Bedevil
Game 101: July 28, 2006
Angels (53-49), 8
Red Sox (61-40), 3
W: Kelvim Escobar (7-9)
L: Jon Lester (5-1)
Yesterday was Mike Lowell Day at LeLacheur Park; at least there the home team won and the fans could enjoy Mike Lowell double cheeseburgers from the concession stands. The final score of the match-up against Vermont was 7-5. Keith Foulke started the game and pitched for single inning and one strikeout. Papelbon notched his sixth save--Josh Papelbon, that is. Lowell’s at bats were played live during the Class A game. Lowell went 1 for 4; his one hit, fittingly, was a double in the second. The Gold Glover had no errors and saw a lot of action with a left-hander on the mound, fielding a total of seven balls to him for outs.
During the Red Sox broadcast, Don Orsillo mentioned that there were many Red Sox players that shared their names with Massachusetts towns, and then only managed to to conjure up Tim Wakefield. Since the NESN staff is probably occupied with researching actual statistics, I took the liberty of sending them my research on the All-Time All-Town Team.
Jon Lester was burdened with his first loss in the first meeting between these two teams this season. The young southpaw fell back to earth a bit as the Angels are a genuine major league team, unlike the Royals. Lester lasted six and one-third innings; he didn’t walk anyone but had only three strikeouts and five earned runs. Lester had a key pickoff of Vladimir Guerrero in the fourth to erase the baserunner and end the inning.
The seventh inning proved to be the rookie starter’s undoing: he allowed two consecutive singles to Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon to begin the inning and two runs crossed the plate before Terry Francona pulled him.
Francona called on Manny Delcarmen to take the hill with one out and a runner on third. Delcarmen faced Howie Kendrick, one of the Angels’ top prospects, who singled to center to plate two runs. Guerrero was intentionally walked so that Delcarmen could face Juan Rivera. The strategy was futile as the Angels’ outfielder singled, allowing Kendrick to score.
Javier Lopez was unable to exploit Anderson’s weakness against lefties. Yet another run scored in the seventh with a liner to center, but mercifully it was the sixth and final run of the inning.
David Ortiz concluded the game by striking out swinging with the bases loaded. Human, all too human.
Industriousness and conscientiousness. Industriousness and conscientiousness are often antagonists, in that industriousness wants to take the fruits off the tree while still sour, but conscientiousness lets them hang too long, until they drop off the tree and come to nothing.
