I don't know about you, but I pencil in a loss every time the Sox play Matt Garza. Especially in the Dreaded Pagan Temple that every night residents of Florida pack, hoping to watch football and coming away disappointed each time. But the Sox made this one a closer game than I expected, and that's the silver lining in this cloud of a game.
Oh, you want a game recap, do you? Well, sonny, in my day we had to walk twenty miles in the hailing snow, uphill both ways, to get the parts for our transistor radio, and half of the time the Sox broadcast was overlaid by Soviet Propaganda radio ("Союз нерушимый республик свободных Сплотила навеки Великая Русь!")... What was I talking about?
Oh yeah, recap. Josh Beckett was good for a while, before he started giving away the game. One batter, if you must know. Carl Crawford took Jawsh deep in the second at-bat of the game, which was a surprisingly non-auspicious way to start the game. 1-0 Rays. In the second inning, the Sox struck back: Kevin Youkilis doubled, and Jason Bay tripled. 1-1. Unfortunately, Beckett had more runs to hand out to Rays hitters: a HR, three singles, and some fielders choices produced three more runs in the 2nd, and a rare Youkilis error led to a run in the 3rd. 5-1 Rays. Sox batters mounted a valiant come-back, chipping away until the score was tied at 5-5 heading to the bottom of the 8th.
Unfortunately, Ramon Ramirez and Manny Delcarmen allowed three runs, to put the Rays on top permanently.
I'm not sure which Sox player deserves recognition for this game. JBay had a nice RBI triple, but he also struck out with men on against a Rays pitcher who probably doubles as a talk show host (Russ Springer). Youk had two doubles and a walk, but he also committed a key error. Joey Gathright managed to cross homeplate without getting punched in the face, but he's not that good at baseball. Takaski Saito showed the Sox what good pitching looks like, but he only pitched two thirds of an inning. I'll leave this gut-wrenching decision in the OTM electorate's capable hands.