Inadequate
| Game 41: May 12, 2008 | |||
| Red Sox | 3 | L: Clay Buchholz (2-3) | 24-17, 2 game losing streak |
 Twins |
7 | W: Livan Hernandez (6-1) | 20-17, 2 game winning streak |
| Highlights: Coco Crisp smacked a double into the baggie to commence the game and advanced to third on Dustin Pedroia’s bunt. Pedroia could have been safe if his legs were a smidgen longer. David Ortiz blooped a single to plate Crisp. The ball drifted over the shortstop off a gentle toss from Livan Hernandez looking more like a leisurely game of badminton then baseball. | |||
Manny Ramirez blasted a commemorative ball behind the baggie where, unlike its namesake, it will not be preserved in perpetuity within an airtight seal. Ball number 498 was quickly seized and turned over Ramirez.
Those three runs would be the only scores for Boston the entire evening. I turned stations between the Celtics and Red Sox looking for a New England team that wanted to trounce its opponents into submission. Neither team came through: the Carmine Hose lost their four-game series while the Big Three dropped the fourth game of their seven-game series by a score of 88-77.
Delonte West, a former Celt, mentioned that he knew all of the signs and calls the current team was using because they hadn’t changed from when he was with them. I don’t claim to be a basketball maven, so I don’t know how essential a team’s codes are in this context, but for communications not to be updated when in a playoff series against a team with two players that were recently on your squad seems terribly stupid. I’m looking at you, Doc Rivers.
Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis sat in the dugout mimicking their teammates’ quirks in the box. Jason Varitek’s kicks were lampooned as well as Sean Casey’s back foot stomping.
Casey’s return may be welcomed but Clay Buchholz was in need of a mop-up man and Julian Tavarez was long gone. Terry Francona kept the rookie in as long as he could before replacing him with a trio of relievers who didn’t allow a run. Javier Lopez came into the game in the fifth after Buchholz had relinquished three runs while securing a single out. With a runner on second Lopez induced an inning-ending twin killing. one wonders if the Red Sox could have kept it closer if they had a swing man.
If only that were literal (the “twin” part, not the killing).
