Red Sox 7, Rangers 10: A complete disaster

The Red Sox and Rangers got together an hour early Tuesday night, intending to make the schedule easier on those younger fans with school the next day. Then the Rangers and/or Felix Doubront took things a little too far, deciding to end the contest around an hour later.

Effectively, this game comes down to the third inning, but it's perhaps worth mentioning that the Red Sox once again managed to waste offensive opportunities in both the first and second innings, grounding into double plays each time. They would do so again in the third, amazingly enough, but by that point, the game had already effectively come to an end.

Doubront had worked through a shaky first, but an impressive seven-pitch second had given Red Sox fans a false sense of confidence headed into the third. That was done away with in a hurry when a 3-2 offering to catcher Robinson Chirinos was crushed a mile over the Monster to make it 1-0. With Choo planting one off said Monster one out later, it was clear that the Doubront of the second had gone suddenly missing.

Still, the disaster that followed was not all his fault. Not at all. A strikeout of Elvis Andrus had him just one out away from escaping the inning when Prince Fielder hit a chopper that made a perfect arch over Mike Napoli before rolling into the right field corner for an RBI double. An Adrian Beltre ground ball single isn't exactly a sign of the apocalypse either. And while Alex Rios certainly made strong contact on his line drive single to left, Donnie Murphy managed only a pop-up to center field. Except that Grady Sizemore had been utterly fooled, starting back before making a late break in. His terrible jump cost the Red Sox another run right then, and with Doubront clearly off the rails by that point, a fifth on a pair of walks that followed.

It was a disaster. One that only got worse when Burke Badenhop took over for a three-run fourth. In the end, the Red Sox would put together a pair of three-run frames to make the game seem closer than it was. A classic case, perhaps, of a team choosing its arms based on the blowout score. Whatever the reason, for a three-run loss, it was a total mess.