Decrying Ryan
It’s easy to be sighing about Ryan Kalish. Him boneheadedly getting picked off first base immediately preceded Victor Martinez’s triple off the left field wall. Had Kalish been on base he would have scored the tying run.
The seeds of this loss were planted much earlier in the game, however. Adrian Beltre ill-advisedly fired across the diamond after fielding John McDonald’s grounder. The throwing error allowed Adam Lind to score and McDonald to reach second.
Then Josh Beckett and any other Red Sox infielder failed to cover home plate on Jose Molina’s bunt down the first base line. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia abandoned home plate to field the ball and the defense didn’t rotate behind him. While the infielders were pinned to their bases and Beckett stood idly by McDonald scored from second.
The Red Sox were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Key outs in scoring opportunities included Marco Scutaro’s strikeout with the bases loaded in the second, Saltalamacchia’s rally-killing pop out with two runners on in the sixth, and David Ortiz’s whiff with two runners on in the seventh.
Martinez buffed up his positional resume by turning two nifty plays in the fourth. With the bases loaded he deftly fielded Fred Lewis’s grounder and tossed home for the second out. He then stretched to catch Beltre’s throw on Yunel Escobar’s ground out for the final out of the inning.
| Game 148: September 18, 2010 | ||
 Blue Jays75-73 | 4 | W: Ricky Romero (13-9) H: Jason Frasor (11), David Purcey (3), Shawn Camp (11) S: Kevin Gregg (33) |
| 2B: Adam Lind – 2 (29) HR: Jose Bautista (49) | ||
| Red Sox 82-66 | 3 | L: Josh Beckett (5-5) |
| 2B: Adrian Beltre – 2 (45) 3B: Victor Martinez (1) | ||
