After a loss to open their series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, the Red Sox’ already thin margin for error became thinner. Essentially, they needed to be just about perfect for the remainder of the season to have any chance to make October meaningful.
They were anything but perfect in a frustrating 4-3 setback to the Blue Jays on Saturday, a loss which had them wondering what might’ve been if they simply executed in a handful of situations.
Boston left 10 runners on base, had a pair of defensive miscues and then saw what should’ve been the tying run in the bottom of the ninth get picked off first base. It was a bewildering series of gaffes, some excusable, some not, that left the Sox 7 ½ games out of the wild card race with just 14 games to play.
The first bitter pill came in the bottom of the second, when Boston tied the game 1-1 but had runners on the corners and one out and then the bases loaded with two outs and failed to score.
Then, the Blue Jays got all the runs they would need in the sixth off Josh Beckett, who was hurt by a physical error behind him and then had a mental one of his own. With a runner on second and no outs, Toronto second baseman John McDonald grounded one to third baseman Adrian Beltre, who threw the ball away, allowing the run to come in from third and making it 3-1 Jays.
Jose Molina (remember that name) then bunted one that hugged the first-base line. Beckett and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia converged, Saltalamacchia threw to first for the out but nobody covered home. McDonald, who began the play on second base, never stopped coming around third and scored the decisive run without a Red Sox player in sight.
“Salty didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to do,” said Beckett, who along with Saltalamacchia thought the ball would go foul and froze once it did not and the out was made at first.
“It’s not a situation that comes up very often but nobody but me has to have the plate…I sit there with my thumb in my [behind] and follow Salty. We don’t need two people fielding the ball.”
The frustration was evident in Beckett’s tone, and rightfully so. On a night that he saw a three-year long streak without a quality start against the Blue Jays come to an end, little things like that odd circumstance in the top of the sixth spelled doom and left him winless vs. Toronto since Sept. 4, 2007.
Boston managed to get the two runs back in the bottom half of the sixth but left two runners on in the seventh when David Ortiz struck out swinging and wasted a leadoff single in the eighth. The ninth inning saw another nail get placed in the coffin. Again, it came in frustrating, and imperfect, fashion.
With one out rookie Ryan Kalish singled up the middle. On the first pitch to Victor Martinez, Kalish saw the ball bounce to Molina and scampered off the bag, only to find himself caught too far when Molina recovered in a heartbeat and gunned the ball to first.
It was a critical error made more painful when Martinez then lashed his first triple in a Red Sox uniform, only to get stranded at third without the big RBI.
“I saw [Molina] pick it and right then and there I realized I’m in a bad spot,” Kalish said. “I feel terrible.”
Manager Terry Francona defended his young outfielder, giving him credit for getting a good secondary lead and Molina credit for making a play. But seeing Adrian Beltre ground out to end it and Martinez’s triple lead to nothing simply summed up the night for the Sox. There were physical mistakes in the field, mental mistakes in the field, a base running blunder that was downright cruel in its timing and a vain search for the big hit.
It was far from perfect, at a time when that’s what the Red Sox need to be.
