Boston Red Sox gives up four in ninth to Toronto Blue Jays – blow lead
Jonathan Papelbon picked a bad day to be human. With their American League Eastern Division rivals, the New York Yankees playing the Kansas City Royals (mark the Yankees down for a win most games), and Tampa Bay, their Wild Card rivals, having the night off, Boston needed a win against a Toronto Blue Jays team they have dominated so far this year.
It looked easy too. The Sox entered the ninth inning up 5-2 and with John Lackey on the mound going for a complete game, and why not? To that point he’d scattered seven hits over eight inning, surrendering just a couple of runs.
Jose Bautista gave him a reason to sit down for the night with his league leading 36th home run of the year. “Once again, there’s Bautista,” Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. “He got us going.”
Enter Papelbon, the man who’d pitched 39 times against the Blue Jays without blowing a save. He had just one loss in all those appearances. For his career against the blue birds he’d given up just 32 hits and one home run in 44 innings, and his ERA was 0.82. Papelbon owns most teams in the American League, but he really owns the Blue Jays. “He’s always shut the door on us,” said Toronto Second Baseman, Aaron Hill.
Blue Jay center fielder, Vernon Wells gave the Red Sox closer a bit of a surprise with a double to right, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Adam Lind. Lind smacked a single to Center bringing the speedy Wells home. The even speedier DeWayne Wise came on to run for Lind and promptly stole second base.
With the tying run now in scoring position, Papelbon was starting to wonder if he should have stayed in bed. He later said he felt groggy all afternoon, even when he was on the mound.
The Blue Jays gave him no time to settle as Hill hit an infield single, sending Wise to third base with still no outs in the inning. Papelbon got Travis Snider swinging, but the Jays still had their fastest runner on third with only one out.
Edwin Encarnacion took over the load with a double to left field, tying the game and sending Hill to third. Gaston inserted Lyle Overbay as a pinch hitter in place of catcher Jose Molina, and Papelbon walked Overbay intentionally to load the bases.
This brought designated hitter Fred Lewis to the plate to face Daniel Bard who replaced Papelbon. Lewis has been a great acquisition for the Jays this year, and he didn’t disappoint this time, hitting a decent enough fly ball to center field that Hill could slide home with the winning run well ahead of the throw.
Tags: