It's hard to say if this game was one of those games that were closer than the final score was, or not as close as the final score. The Red Sox had some major opportunities, but so consistently let them slip away that it's difficult for me to say "they were only a little bit short." The game definately turned on a few key plays, but we never came all that close to striking a killer blow.
The Indians gave us plenty of chances to win the game. Just look at the play of Josh Barfield. He makes an error which allows JD Drew to reach, then he makes a mental mistake which allows Lowell to reach 2nd base safely instead of being thrown out, then Barfield gets thrown out by Manny after a wide turn around 2nd. He gave us two baserunners, two extra outs on offense, and cost his own team a baserunner and an out.
But when Barfield made those mistakes, we were only able to get 1 run out of it. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and got 1 run. That isn't taking full advantage of an opportunity. And right after Barfield got thrown out at 2nd, Matsuzaka gave up a 2 run homer.
And we all know about the 7th inning. Bases loaded, nobody out, and we get 0 runs. Blake made a good catch on Coco's foul pop, and Mastny pitched brilliantly to Youkilis. Ortiz was given a hanging slider but pulled it too hard and foul. It would have been nice to get just one run in that inning, to start eating away at the lead.
The game was pretty much over when Shoppach hit a homerun. Props to Shoppach for running hard around the bases, though. Very classy.
I'm not very upset, though. In the series, we held Cleveland's offense to 14 runs, which is below their average. Cleveland is one of the best teams in baseball and we took 2 of 3 from them. For the most part, our pitching shut down their offense.
The Man of the Game was Travis Hafner who went 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles and 2 RBI.
Honorable Mentions:
Tom Mastny: 0.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, K, 3 inherited runners left
Kelly Shoppach: 4/5, HR
Mike Lowell: 2/4, 2B, HR
The Bitch-Goat:
Matsuzaka: 0.5 - 5.2 IP, 6 ER, 12 H, HR (lots of hits on 2 strike pitches, WTF?)
Romero: 0.2 - IP, 2 ER
Crisp: 0.1 - 0 for 4, 3 LOB
Ortiz: 0.1 - 1 for 4, 5 LOB
Drew: 0.1 - 0 for 4
Off day, then a 3 game set with the scum.
