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Game Story: Gagne blows late lead, Sox fall to Jays

TORONTO – To succeed in the post-season, the Red Sox firmly believe they need an effective Eric Gagne in the late innings.

But while they showed patience in the veteran reliever last night, their short-term prospects took a serious blow.

Gagne turned a one-run lead into a two-run deficit in the eighth inning, resulting in a crushing 4-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, enabling the surging New York Yankees to climb within 2 ½ games of the Sox in the American League East.

Gagne, obtained in a July 31 deadline deal, retired the first two hitters in the eighth before issuing a walk to Frank Thomas. After a single to left by Aaron Hill, Gagne got ahead of Matt Stairs 0-and-2 before walking him to load the bases.

He then walked Gregg Zaun to force in the tying run, then surrendered a two-run double which eluded J.D. Drew in right.

A two-out solo homer from Julio Lugo in the top of the ninth wasn’t enough for the Sox to complete the comeback.

``I don’t know how to put it into words,’’ said a downcast Gagne, his voice barely above a whisper. ``I felt good physically. But I walked Thomas and after that, I couldn’t throw a strike. You can’t get people out if you don’t throw strikes.

``It’s a little bit of everything. I don’t know. I’ve got to go out and stop thinking. It’s frustrating. I don’t know what to tell you.’’

Manager Terry Francona got closer Jonathan Papelbon up after the single by Hill, but left Gagne on the mound as the lead was frittered away.

``It seemed like (after walking Thomas), it looked like he wanted to throw the ball through the backstop,’’ said Francona. `` He got a little revved up and it didn’t end very well.’’

Francona said he resisted going to Papelbon because ``that’s (Gagne’s) inning to get out of. There are a lot of long-term reasons to keep him out there and have success. When it doesn’t work, it hurts…We just have to get it right. We want him to give us strong innings, so we’ve got to just get it right.’’

``We need him these last two weeks to get ourselves where we want to be,’’ echoed catcher Jason Varitek.

Last night marked the third time in the last five games that the Sox have let a game get away from them in the eighth inning.

They led the Yankees 7-2 Friday night before Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon imploded and the Sox lost 8-7. Sunday night, Curt Schilling yielded a three-run homer to snap a 1-1 tie in the eighth.

``Those happen (to all teams) at some point,’’ said Varitek. ``You don’t want to see it happen now. Now, we have to gut it up and get it done.’’

The loss spoiled a terrific start by Jon Lester, who pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed a single run on three hits.

Lester needed 28 pitches to get through the first inning, when he issued two walks and allowed two hits. But after the first, he retired 16 of the next 18 hitters he faced and the Jays didn’t get a runner into scoring position.

``He got himself into a bind,’’ said Francona, ``and then was able to get out of it. As he commands, he can be a really good pitcher.’’

The Sox couldn’t do much against A.J. Burnett, but until Gagne’s struggles, they did enough.

In the fourth, Varitek, who snapped an 0-for-18 slump with a second-inning single, stroked a double into the left field corner, scoring Mike Lowell who had reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a walk to J.D. Drew.

Back-to-back two-out hits in the fifth – a single by Dustin Pedroia and a double to center by David Ortiz gave the Sox their first lead of the night.

But after the double by Ortiz, the Sox didn’t collect another hit until Lugo’s line-drive homer to left with two out in the ninth as Burnett fanned two Sox hitters in the sixth and seventh each and finished with 11 strikeouts.

Scott Downs came in for the final out and caught Jacoby Ellsbury looking at a called third strike.

--SEAN McADAM

Posted by Corey Bourassa  at 11:06 PM to McAdam | Permalink

FINAL: Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 3

TORONTO -- The Red Sox had hopes that Eric Gagne would recover from the problems that plagued him after his acquisition from Texas and become the reliable eighth-inning bridge to Jonathan Papelbon that they'd envisioned when they brought him aboard.

Those hopes may have officially vanished Tuesday night at the Rogers Centre.

Entrusted with a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning, Gagne easily recorded the first two outs and seemed prepared to hand the one-run -- or more, depending on what the Red Sox did in the ninth -- lead to Papelbon.

And then, for the fourth time since the Sox traded for him, Gagne imploded.

He walked Frank Thomas. He allowed a single to Aaron Hill. He walked Matt Stairs, loading the bases. He walked Gregg Zaun, allowing the tying run to score. And then he gave up a two-run double to pinch-hitter Russ Adams, allowing the winning runs to score as the Blue Jays rallied for a 4-3 win over the Red Sox.

Boston's loss, coupled with the Yankees' victory, cut the Sox' A.L. East lead to 2 1/2 games.

Sox starter Jon Lester had troubles in the first inning, as he walked the leadoff batter, Vernon Wells; allowed a one-out RBI double to Alex Rios; then gave up a single to Thomas and a walk to Stairs to load the bases with two outs. But Lester struck out Zaun for the final out, keeping the Blue Jay lead at 1-0, and was dominant the rest of the way, allowing only one hit and two walks over his final 5 2/3 innings.

The Sox tied the game against A.J. Burnett (9-7) in the fourth. With one out, Mike Lowell singled off the glove of third baseman Hector Luna and J.D. Drew walked. After Eric Hinske struck out for the second out, Varitek lined a double into the left-field corner, scoring Lowell and making it 1-1.

In the fifth, they pushed across the go-ahead run after Burnett had retired the first two batters of the inning. Dustin Pedroia singled to center and Ortiz, swinging at the first pitch, lined a double up the gap in left-center field, scoring Pedroia from first base.

With a runner on first and two outs in the seventh, manager Terry Francona lifted Lester in favor of Manny Delcarmen with Wells at the plate. Delcarmen retired Wells on a liner to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury for the final out of the inning.

Gagne's performance denied Lester the chance to increase his record to 5-0. Papelbon was warming up in the Boston bullpen in the eighth and, when the troubles started, speculation began that Francona would turn to Papelbon for a four-out save. But Francona left Gagne in, almost to see if the Sox would be able to count on him in the postseason.

He may have gotten his answer with the last five Toronto batters of the eighth (walk/single/walk/walk/double; the third out was recorded when Zaun was cut down at the plate trying to score on Adams' double). It was a costly lesson, however, as the Yankees creeped ever closer in the division race. The Sox' 2 1/2-game lead is their smallest since April 26.

Julio Lugo's two-out homer off Burnett in the ninth made the score 4-3, and prompted manager John Gibbons to lift him in favor of left-hander Scott Downs. Downs struck out Ellsbury for the game's final out

Burnett, who had a devastating curveball working all night, struck out 11 in his 8 2/3 innings.

Posted by Art Martone  at 10:03 PM | Permalink

Crisp joins the walking wounded

The injury list continues to grow for the Sox. Already missing Manny Ramirez (oblique) and Kevin Youkilis (hand), the Sox tonight are without CF Coco Crisp, who is suffering from lower back spasms.
Jacoby Ellsbury will move over to center tonight, with Brandon Moss playing left field.
``It's been bothering him for a while,'' said manager Terry Francona of Crisp's back. ``It got real stiff (Monday night).''
The Sox have also adjusted their rotation for the weekend. Josh Beckett will pitch the opener Friday night in Tampa, followed by Daisuke Matsuzaka Saturday and Tim Wakefield Sunday.
Ordinarily, Curt Schilling would go Saturday, but the Sox are holding Schilling out and starting him Tuesday against Minnesota. That gives him eight days' rest and a bit of pre-playoff breather.

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 4:37 PM | Permalink

Sox-Jays lineups

BOSTON

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
David Ortiz DH
Mike Lowell 3B
J.D. Drew RF
Eric Hinske 1B
Jason Varitek C
Brandon Moss LF
Julio Lugo SS

Jon Lester SP

TORONTO

Vernon Well CF
Reed Johnson LF
Alex Rios RF
Frank Thomas DH
Aaron Hill 2B
Matt Stairs 1B
Gregg Zaun C
Hector Luna 3B
John McDonald SS

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 4:31 PM | Permalink

Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: The lead is shrinking, shrinking

Click here to listen to today's edition of projo SoxTalk with Sean McAdam. Today's topics: Dustin McGowan's shut-down effort last night; Frank Thomas' three home runs; facing A.J. Burnett tonight; pressure on Jon Lester; keeping the rust from Clay Buchholz; extra rest for Daisuke Matsuzaka; Kevin Youkilis' wrist injury; and the Indians and the Angels now just one game behind in the loss column.

Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments.

Tonight's pitching matchup: "Burnett's stuff, people in the game will say, is as good as anybody's in the game. He has the ability to shut you down when he's on, and he's been on one of those rolls. ... For Lester, the issues really aren't very different for him as he develops. It's keeping his pitch count down, being aggressive, being able to throw strike one."

Buchholz, poised to start tomorrow after a long layoff: "They've had him throw a number of side sessions -- either during the afternoon or, as was the case last night, while the game was going on, he threw about 25 or 30 pitches in the bullpen. Of course there's no replicating game conditions, and the tempo and the challenges that come with facing major-league hitters, but they've tried to work out a routine for him where he's at least throwing on a regular basis, every couple of days, and there's some structure to it. And they hope that he's going to be able to kind of flip the switch here, having not pitched in 10 days and having not started a game in a few weeks."

Youkilis: "He's still very sore, three days removed from being struck on the hand by a pitch from Chien-Ming Wang on Saturday. And there's still a lot of swelling, so that makes it difficult to really evaluate what the issue is here. They did take an x-ray almost immediately, which revealed no broken bone, but there's a lot of small bones in the hand, and it may take an MRI to reveal one of those. But because there's swelling in the area, they can't do that yet. ... I'd be surprised if we saw him in this series. I think he's probably going to need until Friday, anyway, before he can get back and swing the bat the way he would like."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 10:39 AM | Permalink

Baseball Today: Tuesday, September 18

BIG HURT: History is on their side (projo.com), but the Red Sox can't depend on history to carry them through the next two weeks. They were tired -- having arrived in Toronto at 4 a.m. after their Sunday night game with the Yankees -- and banged up and they looked it in last night's 6-1 loss to Toronto, which dropped their A.L. East lead to 3 1/2 games, the smallest its been since May 1. Frank Thomas (AP Photo, above) had the second three-home-run game of his career; the first was also against the Red Sox, 11 years ago, and it was also against Tim Wakefield. The Sox' hitters, meanwhile, were stifled by Dustin McGowan, whose complete-game five-hitter bore a striking resemblance to the masterpiece spun against them by Seattle's Felix Hernandez at Fenway Park on April 11. (Boston Herald) At least our friend the Tao of Steib is happy.

FUTURE PLANS: Sean McAdam reports the Red Sox will turn to Clay Buchholz to start Wednesday night's series finale, his first start since the Sept. 1 no-hitter against the Orioles. It's all part of a master strategy to set up the pitching rotation for the playoffs, with the additional benefit of getting Daisuke Matsuzaka a little extra rest. Down in the story McAdam also has disconcerting news on Kevin Youkilis, who doesn't feel any better after being hit on the hand by Chien-Ming Wang on Saturday -- and, even more worrisome, is being churlish about it; that's usually a bad sign with an injured player -- and who can't even have an MRI because the swelling hasn't yet gone down. If you're looking for Manny Ramirez to come riding to the rescue, don't; he won't play again until this weekend in Tampa at the earliest.

ANOTHER GOAL . . . is to get Eric Gagne ready for the postseason. (Boston Herald)

START THINKING ABOUT IT: FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal says the Red Sox will have some interesting postseason decisions to make if they finish with the best record in the A.L. It's assumed they'd choose the eight-day ALDS if they get the choice, in order to force the Yankees to play the seven-day series; that would limit the number of times Joba Chamberlain could pitch and, theoretically, expose the Yankees' lack of pitching depth. But if the Sox play Cleveland in an eight-day series, it could mean facing C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona on full rest two times each, whereas they'd force the Indians to use one of them on three days' rest -- or use their fourth starter -- in the seven-game series.

NOT TO WORRY: Rosenthal's FoxSports.com counterpart, Dayn Perry, analyzes the landscape and concludes the Red Sox ''are clearly the class of baseball when it comes to having the kind of team that thrives in the postseason.''

CONGRATULATIONS: Our friend Don Orsillo will be broadcasting some postseason baseball on TBS, though it most likely won't be the Red Sox (projo.com). That means he'll miss the first round of Soxtober on NESN. I actually thought that was a pretty clever word choice by the network's creative folks, but it looks like the phrase was first used in Chicago in 2005. (susanasherself.blogspot.com)

JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL . . . you find out some guy is doing live blogging of Sox Appeal. I have to admit, though, it made me laugh.

TOP TEN OR BOTTOM TEN? The blog MLB Trade Rumors lists the top 10 trades of the last calendar year and the Sox-Rangers deadline line (Eric Gagne-for Kason Gabbard, David Murphy and Engle Beltre) comes in at No. 6 . . . in Texas' favor.

ROCKS OF AGES The New York Observer's Howard Megdal breaks down Sunday's showdown between old warhorses Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, and thinks both the Red Sox and Yankees ''had to be asking questions about what their once-great pitchers will have left for the postseason.''

BEST OF THE WORST: ESPN.com's Jonah Keri has both a Red Sox and a Yankee division in his list of 100 players you love to hate.

NARROWING IT DOWN: Chad Finn reserves his hate -- okay, his "strong dislike'' -- for the Yankees, and gives 26 reasons why. (touchingallthebases.blogspot.com)

GETTING CLOSER: I'm sure his hate didn't diminish one little bit after the Yankees beat the Orioles last night. (New York Daily News)

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO . . . The Yanks have to decide whether or not Phil Hughes will make their postseason roster. (New York Daily News) But even if he doesn't make it, the New York Post's Kevin Kernan says Hughes and the other Yankee rookies have been the key to the season.

WAVE THE RED FLAG: You can't say a discouraging word about Derek Jeter in Yankee Universe, so the blog The Fantasy Baseball Generals had best be prepared for some incoming after putting forth the notion that Jeter is having the worst season of his career.

AND WAVE IT HARDER: Especially after Jeter set some Yankee history last night. (New York Daily News)

TWO SHOTS: The blog Vegas Watch lists Jeter and Robinson Cano among 10 players with a chance to hit .400 some season in their careers. The odds, however, are pretty long.

LOOKING BACK: Horace Clarke has become the player who most symbolizes the Yankees' decade in the wilderness from the mid-1960s to the mid-'70s. But he wasn't that bad a player -- good enough to play regularly for the Yanks for 10 years -- and his career is remembered in SABR's Baseball Biography Project.

A.L. RACES: The Indians may have driven a stake through the heart of the Tigers' playoff chances with a 6-5, 11-inning win at Jacobs Field (Akron Beacon-Journal). The Tigers, who had a 5-1 lead in the eighth, were devastated (Detroit News) . . . The Angels closed to within 1 1/2 games of the Red Sox in the race for the best record in the A.L. by beating Tampa Bay (Los Angeles Daily News).

N.L. RACES: The Cubs beat the Reds (Chicago Sun-Times) . . . The Phillies beat the Cardinals (Philadelphia Inquirer) . . . The Brewers beat the Astros (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) . . . The Nationals beat the Mets (New York Daily News) . . . The Giants beat the Diamondbacks (Arizona Republic) . . . The Padres beat the Pirates (San Diego Union-Tribune).

To see how all those games affected the races, check out the divisional standings and wild-card standings. (Projo Stats)

HISTORY IN THE MAKING? The Times-Herald's Michael P. Geffner says the Mets may join the 1951 Dodgers and 2004 Yankees in pulling off one of the greatest chokes in New York baseball history.

TIME TO TALK: The Orioles' Jay Gibbons met with MLB officials over reports of his receiving a shipment of HGH and steroids. (Baltimore Sun)

QUICKLY: Orioles reliever Rob Bell goes public about his bouts with anxiety (680news.com) . . . Jeremy Bonderman might pitch again yet this year (Detroit News) . . . Carlos Zambrano thinks he'll get a warm reception tonight at Wrigley Field (Chicago Tribune) . . . The Cardinals' Mark Mulder may be done for the year (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . The Astros are closing on on a new GM (Houston Chronicle) . . . The Washington Times says it's time for the Nationals and Frank Robinson to kiss and make up.

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:06 AM | Permalink