The mood was bleak on October 4, 2003.
Remember? The Red Sox were down 2-0 to the Oakland A's in the American League Division Series,
this close to going home for the season. But the game that night was a wild one, including some truly asshat-esque base running by Eric Byrnes and Miguel Tejada, and, of course, Trot Nixon's brutally efficient two-run walk-off in the 11th inning.
Since that night, a year and a half ago, we've lost to the Oakland A's only once, winning 14 out of 15. Sucks to be them.
Yesterday afternoon,
Eric Byrnes must have figured he'd found a bit of redemption for failing to touch home plate in that pivotal playoff game -- he was more concerned with shoving Jason Varitek like a petulant toddler -- and then getting tagged out near the backstop in the ultimate indignity. When he hammered a two-run homer off his former teammate, the frighteningly ineffective
Keith Foulke, to give the A's a one run lead in the top of the ninth, it looked like they had the win sewn up.
Not so fast. As
Steve Buckley writes in today's
Herald (subs. req.), the A's should take a cue from the military and institute a "Don't ask Dotel" policy. For the second straight game, closer
Octavio Dotel served up a one-out fastball with a man on base in the bottom of the ninth. And for the second straight game, that ball left the park and cost his team the win. This time, it was
Jason Varitek, wrapping one around Pesky's Pole and swiftly undoing what his old nemesis Byrnes had accomplished in the previous half-inning. Justice could not be more poetic.
So, we won. But there are causes for concern. Keith Foulke's
struggles continue. A closer should not be surrendering four runs in the ninth inning. But that's what he did yesterday. Would it be such a bad idea to let him sort some stuff out in some sort of middle-innings role, while enlisting, say,
Mike Timlin, with his razor sharp 1.08 ERA, to nail down wins?
On the other hand, Matt Clement was terrific -- again -- going seven strong, surrendering just five hits and a single earned run. Better, the control issues that have dogged him in past outings were not there. He only walked one batter. To hear him tell it, a large part of his success seems to be an increasing comfort level with #33 behind the plate. (More Tek encomiums
here and
here.)
Clement
should be 5-0 right now, but Foulke, the guy who least deserves it, got the win instead. As we've learned over the last couple days, baseball is a funny game.
In other pitching news, David Wells
did well yesterday, and looks to be slated for a May 24 start, if not before then. Curt Schilling's ankle, alas, seems to be coming along much more slowly.
Next game is tomorrow night at 10 p.m. as we venture to the Pacific Northwest.
Jeremi Gonzalez versus Joel Pineiro. It's gonna be a long 34 hours.