Tonight, while the Orioles were busy taking down a division leader, the Red Sox were embarrassing themselves against the American League's worst.
There is so very, very much to hate about what happened tonight. And it all starts with David Price. It was another pathetic performance from the $217 million man, this time without even the cold comfort of peripherals to fall back on. It was just hits, hits, hits for the Twins in the first two innings, good for four quick runs. And while the swirling wind that beset Fenway (and knocked a monitor into Jerry Remy's head) might have had something to do with it, at this point there've been far too many excuses for Price and far too few results. He once again failed the Red Sox.
For all that Price put the burden on the offense, though, they certainly responded. The Sox once again had a productive-if-wasteful first inning, with David Ortiz bringing in a run on a sacrifice fly before Aaron Hill grounded out with the bases loaded to leave them with just the one. The second, however, would prove much better. With Michael Martinez and Brock Holt on base, Dustin Pedroia drove a double into right field to make it a two-run game. A wild pitch in the process of walking David Ortiz brought in another run for the Red Sox, but it was Hanley Ramirez who really came through, crushing a fastball down main street into the Mosnter seats to not only erase the deficit, but put the Sox ahead 6-4.
The game would settle down a bit for the next few innings, but David Price again found himself in trouble in the sixth, allowing the Twins to plate a fifth run on a couple of singles and a sacrifice fly. Enter...Clay Buchholz? Yup. With the pen again called into action early, Buchholz found his way to the mound with the tying run already on base, but quickly struck out Eduardo Nunez to end the frame. The Sox got their run back in the bottom of the inning on an infield single from Jackie Bradley Jr., and danger seemed to have been averted.
Then came the seventh out of hell.
Somehow, in a game with so much blame to go around, much of it stemming from an inning started by Clay Buchholz, he's really not at fault here. Buchholz gave up just a ground ball single in the process of recording the first two outs. Then he nearly struck out Max Kepler on a borderline 1-2 pitch that didn't go in his favor. The next offering was a curveball that stayed up a bit, and Kepler hit a long fly ball to right. But it stayed in the park, and hung up for long enough that Michael Martinez should have made the play. Instead, he retreated, seemed to lose all control of his body, and made an awkward faltering disaster of an attempt that saw the ball fall behind him at the wall, bouncing away for three bases and a run.
Still the inning could have been ended one at bat later when Kennys Vargas hit a weak fly ball to left field. But Brock Holt was the one coming up short on a play that certainly could have been made, seeming uncertain how to approach it and ultimately going into an ill-fated slide on the pop-up letting another run come in, making it 8-7 and bringing Tommy Layne into the game.
The next and final chance to save the lead came when Eddie Rosario hit the second pitch he saw from Layne into center field. Jackie Bradley Jr. got the ball to the plate in time, but Sandy Leon couldn't get it across to the right side as Vargas slid around the tag. He was called out at first, but the replay was pretty clear, and the game was tied.
Still the inning continued. Layne got a ground ball from Juan Centeno, but it was placed perfectly, leaving Xander Bogaerts with no chance to record the out. Byron Buxton proceeded to draw a walk to load the bases, bringing Heath Hembree into the game to face Eduardo Nunez. Another ground ball single later and it was 10-8 to Minnesota before Robbie Grossman finally struck out to end the inning.
The Sox clawed their way to a ninth run in the bottom of the inning, and once again loaded the bases with two outs, but Jackie Bradley hit a long fly to right field and Max Kepler showed Michael Martinez that, indeed, such a ball can be caught if one possesses at least gross motor skills. And of course, as soon as the Sox had pulled within one, the Twins pushed away again, scoring an eleventh on a blast from Sano in the eighth, the final bit of scoring in this horrific game.
Y'know, even now, July has been pretty good for the Red Sox. But damn, if single game losses could disqualify a team from postseason play, they'd have come up with two in this month alone. This isn't 21-2 levels of atrocious by the scoreline, but at least in terms of how they got there, it doesn't feel all that much better.