Hardball Heaven

Yesterday's finale in Seattle was a punch to the gut, as the Sox lost a wild one, 9-8, on a Richie Sexson walk-off homer. Jon Lester's homecoming left something to be desired, but the Sox still should have won this game.

The key play came in the bottom of the 8th, when Adrian Beltre hit a smash to center field. The bright sun had been causing problems in the OF all day, and Coco Crisp blatantly misplayed this one. He jumped up to try to make an over-the-fence catch, and the ball hit the wall several feet to his right. Now, a misplay in that sun is understandable, right? There's a guy backing up Coco to make sure Beltre gets only a double, or at worst, a three-bagger, right? All reasonable assumptions, of course, unless the guy doing the backing up consistently has his head up his ass. Manny looked just as clueless as Coco, and all he had to do was look on the ground, grab the ball and fire it in. Instead, Manny gave a little shrug and pointed at the ball, leaving Coco to sprint after it. By that time, Beltre had rounded third and was sliding across the plate with an inexcusable inside the parker.

Still, it wasn't over. In the top of the 9th with two down, Jason Varitek crushed a home run to right off Mariners closer J.J. Putz to tie the game at 8. Francona elected to keep Mike Timlin in the game in the bottom of the inning, and that decision proved costly as Sexson's blast landed just a few feet from where Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon was warming up. Final score: Mariners 9, Red Sox 8. This is one we may remember for a while, made worse by the fact that the Yanks had already lost again to Toronto earlier in the day. These lost opportunities are starting to kill.

No time to stew, though. The Sox are in Oakland tonight to try to exact some revenge from a couple weeks ago. Beckett vs. Zito in Game 1. Keep an eye out for a continuance of the beanball issues we saw at Fenway.