A Game of Clowns

Dad --

Well, that awesome 11 game winning streak came to a close last night thanks in no small part to horrible pitching and 3 errors. Dad, it was ug-ly!

I don't know what happened, but whatever I was watching last night, it wasn't baseball. It looked more like a remake of "The Bad News Bears".

Penny started the nightmare with his pitches that stayed up in the zone. For every set of runs the Red Sox got, Penny made sure the Indians came right back to tie it up. But he wasn't the only one to blame. The three errors the Sox racked up, helped quite a bit.

Lowell started the error feast with an over thrown ball to Pedroia in the second inning. With Indians at first and second and one out, what should have been a double play, ended up scoring a run with everyone safe.

Then in the bottom of the 3rd inning Lugo, making his season debut by the way, made the Sox 2nd error on what should have been an inning ending double play.

Now Dad, it's no secret that I am not a Lugo fan. As a matter of fact, I was quite happy when I heard he was going to be on the DL for the first month of the season. But when he was ready to come back, I figured I'd give him a shot. He was injured, he's had surgery, maybe he's better for it. Nope! Still the same error inducing short stop we've had all along! Youkilis made a great catch at first and threw a liner to Lugo. But Lugo being the butterfingers he is, took his eye off the ball and let it slip through his glove. So, another run scores and runners are safe at first and second. Three more runs would score before the inning was over, all because Lugo couldn't keep his eye on the ball.

Taking eyes off the ball was a theme last night because that's what caused the final error of the evening as well. Bottom of the 9th, the score all tied up at 8 runs apiece. All the Sox needed was one more out to get to the 10th where Pedroia, Ortiz and Youkilis were scheduled to swing the bat. But the Sox would never see the 10th. Asdrubal Cabrera stepped to the plate and on a 3-2 pitch hit a hard grounder to Youkilis. He trapped it no problem and threw it to Lopez who was covering 1st. Unfortunately Lopez wanted to make sure his foot was on the bag and took his eye off the ball. The ball dropped, Cabrera was safe, and Mark DeRosa scored the game winning run.

It was shocking. Not just for me, but for every Red Sox fan out there. Even the players didn't know what happened. There's one more game in Cleveland tonight and Lester is scheduled to take the mound. Here's hoping a new streak starts tonight.

Jenn