Wild Shootout At Ol’ Fenway Ends Badly For Red Sox In 14-13 Loss
This season has been full of ups and downs with more downs seemingly painting the memory bank for Red Sox fans. You can add another debilitating loss to that painful stretch of memories in what was a wild, extra inning game at Fenway Park on Thursday night. The Angels completed the three-game sweep of the home town team by completing the comeback in what turned out to be a 14-13 victory.
There were so many different story lines in this game it would take all day to try and recap them all, so we’ll stick to the main points. If you examine the game line you’ll see some crooked numbers in odd spots. For example, there was a five spot in the Sox half of the second that gave them a 6-0 lead. A lead that one would think would be comfortable enough to slowly shut down the Angels and cruise to the victory.
But an eight was put up on the manual scoreboard at Fenway in the Angels half of the third to stun the Fenway faithful and deflate what was shaping up to be an exciting atmosphere.
After a deuce for the good guys in the sixth to make it 9-8 Sox, the Angels would get to closer Alfredo Aceves for a three spot in ninth, a fitting way to cough up the lead for the Red Sox. It was also the seventh blown save for Aceves on the season.
Not to be lost in all the number glory on this night was an error by Cody Ross that allowed the tying run to score in Mike Trout. But baseball has a funny way of presenting redemption as it was Ross who belted a solo bomb to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning to send the game to extras; even if it was short lived redemption.
The crooked numbers would continue in the tenth when LA restored their two-run lead, one that they would not relinquish and finally hang on for the marathon victory.
In the end there were a combined 38 hits that attributed to 27 runs, accompanied by 3 total errors. Every Angels player had at least one-hit and every Red Sox player except the catchers collected at least one hit. Four different Angels had three hits and two different Red Sox players had a four-hit night (Ciriaco and Pedroia) while Ellsbury had three hits. Pedey led all players with five RBI. There were five home runs, twenty-one strike outs and eight walks to go with four stolen bases (two each).
The two teams sent a combined fifteen pitchers to the mound (8 Sox and 7 Angels) and in the end a total of 411 pitches were thrown. The total time of the game was four hours and thirty-four minutes. Exhausted? I am and it wasn’t from staying up and watching the Sox blow this one. It was another disappointing loss for our beloved Red Sox, a feeling that is becoming all to familiar.