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Game Story: Dice-K gets little run support as Sox fall to D'Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Well, two out of three isn’t bad. You can’t win ‘em all.

Trot out whatever cliché you want, but the Boston Red Sox’ 2-1 loss to the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field was a disappointment.

The Sox failed to hit in the clutch (1 for 10 with runners in scoring position) and one bad pitch from Daisuke Matsuzaka – a two-run homer to B.J. Upton in the sixth – helped cost Boston a sweep of the three-game set.

The script for Matsuzaka at the Trop didn’t change.

And that wasn’t a good thing for the right-hander or the Red Sox.

Matsuzaka, who had another schizophrenic outing (eight strikeouts, four walks) was locked in a pitcher’s duel, and once again he blinked. Dice-K, nursing a 1-0 lead in the sixth, issued a one-out walk to Carlos Pena and then was tagged for an opposite-field homer to right by Upton that gave the Devil Rays a 2-1 lead.

The homer came on a high-and-away fastball, on Matsuzaka’s 99th pitch of the game. The blast, the 18th surrendered by Matsuzaka this season, was the second and final hit he coughed up last night. Matsuzaka was lifted after six innings, having thrown 111 pitches, only 67 of which were strikes.

It was reminiscent of Dice-K’s first appearance at the Rays’ dome, on July 29. In that one, Tampa Bay and Boston were tied, 0-0, when Dioner Navarro took Matsuzaka deep in the bottom of the seventh. The solo shot sparked the Devil Rays to a 5-2 win, with two of the runs charged to Dice-K.

Of course, with a little more offensive support last night, Matsuzaka wouldn’t have been done in by his one big mistake.

Through the early innings the Red Sox squandered several glittering chances to pull away from the Rays.

The wastefulness began in the third inning when Boston did manage to score a run, but failed to blow the game open right then and there against Tampa Bay starter Edwin Jackson, who had a 3-12 record and a dreadful earned-run average of 5.69 entering the game.

The inning began with Dustin Pedroia getting hit on the left elbow by a fastball. He stayed in the game and raced to third when Kevin Youkilis lofted a double off the right-field fence. And after Jackson showed he wanted no part of David Ortiz, walking him for the second time in the game, the Red Sox had the bases filled with none out.

That brought up Mike Lowell, hitting in the cleanup spot because Manny Ramirez had the night off from the starting lineup. Lowell has been a hot hitter lately, and has been especially productive against Tampa Bay this year. He was batting .488 (20 for 41).

In this at-bat, Lowell was served up a 3-and-1 cookie from Jackson, and the Boston third baseman crushed it. But he hit it on a line directly at left fielder Carl Crawford.

Pedroia scored on the sacrifice fly, putting Boston on top, 1-0, but that was all the Red Sox were able to manage in the inning because J.D. Drew hit a broken-bat popup to second and Jason Varitek bounced to first.

Boston’s Eric Hinske made it to third base with one out in the fourth on a walk, a stolen base and a throwing error on the play by catcher Josh Paul. But he was stranded. Julio Lugo bounced out to shortstop Josh Wilson with the infield in and Alex Cora, who replaced Pedroia (bruised left elbow) flied to left.

In the fifth, third-base coach DeMarlo Hale got a little giddy with Ortiz’s sudden burst of baserunning speed. Ortiz, who had legged out a triple and an infield single Tuesday night, doubled to left with one out. And when Lowell grounded a single up the middle, Hale waved home the lumbering Ortiz.

But Ortiz took a peek back to the outfield as he was about one-third of the way home, and that cost him a step or two. The throw from B.J. Upton arrived in the air and Paul slapped the tag on the sliding Ortiz for the second out of the inning. Lowell moved up to second on the throw, but after a walk to Drew, Varitek fanned on a 98 mph fastball.

--STEVE KRASNER

Posted by Corey Bourassa  at 10:25 PM to Krasner | Permalink

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Matsuzaka Fan! | August 23, 2007 1:55 AM link