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July 25, 2007
CLEVELAND _ It was a night of missed opportunities for the Boston Red Sox.
text ignored It was also a what-you-can-do-I-can-do-better situation as the Cleveland Indians received a solid pitching performance from starter Fausto Carmona en route to a 1-0 victory to snap the Red Sox’ five-game winning streak last night at Jacobs Field.
The young right-hander worked eight scoreless innings, allowing four hits with six strikeouts as the Indians responded from a 1-0 loss against Boston on Tuesday.
text ignoredAs effective as Carmona was, Red Sox starter Josh Beckett was equally impressive despite allowing a solo homer to the Indians’ Franklin Gutierrez in the third inning that proved to be the only run of the game.
Carmona “was about as tough as Beckett,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “JB threw one pitch to Gutierrez over the plate and he whacked it and it held up just like (Tuesday night). It was a lot more fun to talk about it (Tuesday) night. Carmona had explosive stuff, it was impressive.”
Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek was impressed with his batterymate.
“To me it was one of the best outings Josh has ever had,” he said.
Beckett said he was simply out pitched.
"It’s tough to compare to a loss with wins,” he said following Varitek’s statement. “That’s obviously his opinion, and that’s a big compliment coming from somebody like that, but it’s tough to compare wins and losses.”
The expletives were flying around the Red Sox clubhouse following the loss.
Besides the pair of solid pitching performances, the Red Sox were snakebitten on three plays.
First, Coco Crisp was thrown out at the plate attempting to tie the game in the sixth inning. Second, Alex Cora missed a hit-and-run sign at the plate that caused runner Jason Varitek to be tagged out in the eighth. Third, Julio Lugo was thrown out attempting to steal second as a pinch runner in the eighth.
Cora took his miscue very hard.
“I missed the sign and (expletive) up,” he said. “I cost us the game. I’m doing a (expletive) job. People expect me to do [the little things] when I’m in the game and I haven’t done it the last few games. It’s a (expletive) job.”
After Gutierrez absolutely crushed a solo homer to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning, Beckett responded and retired the next 14 batters in a row before Trot Nixon singled in the eighth for Cleveland’s fourth hit of the game.
Meanwhile, Carmona kept the Sox’ bats at bay until Crisp snapped the 23-year-old’s bid for a no-hitter with an infield single in the sixth inning. Crisp hit a hard grounder up the middle that Indians shortstop Jhonny Peralta ranged to his left and snared, but because of the Crisp’s speed Peralta had to rush the throw and didn’t get it there on time.
With one out and Dustin Pedroia at the plate, Crisp took off for second and was able to stay out of the possible double play when Pedroia grounded out to third. Ortiz, who struck out his first two times up, hit a hard ground ball to the right side for a single. Cleveland had the shift on, so Crisp attempted to score from second for the would-be tying run, but Indians second baseman Josh Barfield got his throw to the plate in time for the third out of the inning.
“Coco had a chance to score and in that type of game we take our chances,” said Francona. “It didn’t work. He looked over his shoulder rounding third, like you’re supposed to, and he kept going. Victor (Martinez) did a good job blocking the plate. The way Carmona was throwing we need to take our chances.”
Things didn’t get any easier for the Red Sox.
Varitek led off the eighth with a single, Boston’s third hit of the game, before Eric Hinske lined out to center. Cora followed and appeared to have missed a hit-and-run sign as Varitek took off for second. When the batter didn’t swing, Varitek attempted to retreat to first but was caught 2-6-3.
Francona said the miscommunication on the play was his fault, and Varitek didn’t agree with Cora’s self-evaluation.
“We blame anybody,” said Varitek. “Alex is such a huge part of this team. He makes some great plays defensively. That happens, but with the type of baseball player he is, that stuff never happens, so that’s why he’s taking it hard.”
With two outs in the inning, Cora provided an infield single and was replaced with the speedy Lugo, who originally was given the night off. With Crisp at the plate, Lugo was thrown out attempting to steal second to end the inning.
“We were putting him in motion, trying to make something happen,” said Francona. “We tried everything tonight to get a run and nothing was working.”
The stage was set with two outs in the top of the ninth inning for Ortiz.
The Sox slugger had missed the previous four games with a sore shoulder and had an opportunity but popped out as the Indians’ Joe Borowski earned his 29th save of the season.
-----JOE McDONALD
Posted by Thom Cahir 
at 11:05 PM to McDonald
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