The offense continued its assault on American League pitching, but it wasn't enough on Tuesday night to overcome the defense's blunders as the Red Sox fell to the Indians 9-8. Brad Penny gave up 7 runs in his 2.2 innings of work, however only 4 were earned. Errors by Mike Lowell and Julio Lugo (what was that?!) allowed Cleveland to stay in a game that they had no business being in, which ultimately proved costly in the end.
The offense, which averaged almost 8 runs a game over the course of their 11 game winning streak, again banged out an impressive amount of hits and runs with 8 and 14 respectively. Pedroia had three hits pushing his average up to .309, and Julio Lugo was back in a big way with 2 hits including the clutch go ahead RBI single in the 7th.
What a game for the bullpen yet again. Equally impressive as the offense's numbers over the course of this winning streak has been the pen's contributions. The final line for Jones, Okajima, Saito, Ramirez and Lopez: 6IP, 1ER, 5K. Jones was the most impressive coming in for a struggling Penny and eating up 2 1/3 allowing only 1 hit and striking out a pair of Indians.
With the Sox up 8-7 following Lugo's RBI single in the 7th, Saito entered the game and left a fastball over the plate that Mark DeRosa didn't miss. DeRosa, who has hurt the Sox so far in this series, sent the ball well over the left field wall.
Despite receiving multiple late inning leadoff walks as gifts from Cleveland pitchers, the Red Sox entered the bottom frame in the 9th in an eight all tie. DeRosa (who else?) led off the ninth with his fourth hit of the night and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Francisco. Lopez would get a HUGE strikeout on Grady Sizemore, but that's where the luck would end. Asdrubal Carbera walked to the plate with two outs and hit a ground ball to Youkilis who made a great play, made the flip to first and sent the game into extra innings only to have it dropped by Lopez (who was charged with the error). DeRosa came around scoring the winning run and ending the Sox impressive 11 game winning streak.
Make no mistake, this is not a game that the Red Sox should have lost. Although their offense put up enough runs to win on any other night, they also stranded 11 runners and missed numerous opportunities for big innings, especially late in the game.
No time for crying over spilled milk (or baseballs in Lopez's case). Big Jon Lester on the hill tomorrow against Fausto Carmona, time to start a new streak heading into the big showdown against those pesky Rays.