The record will show that Scot Shields lost the deciding game of the AL Division Series between Boston and the Angels, but no one ever said baseball always rewards a skilled performance.
Shields took over for starter John Lackey in the eighth inning. He got Dustin Pedroia on a line drive to second, then struck out Boston's 3-4 hitters, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis. He also struck out J.D. Drew to start the ninth inning, giving him three in a row over the heart of Boston's order. Then things got wacky. Jason Bay swung late and popped a fly down the right field line. He hit it so badly that right fielder Reggie Willits had no chance on his dive, the ball bounding into the stands about 200 feet from home plate for a ground rule double. Mark Kotsay followed with the best at bat of the night against Shields, a wicked line drive inside first base that by all rightsd should have been the game-winner. But Mark Teixeira stretched out flat to rob Kotsay and keep Bay at second. All Shields had to do to get the game to extra innings was to retire rookie Jed Lowrie, and when guys hit ground balls like Lowrie did, they usually are out. Unless you hit it in the perfect spot between infielders. Which is what he did.
Game over. Series over. Even though you can't do your job much better than Shields did his.

--Gregg Patton

Leave a comment

Name: (required)

Email: (required; will not be displayed)

URL:  (optional)

Remember personal info?

Comment: (you may use basic HTML tags for style)

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Note: You will need to re-enter the captcha field after previewing