And the beat goes on: Sox lose on late home run

Rays 2, Sox 1
WP: Dohman (2-0)
LP: Buchholz (1-2)
SV: Percival (5)
HRs: BOS- None; TB-Iwamura (1)

SUMMARY:
A brilliant pitcher's duel between two promising young starters was decided with one swing of the bat when Akinori Iwamura slammed a Clay Buchholz pitch deep over the wall in right for a 2-run homer in the 8th inning, sending the Sox to their 4th straight loss and the Rays to their 5th consecutive win.

SUPERSTAR: Buchholz 8IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, 9K, HR
Hard to give this honor to someone who gave up the game-losing homer, but Buchholz was so strong for so long in this one, it's hard to fault the guy for making one bad pitch. If only his offense could've helped him out...

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Shawn Riggans 0-2
Hard to find a loser in this brilliantly played game, but the young catcher's nonchalant chasing down of a wild pitch allowed Coco Crisp to go from 1st to 3rd and eventually score Boston's only run of the game.

RECAP:
Boy, did this one hurt.

Boston was four outs away from celebrating the best performance by a starting pitcher this season until the Rays snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat with Aki Iwamura's 8th inning home run.

Up until that point Clay Buchholz had been simply spectacular. He had allowed just one hit before the 8th, a double by BJ Upton leading off the 4th inning, and even after he surrendered a 2-out pinch hit single to Dionner Navarro prior to Iwamura's homer, it felt like a blip more than a sign that he was tiring or in trouble.

Francona certainly must have thought that way because he had Okajima and Delcarmen ready in the pen yet he let Buchholz pitch to Iwamura, a move that he is probably regretting at this very moment.

Alas hindsight is 20/20, and had he pulled the kid everyone would have been moaning "why not leave Buchholz in, with the way he was pitching?"

And with the way the bullpen has performed lately, can you really blame him for sticking with the hot hand?

The reason the game came down to that pivotal play is because Rays starter Edwin Jackson was nearly as flawless as Buchholz. After getting out of the gate with a 2-0 record and sub-1.00 ERA, Jackson had come back to earth hard in his last two starts, losing both while surrendering 11 earned runs in just 9 1/3 innings.

But tonight Jackson (7IP, 5H, 1ER, 3BB, 4K) was on his game again, limiting the Sox to just a handful of hits and surrendering a single run, and that one came courtesy of a wild pitch, a botched play by his catcher, and an infield single.

Coco Crisp began the 5th inning with a solid single to rightfield, and after Jackson got Jason Varitek, making his first start in 7 games, to strikeout, he threw a wild pitch with a 2-2 count on Jed Lowrie that eluded catcher Shawn Riggins for a second.

But after Riggans finally figured out where it was he casually scooted back to the backstop to retrieve the ball, and Crisp seized the moment by motoring all the way from first base to third before Riggans even knew what happened.

Jackson ended up walking Lowrie, and after Julio Lugo struck out, Jacoby Ellsbury, who started in right field, laced a shot down the third base line that Evan Longoria knocked down, but by the time he threw to first Ellsbury (2-4) was safe and Coco had scored the first run of the game.

And that's the way it stayed until the 8th.

Boston had a chance to add to the lead when Joe Maddon replaced Jackson with Trevor Miller to being the 8th and he gave up a 2-out walk to JD Drew, who took over DH duty and 3-spot for the scratched David Ortiz. But Maddon then called on last night's winner, Scott Dohmann, to face Manny Ramirez, and Dohmann froze Manny for strike three to end the inning and set up Iwamura's heroics in the bottom of the inning.

After Aki's blast, which was high and deep and a classic no-doubter, a dejected Buchholz struck out Carl Crawford to end the inning, and Boston had one last chance for another miraculous comeback.

Only new Rays closer Troy Percival would have none of that, needing just 10 pitches to retire Youk, Coco, and Tek to save the game, and suddenly the Sox are out of first place (by percentage points) for the first time in a while and the Rays are only one game back of Boston and Baltimore in what is turning out to be a crazy AL East race.

And speaking of crazy, my son's Little League team won their tournament game this afternoon, 21-16, and he had a big 2-run homer that tied the game at 8 and propelled us to the win and a spot in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Who knows, maybe his team and his favorite team will be able to pull off big wins tomorrow.

The way the Sox and his team have been playing, I like my son's chances a lot better right now.

RECORD: 15-11
STREAK: L4
LST 10: 6-4
AL EAST: Tied for 1st
UP NEXT: Sun 1:40 @ TB Beckett vs. Shields

GO Sox & G.L.L.L. Braves!