The Sox are now 4-14, fresh off a loss to the Orioles.
Yes, the Orioles.
The blame for this can primarily be placed in three different places. In order:
- Darnell McDonald -- Receiving the start for Carl Crawford, out with a stiff neck, Darnell McDonald ruined what had, to that point, been an impressive start for Kyle Weiland in the third. After misplaying one fly ball into a hit with one out, Darnell McDonald allowed the next batter's fly to bounce off his glove and into the dirt. Instead of having the inning over and done with, Weiland was facing two on and one out. Matt Angle knocked another one out towards McDonald--this one off the scoreboard and so at least justifiable--and the Sox were facing another early 2-0 deficit. That makes it two straight strong starts for Weiland derailed in the third by defensive issues (though it's still hard to blame Scutaro for that broken bat).
- Kyle Weiland -- The pitcher himself then proceeded to implode in dramatic fashion in the fourth. Falling behind 3-1 to Robert Andino, Weiland served up an all-too-hittable fastball and saw it drop into the monster seats for a two-run shot. Five pitches later, and it was a hanging slider getting clobbered into the same seats by Nolan Reimold for a solo shot. If that weren't enough, J.J. Hardy led off the fifth frame by taking another bad slider out of the park. All-in-all, the Orioles scored six times before recording an out in the fifth. That the Sox won't have to live with many more starts from these backup pitchers is about the only consolation to be offered here.
- The Umpires -- Even with three homers and two errors (though only one was scored that way) the Red Sox fought there way back into the game. Darnell atoned for half of his contributions to the Baltimore cause by leading off the third with a long ball, and a Jarrod Saltalamacchia triple brought another run in come the fourth. Then came the fifth, and a pair of two-out extra base hits from Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia gave the Sox two more. David Ortiz appeared to give the Sox another when he hit a line drive to right field, but despite replays showing the ball clearly hitting the wall in fair territory, the umpires (after a conference) upheld an initial ruling of foul. Ortiz flew out to deep center a few pitches later, and slammed his helmet to the ground in frustration. With the Sox scoring once more in the seventh, and the game ending with a 6-5 score, it's impossible to think of that as anything but a tying run.
The Sox received some good relief pitching from Felix Doubront and Alfredo Aceves, the latter of which worked some miracles to keep Baltimore off the board. But between bad calls, bad plays, and bad pitching, the Sox just couldn't put enough on the board.
They lead the Rays by just one in the loss column. To quote David Ortiz: "F### this s####"