Four outs stood between Derek Lowe and the Sox pulling off yet another improbable 1-run win last night. Could the Olde Towne team come from behind two nights in a row? Could they?
Alas, it was not to be. Twice Lowe had to stare down a fellow All-Star, and twice he lost. With two outs in the 8th, Met second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo dunked a liner into right, and three pitches later, Mike Piazza deposited a Lowe slider off the Coke bottle above the Green Monster for his second homer of the day.
Game, set, match.
Those four pitches overshadowed the comedy of events that was the actual game. First, the game was started an hour late due to electrical problems caused by the Big Dig. Or so I think. Then lefties Pete Schourek (the ex-Met) and Glendon Rusch (the ex-Royal?) got down to business.
Schourek efforted through 5 innings, giving up homers to Piazza and Melvin Mora. Jimy was quick to pull him after 72 pitches; we may never know what impending damage he prevented. Pete is struggling, and may need a short stint in the pen. Hipolito Pichardo (El Hipo?) took the ball in the sixth and did his best Pedro Game 5 impersonation, pitching 2 2/3 innings of hitless ball.
The tag team of Nomar Garciaparra and Troy O'Leary turned out to be the elixir the Boston offense needed. O'Leary showed off his entire arsenal of RBI singles, plating Nomar three times. Nomar reached base all five times he batted, collecting two doubles and two singles to raise his batting average to an ungodly .400. Somewhere, Teddy Ballgame is winking and smiling.
Without Lowe's struggles in the 8th, the story of the game would have probably been the comedy that was the bottom of the 7th. With Offerman on second and one out, Brian Daubach and the Mets' battery of Todd Pratt and Dennis Cook engaged in a psychological battle that enraged Pratt, and caused the benches to clear. After the near-fracas, Daubach clearly won the battle of minds, singling in Offie off the next pitch, tying the game at 3. He was caught in a rundown between first and second, and that proved costly.
The next two batters reached base, as Nomar was walked and Cook plunked Everett with a pitch. Cook was tossed by ump Marty Foster, and benches came close to emptying again. Cook yelled at the Sox bench repeatedly, inciting violence. (For those of you that can't read lips, the fu-manchued Trot Nixon yelled back, "Waaaaaaaaaa!!! Come on, bring it on, BITCH!!") All of this drama precluded O'Leary potential game-winning hit off new pitcher Rich Rodriguez that gave the Sox a 4-3 lead.
But alas, Lowe did not have his sinking stuff tonight, and I'm beginning to believe Bryce Florie never did. He further sunk himself into the mop-up role by giving up an RBI single to Mora in the ninth that further set the Sox back, 6-4.
One of Jimy's more questionable decisions came back to bite him in the ninth. In the 7th inning, with 2 on and 2 out, and the Sox up a run, Jimy pinch-hit rookie Morgan Burkhart for veteran third-baseman Ed Sprague. Burkhart lined out on the first pitch, and Manny Alexander replaced Sprague in the field.
So that was Alexander, facing his countryman Benitez with 2 on and 2 out in the ninth, and every Sox fan on the edge of their chairs hoping for Manny to hit his second homerun of the millenium.
But Manny struck out, Benitez pumped his fist, and the Sox had rung up a loss almost as dehabilitating as Thursday night's win was invigorating. Well, not quite. But a loss is a loss nevertheless.