Villeins
| Game 113: August 4, 2008 | |||
| Red Sox | 3 | L: Clay Buchholz (2-7) | 64-49, 1 game losing streak |
 Royals |
4 | W: Gil Meche (10-9) H: Ramon Ramirez (15) H: Ron Mahay (19) S: Joakim Soria (32) |
53-60, 3 game winning streak |
| Highlights: Crown Vision, the mammoth high definition screen in Kauffman, looks about as big as Fenway’s center field. Finding this link to a video of its construction was the highlight of my night. | |||
Lou Merloni is a no holds barred commentator. He intimated that teams are playing poorly on the road because of the stricter control of amphetamines. Kathryn Tappen cut to commercial after his comment, although it seemed to be a planned transition rather than a forced one.
In the first inning Mark Teahen played Dustin Pedroia too shallow, allowing a double to soar over his head and advance J.D. Drew to third. Drew was plated on David Ortiz’s ground out to first for the first run of the evening.
Teahen didn’t learn his lesson and allowed Kevin Youkilis to double to right for another score. But Gil Meche settled down for the next five innings to shut out his opponents.
So far this season Clay Buchholz has been far removed from the rookie who hurled a no-hitter in his second start. Bartolo Colon made a rehab start for Pawtucket tonight and lasted just two outs while giving up four hits and three earned runs, so an upgrade to the rotation is not on the horizon.
With a little more luck and a tad more incompetence from the Royals’ quarter Boston could have pulled out a win last night. Coco Crisp smacked a single to center to commence the ninth after strikeouts in his three other at bats. Drew was called out when third base umpire Lance Barksdale said he went around, but Pedroia dropped a single into shallow left because Esteban German, unlike Teahen, didn’t underestimate the Red Sox second baseman.
Ortiz advanced the runners on a ground out to Ross Gload, the defensive replacement at first who didn’t try for the game-ending double play. Terry Francona had Jacoby Ellsbury pinch run for Pedroia and Trey Hillman countered by intentionally walking Youkilis to get to the new guy, Jason Bay.
Bay reached on a ground ball that had Alex Gordon and Tony Peña, Jr. colliding; ironically, the latter was inserted by Hillman as a defensive replacement. Crisp scored from third and a come-from-behind win seemed to be in the offing.
But by the ninth Teahen learned his lesson and played deep enough to glove Sean Casey’s fly ball for the final out.
