August 9, Red Sox at Royals Game Blog

Hopefuly, the Sox can get it going tonight, but they have been much like the starting pitcher for them tonight. Just when they look like they're going to get it done, they disappoint. Josh Beckett goes tonight. He looked great for five innings and then fell apart in the sixth in his last start vs. Cleveland, but in his last outing vs. KC he was dominant. Hopefully, he can start to dominate again and pitch instead of throw tonight and set up his hard fastball with some offspeed stuff. The Sox could have gained a game on the Yankees last night, but let a 3-2 lead over the Royals slip away last night. If they don't win this series, they really have some problems, not that they don't already with the Yankees owning a two-game lead now and could be even stronger when they get their injured players back within the next month. Meanwhile, the Sox players keep going down with injuries, but unlike the Yankees have been affected by them in a negative way.

First Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Youk is leading it off tonight. He's been hitting fifth since Lowell was out with a foot injury and Coco has been leading off, but Coco's out tonight and Youk is back in the leadoff spot, where he does what he does and draws a walk on a 3-2 pitch.
Here's Mark Loretta, who was hit on the elbow with an offspeed pitch last night, but it must have hit him just right, because he was writhing in pain and there was speculation that he wouldn't play tonight after coming out last night. He flies to left on an 0-1 pitch as David DeJesus puts it away for the first out.
Here's Giant Papi, who cranked his 41st homer last night to become the quickest in Sox history to that number, but every home run he hits now, he's the quickest to that figure. He grounds to Mark Grudzielenak at second as Youk moves to second on the second out.
Here's Manny. After taking the first pitch for a ball, he sends the second pitch over the fence and onto the green like a golf shot for his 32nd home run and a 2-0 Sox lead. He also extends the A.L.'s longest hitting streak to 23 games. Here's Wily Mo, who, in my opinion, should have been hitting fifth all along, but this is the first time this season that he has. I like Ortiz, Manny and Wily Mo. He destroyed a change-up last night that landed deep in the left field bleachers just in front of the concession stand. They estimated it around 450 feet, but it looked deeper than that. 2-2 count now. Strike three as Wily Mo swings and misses to end the inning.

David DeJesus leads it off against Josh Beckett. Fouls off a pitch to fall behind 1-2. Fouls off a couple 2-2 pitches before striking out looking.
Grudzielanek steps in. He grounds the second pitch he sees to Loretta at second, who makes the play at first for out number two. Here's Mike Sweeney who was inserted back into the line-up last night for the first time after missing most of the season with an injury. He's the DH as he was last night and drives an 0-1 pitch to Manny, who makes the catch to end the inning.

Team R H E
Sox 2 1 0
Royals 0 0 0

Second Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Mike Lowell leads it off. He saw his first action for the Sox in last night's game after missing a few with a foot injury after fouling a pitch off there. 1-2 after fouling off a pitch. 3-2 now for the full count. Ball four, he walks to bring up Gabe Kapler, who is in center for Coco tonight. He's ahead 2-1 on the count. Grounds to Teahen, who boots it and everybody is safe.
Here's Javy Lopez, who the Sox acquired on Friday and was thrown right into the fire after Mirabelli became injured in a play at the plate in the first inning of Friday night's game at Tampa. He finally got his first Sox hit last night and added a double in the eighth. He fouls off the 1-2 pitch. He grounds to Mark Teahen at third, who steps on the bag to force Lowell and then fires across the diamond to first to get Lopez for a double play, but Kapler is safe at second. Here's Alex Gonzalez. He's consistently been living in the .280s now and was actually up over .290 last week. 2-1 count. Full count now. He pops up to Grudzielanek at second for the third out.

Mark Teahen leads off for the Royals. 2-1 count. Ball three to run the count full, before he flies out to Kapler for the first out. Here's the right fielder Shane Costa, who gets behind 0-2. He grounds the next pitch to Gonzalez at short, who throws to first for the second out.
Here's Ryan Shealy, who the Sox tried to acquire from the Rockies last offseason and then again this year before the trade deadline, but the Royals snared him to play first base for them. He's down 0-2. He looks at he 1-2 pitch for strike three to end the inning.

Team R H E
Sox 2 1 0
Royals 0 0 1

Third Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Youk will lead it off for the Sox. 2-1 the count. The count runs full before Youk works another walk. Here's Loretta. He fouls off the 0-2 pitch to stay alive and then flies to Gathright in center for the first out.
David Ortiz now up for the Sox. After taking a called first strike, Papi looks at three straight balls for a 3-1 count. He fouls off the 3-2 pitch, before flying out to DeJesus in left field for out number two and bring up Manny. He takes the the first two pitches for strikes. Now he's taken the last three pitches for balls to run the count full. Strike three swinging to end the Sox half of the third.

John Buck, the catcher, leads it off for the Royals. 1-2 count. He grounds to Loretta at second, who throws to first for the first out.
Angel Berroa, who pronounces his name with an 'h' sound instead of a soft 'g' in Angel. He watches the first two pitches for strikes. He swings at the third, but it gets away from Lopez, but Berroa dogs it to first as Lopez gets him at first base for out number two.
Joey Gathright now up. He's behind 1-2. Ground ball to Loretta, who throws to first for the final out.

Team R H E
Sox 2 1 0
Royals 0 0 1

Fourth Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Wily Mo Pena facing Redman here. He grounds to Teahen, who throws to first for the first out.
Here's Lowell. He walks to bring up Gabe Kapler. Strike one. Kapler lines the next pitch to center field, where Gathright cuts it off on the run, but he's pretty deep and his throw back into second isn't close as Kapler slides in headfirst with a double for runners on second and third with one out. Here's Javy Lopez. Rips a shot down the third base line by a diving Teahen and down the left field line, allowing Lowell and Kapler to score to give the Sox a 4-0 lead and a double for Lopez. Gonzalez steps in now. He strikes out for two down.
Here's Youk. He grounds weakly to second, where Grudzielanek makes the play and throws him out at first to end the inning.

Here's David DeJesus, who grounds to Loretta at second on two hops.
Mark Grudzielanek at the plate now. 2-2 count. He fouls off a pitch. Checks his swing, but it's a ball and a full count. Fastball hit right on the nose up the middle just past Gonzalez and into center field for a single to break up the perfect game with one out in the fourth.
Mike Sweeney now. Fastball just off the plate to make it 2-1. He was sitting on a fastball and lines it into left field where Manny fields and throws to third where Grudzielanek just gets his hand in on a headfirst slide to be safe, while Sweeney takes second on the throw.
Uh oh, all of a sudden, the Royals have broken through as the left-handed Teahen goes opposite field with a gapper to left center to score Grudzielanek and Sweeney to cut the Sox lead in half at 4-2 as Teahen ends up at second with one out.

*AFLAC Trivia Question* Who hit the longest home run in Kaufman Stadium history?

Shane Costa up now. He's down 1-2 after flailing at a 91-mph change-up. It'd be nice if that was 81. He swings and misses at a nasty change-up, but it's so nasty that it skips past Lopez and allows Costa to reach first and Teahen to move to third with one out.
This brings up Ryan Shealy, which could be trouble. He's get the first pitch for a strike. Next pitch gets away from Lopez, a passed ball off Lopez' glove as Teahen scores and Costa goes to second and the Royals are within one. Looks like he was expecting the fastball, because he didn't cradle that pitch at all. 2-1 as he misses outside and high with a 97-mph fastball. He grounds a 3-1 fastball on a couple hops to Lowell's left as he cuts it off, looks Costa back and throws to first for the second out.
John Buck steps in and misses a nasty curveball on the outer half of the plate for strike one. He really needs to keep batters off balance with his breaking stuff like that. Another curveball and a ground ball to Loretta and a throw to first to end the inning.

Team R H E
Sox 4 3 0
Royals 3 3 1

*AFLAC Answer* Bo Jackson, 475 feet, September 16, 1986.

Fifth Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Loretta leads it off vs. Redman and draws a walk. Here's Ortiz. 1-2 count on him. He fouls off the seventh pitch of the at-bat to keep it at 2-2 now. Weird swing and Ortiz sends a dying quail to center, but deep enough for Gathright to make the catch.
Here's Manny with a chance to give the Sox some more. 1-2 count now. He chops a grounder just past Redman with just enough giddyup to get past Grudzielanek and Berroa to squirt into center for a hit as Loretta stops at second.
Wily Mo. Here's hoping for another blast, as he takes the first pitch in the dirt for a ball. Smokes a single on one hop to left field, but hit it so hard that everyone can only move up one base to load em' up for Lowell with one out. It looks like Buddy Bell has seen enough as he pulls Redman and summons Todd Wellemeyer. The righty starts off with a low and inside fastball for ball one. Man, Lowell, slow roller to Berroa at short, he fields and flips to Grudzielanek, who catches and turns and throws to first for the twin killing and more proof the Mike Lowell could be the slowest baseball player in town.

Berroa leads it off. 1-2 count. He reaches out and pokes a fastball past Loretta and into center field for a lead-off single. Here's Gathright, who squares to bunt, but Beckett goes inside and Gathright leaves his feet to get out of the way. He squares again and it's ball two outside. Fouls off the next pitch on another bunt try. It wouldn't surprise me to see Beckett throw a curveball now. Fastball again and another fouled off bunt. 2-2 count now. This is an awful display. He bunts the 2-2 pitch to first base, where Beckett comes off the mound, fields and throws to Youk, who was holding the runner at first for the first out and Berroa moves to second.
Here's DeJesus. He lines an 0-1 pitch to Gonzalez at short, but so hard that Berroa wasn't far enough off second to get doubled off as he slides back into the bag. Two outs.
Grudzielanek now up. Nice curveball for a strike to even the count at 1-1. Another curveball, but not much bite, but enough to get a swing and miss from Grudzielanek to make it 1-2. 1-2 curveball goes 58 feet that Lopez can't block and it deflects off of him as Berroa moves to third. Ground ball to third that Youk has to get his glove down for, actually pretty reminiscent of the ball that got past Buckner...behind the bag! Youk fields and trots to first for the final out, though. Inning over.

Team R H E
Sox 4 5 0
Royals 3 3 1

Sixth Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Kapler leads it off against Wellemeyer. 3-0 count and he walks.
Javy Lopez now up. He's behind 0-2. Kapler's off with the pitch, but Lopez fouls an outside pitch out of play to the right. Third straight outside pitch to even the count at 2-2. Wellemeyer is now putting everyone to sleep with his obsession of throwing over or stepping off to keep Kapler close at first. Javy fouls another pitch off. He whiffs at an outside pitch for the first out. Gonzo steps in. He swings and misses at a 95 mph fastball that ends up near his head. Awful swing. He was just geared up for the fastball there. I'm not really sure what Kapler was thinking here, but he just took off for second Wellemeyer wasn't close to going to the plate with the pitch and he steps off and throws to second as Kap gets caught in a rundown and is run down for the second out. Maybe he just got tired of going back to first on the pick-off attempts and waved the white flag. Anyway, Gonzo just flied to Gathright in center for the third out.

Here's Mike Sweeney as Beckett is still out there. 1-2 count. Sweeney pops one high to left on a 2-2 offering and after stumbling around, Manny makes the catch for the first out.
Teahen is now up. 2-1 count. Full count now. After fouling off another pitch he slaps an outside fastball up the middle past the outstretched glove of Beckett for a single into center.
Shane Costa steps in. He pushes a bunt down the third base line and with Lowell playing deep, all he can do is watch it and hope that it goes foul, but it doesn't and he's got a bunt single. First and second with one out and Ryan Shealy up. Nasty curveball off the outer part of the plate that Lopez has to block and Shealy gives enough of a swing at to warrant a strike for a 1-2 count. Strike three! Outside corner fastball at 97 mph. Shealy didn't have a chance. Two outs.
That brings up John Buck. Another curveball in the dirt that Lopez boxes around and off of him, just far enough away from him so that Teahen scampers to third. Buck sends the 2-0 pitch to center, where Kapler hauls it in for the final out.

Team R H E
Sox 4 5 0
Royals 3 6 1

Seventh Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Youk leads it off against Wellemeyer. He sends a flair on a 1-2 pitch that hits three feet inside the right field line as Youk hustles around first for a sliding double at second.
Here's Loretta, who pokes a slow hopper to first base with some situational hitting to get Youk to third as Shealy takes care of Loretta for the first out.
Here's Ortiz, but he won't get the chance as they intentionally walk him to get to Manny. Here comes the pitching coach Bob McClure to tell Wellemeyer not to screw it up vs. Manny. Outside fastball for ball two and it's almost like he's pitching around him. Ball three outside. Ball four to load the sacks for Wily Mo. Wow. Wily Mo grounds hard to Berroa, who slides and makes the play before it heads for center field, flips to Gruzielanek at second, who throws to first to just get Pena for the inning ending double play.

Berroa to lead it off against Manny Delcarmen, who relieves Beckett after six innings. 2-1 count now. He sticks his bat out at a 2-2 curveball and it travels much deeper than it looked as Wily Mo puts it away in medium right field. Gathright steps in. He grounds it up the middle on a few hops with a defensive swing, Gonzo fields going to his left, but his throw pulls Youk off the bag, but they give the speedy Gathright a single with one out.
DeJesus now up. He's ahead 2-0. Good time for a hit and run if you're the Royals. There goes Gathright as DeJesus shows a fake bunt, high fastball and Gathright is safe at second. Fastball for strike one. 3-1. Strike two on the outside corner. Ball four low. Hopefully, they can turn two here as Dave Wallace, who just returned after hip replacement surgery, visits the mound.
Grudzielanek steps into the box. He fouls off a curveball to the right for a 1-2 count. Delcarmen throws a sharp curveball, but it's too far off the plate for a ball. Grudzielanek fouls a 96 mph fastball straight back, that Lopez can't hang onto for the third strike. Full count with a fastball up and away. Curveball on the outer half as both runners start moving and Grudzielanek grounds to Loretta at second, who has only the play at first as the runners move to second and third with two outs. Tito's seen enough of Delcarmen and brings in Mike Timlin. Everyone in the nation is crossing their fingers and hoping that Timlin doesn't serve up another gopher ball here as he has been accustomed to doing, lately. He faces Mike Sweeney, who is 1-10 against him, lifetime. Timlin asks Javy to come out. None of the Sox pitchers seem comfortable with Javy calling the game. The game is now three hours old in the bottom of the seventh at 11:10 Eastern time. Strike two as Sweeney swings through another fastball to fall behind 1-2. Timlin drops a slider in tight to Sweeney, who just fouls it off. 2-2 now. Sweeney grounds it off the end of his bat to Loretta, who throws to first to strand the Royals in scoring position for the fourth straight inning.

Team R H E
Sox 4 6 0
Royals 3 7 1

Eighth Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Lowell leads off for the Sox, facing Wellemeyer, who is still out there! He grounds slowly to Grudzielanek, who throws him out for the first out.
Here's Kapler. He's ahead 2-1. 3-1 now. Kapler fouls it off behind the Royals' dugout for a full count. Kapler chops it down to deep third base where Teahen fields it backing up and then makes a strong throw to third that skips into Shealy's glove on the pick, but he drops it after it seems like he has control and in his glove for a while. The ump rules that he didn't have it long enough, but on the replay it looks like he dropped it when he was transferring the ball to his hand. Bad call there, but a break for the Sox and Kapler. Here comes Buddy Bell to make a pitching change. Scott Dohmann is on for the Royals. They got him in that Rockies trade with Shealy. Here's Javy Lopez. He waves at an outside curveball, well off the plate for a 1-2 count. Javy hangs in there grounding the 2-2 pitch foul off of third. Sharp ground ball just past the glove of Berroa to his right as Lopez gets a single and Kapler moves to second with one out and Gonzo up. He's due. Fastball right down the middle but a bit down as Gonzo flies to deep center field for out number two, but deep enough for Kapler to move to third on Gathright's weak arm.
Youk now up. He fouls the first two pitches off and is down 0-2. Check swing, but he can't hold up on an outside fastball and it's strike three and onto the Royals' eighth.

Timlin is still in there as Teahen comes up to the plate. It looks like Craig Hansen has fallen otu of favor to come into tight games and I don't blame Tito for that. Hansen has been awful, lately. Ground ball to Loretta, who gloves going to his left and throws out Teahen at first.
Here's Shane Costa. He's down 0-2 now after a called strike at 95 mph. Great piece of hitting as the left-handed Costa takes the fastball the other way and drops it in front of Manny for a single. Ryan Shealy now up. Could use a double play here. Strike two in as many pitches as Shealy swings through. Shealy foul tips it into the glove of Lopez for strike three, but Costa steals second as Lopez was making sure of the catch.
John Buck up with two outs for the Royals, who have a runner in scoring position for the fifth straight inning. Just like last inning, Buck tops the pitch off the end of his bat and sends it to Loretta, who throws to first to end the inning.

Team R H E
Sox 4 7 0
Royals 3 8 2

Ninth Inning - Red Sox at Royals

Loretta leads it off for the Sox against Dohmann. He grounds to Grudzielanek for the first out.
Here's Big Papi looking to give the Sox some insurance. 2-1 count. 3-1 with another low and outside pitch. He fouls it off behind third base. Full count. He grounds the inside breaking ball down the first base line, where Shealy makes the play and gets to the bag.
Manny is the Sox last chance to pad the lead. Can you tell I'm nervous? Manny's behind 1-2. 3-2 now. Outside for ball four and here's Wily Mo. He's behind 0-2 after a fastball right down the middle. It's now 2-2 after the umpire assessed a ball to Dohmann for going to his mouth while on the mound. No matter, as Wily Mo, literally just waves at an outside breaking pitch for strike three. Onto the Royals' ninth.

Papelbon is on for the ninth and Coco Crisp is now in center field as Kapler moves to right and Wily Mo is out. Paps is coming off a blown save in Tampa on Sunday. He gave up a solo game-tying homer to Dionnar Navarro.
Esteban German is pinch-hitting for Berroa here and has run the count full to 3-2. He sends a fastball to the right center gap that Coco runs down, but the ball kind of rattles around off the wall and German ends up with a triple with no outs.
Gathright swings through the first pitch for strike one. I have to wonder if Mirabelli would be healthy enough to come into this game, it won't happen now, but Lopez is just so subpar defensively as Papelbon gets ahead 1-2 on a fastball. Just misses outside with a fastball for a 2-2 count. Gathright fouls off three pitches, but strikes out on a hard moving fastball down the middle as he slams his bat down on the plate.
Here's DeJesus. This is a huge at-bat here. Splitter in the dirt that Lopez keeps in front for a 2-1 count. Shallow fly ball to left, Manny gets set to throw, makes the catch, German goes from third, Manny throws home, but not in time as the Royals tie it at 4-4. Another blown save for Paps. Grudzielanek is up and was sitting on the fastball, but got the slider and swings way ahead of it. He lines the next pitch over Manny and one-hops the fence for a double. See, why I was nervous? Here's Mike Sweeney. He singles through the left side, between third and short, Manny charges, fields, but can't get the ball out of his glove as Grudzielanek scores without a throw. Awful, awful, awful The Yankees won 7-6 tonight and the Sox are three games back, four in the loss column. Ouch.

Team R H E
Sox 4 7 0
Royals 5 11 2

Boston Red Sox
Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
K Youkilis 1B	3	1	1	0	2	1	3	.295
M Loretta 2B	4	0	0	0	1	0	2	.303
D Ortiz DH	4	0	0	0	1	0	2	.288
M Ramirez LF	3	1	2	2	2	1	1	.322
W Pena RF	5	0	1	0	0	2	4	.304
C Crisp CF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.275
M Lowell 3B	2	1	0	0	2	0	3	.285
G Kapler CF-RF	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	.269
J Lopez C	4	0	2	2	0	1	2	.263
A Gonzalez SS	4	0	0	0	0	1	3	.281
Totals	32	4	7	4	9	6	20

Boston Red Sox
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
J Beckett	6.0	6	3	2	0	5	0	103-67	4.92
M Delcarmen	0.2	1	0	0	1	0	0	21-12	4.29
M Timlin	1.1	1	0	0	0	1	0	20-14	3.19
J Papelbon (L, 3-2; B, 5)	0.2	3	2	2	0	1	0	22-15	0.94
Totals	8.2	11	5	4	1	7	0	166-108