Red Sox Lose 5th Straight in the Elusive Chase For Win #1

                                                                  Sports Illustrated 

It happened again. Except, somehow, the Red Sox made their fifth straight loss even worse than the rest on Wednesday night. The Red Sox had trouble all night offensively, leaving six on base, all in the first 6 innings, before the game got out of hand. In other words, they had chances to take control of this game. The worst part of this game, though, came in the bottom of the 6th. It started with Dannys Reyes taking over for Dice-K with the Indians leading 3-2. Reyes proceeded to hit the first two batters he faced, and followed that up by walking the fourth. He then got yanked with the brilliant performance which included 11 balls to 1 strike. Dan Wheeler came in to relieve for him, and gave up a grounder to third to Mike Brantley. Youkilis bobbled it, tagged third and threw it home to get the double play. Only problem is, Varitek didn't see Youkilis tag third, and thought it was a force play. Travis Buck scored, and there were runners on 2nd and 3rd with Asdrubal Cabrera stepping up to the plate. Wheeler then served up a home run pitch to Cabrera, and all of a sudden the Indians were up 7-2. Adrian Gonzalez hit a 2-run homer himself, his first as a member of the Red Sox, in the 7th, but it was too little too late. The Sox offense was set down for the rest of the game, and they lost 8-4, dropping to 0-5.

Other Notes

• Dice-K pitched his typical Dice-K game, only slightly better. He pitched well enough to win, but in the ugliest way possible. He gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings. He also threw 96 pitches in those 5 innings. 

• One positive to take out of the game is Tim Wakefield. He gave up a solo home run to Matt LaPorta, his first batter faced. After that, however, he was able to shut down Cleveland's lineup, not allowing another baserunner. 

• The two newcomers to the lineup were about the only guys who looked good in the Red Sox lineup tonight. Combined, they were 4-6, with a walk apiece. The rest of the lineup has to pick it up, especially whoever is in after Ortiz. The bottom three were abismal again, going a combined 2-11 with a walk.

• Another guy I'm going to call out is Jacoby Ellsbury. Since going 3-8 in the teams first two games, Ellsbury has gone 8 for his last 13, without getting a single walk. That is unacceptable for a leadoff hitter. I think they have to consider putting Crawford in the leadoff spot if this continues.