Projo Sox Blog

One of the most painful images in baseball's recent memory is Rick Ankiel, on the mound during the 2000 playoffs, losing his command and uncorking five wild pitches. That moment invoked sympathy for Ankiel. And in its own way, it made sense. it was a single pitcher, losing his control.

What's the explanation, however, when an entire pitching staff loses its handle?

Daisuke Matsuzaka, Manny Delcarmen, and Justin Masterson combined to tie a dubious major league record tonight against Minnesota, throwing six wild pitches to equal the most ever thrown in a big-league game. The wildness had Ottawa-bred catcher George Kottaras blocking balls all night, and helped send Boston to its second straight loss against the Minnesota Twins, 4-2.

"It's just a tough night all the way around.... A lot going on around the dirt area. George's Canadian background came into play there. He looked like a goalie at times," said manager Terry Francona.

Matsuzaka started off the wild night with five scattershot innings. With his control clearly lacking, the Twins got ahead in counts, and then sat on his fastballs.

When they came, Twins hitters drove them hard. In the third, Twins hitters singled and doubled their way to three runs. Matsuzaka had six strikeouts, but gave up nine hits and walked three in his five innings.

Matsuzaka put two men on again in the fourth and two on in the fifth, but got out of both jams. He was up to 100 pitches by the fifth inning, and got the hook, and the loss.

"In those situations, where I needed to get ahead and get quick outs, I wasn't able to do that, and I wasn't able to challenge the batters as quickly as I wanted to, and I think that led to a high pitch count," Matsuzaka said.

Once Matsuzaka was gone, his replacements had difficulty finding the zone, as well. Manny Delcarmen loaded the bases and threw one wild pitch, and Justin Masterson could not bail him out, hitting Michael Cuddyer to bring in a run and make it 4-2. Masterson also threw the night's sixth wild pitch, tying the all-time record, last 'accomplished' in 1991 by the then-California Angels. Boston pitchers also walked five.

Afterwards, Francona hinted that he regretted bringing Masterson into such a tough situation.

"I think I put Masterson in a tough spot. You second-guess a lot of things on a night like tonight," he said.

Masterson himself had no idea he had just tied a major league record until asked about it after the game.

"No -- but I'm glad I could be in the books for one," he smiled. "I think it was more just a fluke. Some bad breaks, crazy hops that didn't go our way."

Behind the plate, Kottaras had a night that he'd rather soon forget, even though his teammates praised his work. Starting in place of Jason Varitek and catching Matsuzaka for the first time, Kottaras did not have any passed balls, but several might have been blocked by a pitcher-catcher battery more familiar with one another.

"I just wasn't keeping them in front. They capitalized in some situations. What can I say?" Kottaras said.

Kottaras also had an error on an overthrow for a stolen base, and threw another ball in the dirt in front of second, contributing to shortstop Nick Green's mishandling it. And in a case of good yet painful, he was absolutely leveled by Carlos Gomez on a play at the plate in the seventh, but he held on to the ball to make the out.

"As soon as I got the throw, he had nowhere else to go but through me. That's just part of the game."

Just for good measure, he also struck out to end the game.

Jacoby Ellsbury, again, sparked the Red Sox offense. His single in the third extended his hitting streak to 22 games, and led off an inning that would see him score the game's first run on a Kevin Youkilis sacrifice fly. He has two hits and a steal so far.

Jason Bay cranked a home run to left to narrow the gap to one. In the 'strange info' department, it ended a streak of 11 straight home runs for Bay with runners on base. If he had hit one more with men on base, he would have tied the mark for consecutive multi-run homers, shared by Ken Griffey Jr. and Hank Aaron.

"I was heartbroken," the droll Bay deadpanned. "I wish I was that good that I could only do it with guys on base. Oh well, such is life, I guess."

Boston's other hitters hit several balls to the warning track against Minnesota righty Kevin Slowey, but they didn't have quite enough juice on them to leave the yard. Kottaras hit one warning track shot, and David Ortiz hit two balls that looked like they had a chance, but died feet shy of the wall.

 Tags  Daisuke Matsuzaka Dan Barbarisi Dustin Pedroia George Kottaras Jacoby Ellsbury

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