The early jury is out on Dan Duquette's deadline moves. It does not look good.
The combination of Rico Brogna, Mike Lansing and Rolando Arrojo were not enough to upend Kansas City and flaky Royal starter Chad Durbin.
Whatever little faith the Sox brass may have had in Arrojo may have fizzled in today's start. Arrojo lacked the command of 1998, giving up four runs, two walks, and failing to get out of the fifth. In short, he pitched like a latter-day northpaw Jeff Fassero. Single runs in the first, second, third, and fifth to the flailing Royals was enough to get Sox fans worried. Was this what made Duquette wet his bed at night?
Equally as inept as Rolando Arrojo, was Boston's pitiful offense. After hanging a three-spot in the second inning off wild Royal prospect Chad Durbin, the bats looked listless against two struggling hurlers, the moribund Brian Meadows and the taterrific Ricky Bottalico. Meadows, making his first relief appearance of his short career, mowed down the Sox for 6-plus innings, yielding only six hits, and one run. That one run -- an 7th-inning RBI single by Nomar Garciaparra after a two-out double by the vociferous Carl Everett -- tied the score at 4, and signaled the horizon of yet another late Sox comeback, another late Royal collapse.
But that was not to be, as the evil half of the Sox bullpen reared its ugly head once again. Starting the eighth, loser Rheal Cormier yielded leadoff singles to Jermaine Dye and Joe Randa, before Rod Beck replaced him and promptly gave up an RBI double to Mark Quinn, an RBI single to Gregg Zaun, and a run-scoring groundout to Dave McCarty.
The way the Sox struggle to put five runs on the board for an entire game, a three-run deficit was too much to ask over the final two innings, as even Bottalico was able to come in and close the door on the Sox comeback. A ninth-inning Everett home run -- his team leading 27th of the year -- just prolonged the inevitable for the Sox.
Everett returned to the lineup with a vengeance, lashing a double and a homer among his three hits, but the snickers of the Boston media can still be heard after Everett's pregame verbal fracas with manager Jimy Williams. In spite of his emotional outburst, he continues to be one of the team's jewels offensively. Brogna and Lansing -- the 11 million dollar right-side experiment -- combined to go 1-6 with two walks, the one hit being Lansing's two run single in the second. In today's bull economy, never has so much investment had so little return.
At times, the same can be said for this year's edition of the Red Sox.