Mauled
Game 127: August 27, 2005
Tigers (62-65), 12
Red Sox (73-54), 8
W: Roman Colon (2-5)
H: Jamie Walker (10)
H: Craig Dingman (3)
BS, L: Jonathan Papelbon (1, 0-1)
This game had me yelling like Gary Oldman as Zorg in The Fifth Element: “Very disappointing!” It started out promisingly enough with New England Patriot three-time world champion Troy Brown visiting Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy. Brown talked about his appearance on the Jimmy Fund tele-radiothon. Clips from his upcoming Dunkin’ Donuts commercial were also shown, such as him dancing with the Patriots mascot, Pat. He got bingo.
Sean Douglass surrendered three straight singles to Tony Graffanino, Johnny Damon, and Edgar Renteria in the 3rd inning. Needless to say, David Ortiz would probably find the righty similarly hittable, and, as if on cue, jacked a 3-run homer that hit on the top of the Green Monster. Not to be outdone, Trot Nixon hit a fly ball to center that had Curtis Granderson backed up square against the center field wall because it landed right on the top of the wall.
That Dmitri Young grand slam in the 4th almost went into orbit; it was indeed very close to being Ortiz-like. The home half of the 4th featured a missed call in favor of the Red Sox: Graffanino was actually picked off of first base by Colon, but was called safe thanks to Sam Holbrook. This call spurred Alan Trammell’s ejection by third base umpire Randy Marsh.
The top of the 5th inning saw three outstanding defensive plays, one by each Red Sox outfielder. On a Placido Polanco line drive, Manny Ramirez initially drifted in the wrong direction but corrected his route and extended to rob Polanco of a hit. Damon ran full bore and about 15 yards to catch Chris Shelton’s fly ball on the warning track for the second out. Finally, Nixon caught Ivan Rodriguez’s liner on a run towards the ball as threatened to fall in front of him.
Those plays were some of the few consolations in the game that saw the Red Sox blow a 6-run lead. The Tigers had lost 11 in a row at Fenway and were on a 3-game skid while Boston had won 14 in a row at home. Such is the nature of the game and streaks.
