series and he was quickly greeted by a run-scoring double by Julio Lugo (2-4, 2BI), who did his best on the day to help defeat his old mates, and suddenly the score was cut to 6-3 Rays.

Julian Tavarez and Mike Timlin combined to hold the Rays at bay through the 7th & 8th innings, and when Maddon went to his pen again for the bottom of the 8th, the Sox batters pounced like paparazzi on an Olsen twin.

Ortiz worked his way into a one-out walk, setting up Manny in a perfect RBI situation, and the risk-taking left fielder didn't waste any time delivering, sending Wheeler's first pitch high off the triangle area of the wall in center for a mammoth double that scored Papi with ease, and now the somnambulant crowd was on its feet and into the game.

Alas the outcome may have been decided a few pitches later when J.D. Drew laced a low liner down the first base line that Pena reached across his body and sniped out of midair, and even though Lowell (2-3, R) walked after that, Wheeler got Tek to ground out on one pitch, and any miraculous comeback would have to take place in the 9th.

When Coco led off the inning against last night's goat, closer Al Reyes, with a beaut of a bunt single on Reyes' first pitch, that comeback appeared to be off to a good start.

Lugo followed that quick strike with an epic at bat, fouling off 7 pitches before stroking Reyes' 12th offering for a sharp double to deep left center that easily scored Coco from first, and all of a sudden the score was 6-5 Rays with the top of the lineup coming up.

Could the team that only had one seventh inning or later comeback all season pull off its second stright such win?

Unfortunately no, as Reyes, determined to finish the game when he saw Jon 17.18ERA Switzer warming in the pen, proceeded to strike out Pedroia, Youk, and after walking Ortiz, whiffed Manny on a pitch up and in, and just like that any hopes of a second consecutive comeback were squashed.

The only saving grace on the afternoon? The Stanks came back to tie their game in the bottom of the 9th, only to see closer Mariano Rivera surrender 3 runs in the 10th and lose 6-3 to Baltimore.

So we got that going for us I guess.

Enjoy the off day tomorrow guys, and how 'bout trying to figure out how to generate some offense while you're out on the links?