Three Losses in Texas

Well, based on history, I had my usual trepidations when our team left Toronto for Arlington, Texas. As it turned out, they were well founded. The first two games were not really close, although they could not be described as laughers. In fact, had all the LOB's for both teams actually scored, the Sox might have won at least one. Trouble is, they didn't score. Which brings us to the finale yesterday. Facing the Rangers' ace, Japanese import Yu Darvish, the Sox quickly opened a three zip lead, based on homers by Papi and Sox offseason acquisition, Ross, the fourth of the season for both of them. Papi, in the process, also extended his hitting streak to 25 games, dating to last season. However, the combination of Darvish's 14 K's, the second time this year he's reached that total, and some timely hitting later in the game by the Rangers was too much to overcome. A pair of Rangers homers off of Hose starter Lester tied it by the 6th and former Sox third sacker (a couple of years ago) Beltre managed to get a ball just beyond the reach of Sox infielders to bring home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the 9th--a walkoff single and the 3d loss in a row for the Hose. The only other highlight for the Sox was three stolen bases, including the Dustman's 7th of the young season, which keeps him in the league leaders behind team mate Jake and a few others. Jake leads the majors in swipes with a dozen. This is the longest losing streak of the season for the Sox, and hopefully, they'll right the ship tonight at the Fens against the Twinkies. Bucky is scheduled to take the ball for this one.