Empyreal Environs

Game 149: September 21, 2009
Red Sox	9	BS, L: Daniel Bard (3, 2-2)	89-60, 1 game losing streak
Royals	12	W: Yasuhiko Yabuta (2-1) H: Jamey Wright (12) S: Joakim Soria (27)	62-88, 2 game winning streak
Highlights: I’m on vacation in Nevada and the Red Sox relievers decided to take leave of their duties as well. From the Royals’ bullpen only Yasuhiko Yabuta allowed the Red Sox to score, and it was because of a wild pitch, not a hit. Yabuta’s family name is made up of two characters: 薮田. The first means thicket, brush, underbush, or grove and the second is the ubiquitous rice paddy ideogram. Yasuhiko [安彦] means peaceful boy or lad. Yasui, the adjective from which Yabuta’s given name is derived, is a difficult word for English speakers to learn because it has three different meanings depending on symbol and context: cheap, peaceful, or easy.

Tim Wakefield must shoulder his share of the blame for this loss as well. With a 8-2 lead the knuckleballer let the Royals back into the game with a three-run homer authored by Mike Jacobs.

Although the Royals have a similar win-loss record to the Orioles, the former played with ardor while the latter with apathy. Undaunted by the six runs the Red Sox put up in the third, the home team rallied with six runs of their own in the sixth. The players’ competitive fire was not extinguished by the constant rain; instead each drop fueled offensive outbursts and dampened pitchers’ fingers, witnessed by Jamey Wright’s wild pitch to Dustin Pedroia in the seventh.

Manny Delcarmen’s earned run average is expanding more rapidly than Elvis’s waistline circa 1974:

• March/April: 0.00
• May: 3.00
• June: 4.00
• July: 4.66
• August: 5.25
• September: 19.64

While on the mound in the sixth Delcarmen surrendered three doubles and a walk for three runs. The Royals were within one run when Terry Francona summoned Daniel Bard. Bard had all but supplanted Delcarmen’s seventh inning slot and was expected to hold the line.

Love isn’t always on time, but Alex Gordon’s double was. It dropped into left field to advance Miguel Olivo, who Bard had walked, and plate Alberto Callaspo, Bard’s inherited runner. Yuniesky Betancourt was caught between first and second trying to be too greedy on his line drive single to right, but the base hit scored the go-ahead and insurance runs.

The loss wasn’t cheap, peaceful, or easy, but the Yankees lost as well.