The crisis the Boston Red Sox are going through isn’t coming to an end, losing for a 10th consecutive time, this one being a 8-5 defeat to the Tampa Bay Rays which brought out the worst in the biggest losers of Baseball at the moment, beginning a bench clearing brawl because they didn’t like to see their opponents actually trying to win by as much as possible.
The brawl began when Yunel Escobar stole third base while the Rays were comfortable ahead after a pitch was thrown at Jose Molina. The Red Sox, proud but stingy champions, probably forgot how they acted last season in the playoffs against the Rays, and decided that base stealing and running while having a five run lead is a big no-no, at least when it’s done against them.
Escobar traded shouts and some R-Rated words with the dug out, which resulted in everyone trying to hit everyone, and resulting in Escobar, Sean Rodriguez and Jonny Gomes, a former Rays player, all getting ejected.
Last year in the playoffs, they had a 8-2 lead in the eighth when Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and then stole second base. I think that was a little more egregious than their interpretation of what happened today. Before you start screaming about any of that, just understand what happened just last year, and also understand in this ballpark, five-run leads can evaporate very quickly.
We’ve been through the ‘running up the score’ BS quite a few times. Maybe there is some unwritten code, but it seems only losers worry about it. In a sport like baseball and especially against a team with the kind of bats the Red Sox have, no lead is safe, and we’ve seen bigger ones disappear in a matter of minutes. The fact that the Red Sox didn’t like it didn’t make it wrong for Escobar to steal base, and it’s a shame that because of a team that’s arrogant and playing the worse baseball in the AL right now, he has to miss games because of getting ejected.
This is the worst losing streak for the Red Sox since an 11-game slump from June 8-19, 1994. They’ve been outscored 52-24 in these 10 games, with David Ortiz presenting the low point of this all, hitting a .118 without a single RBI during that span. The Red Sox actually led in this one, but ended up giving eight runs between the 4th and 7th innings, resulting in a three-game sweep for the Rays in the series despite the Red Sox getting five runs in each of their last two games.
Jake Odorizzi didn’t get the win, but he allowed just one run in six innings, striking out five and walking only one. Evan Longoria and Sean Rodriguez each hit home runs, with Rodriguez breaking a 3-3 tie in the 7th innings with his three-run homer, and Escobar himself finished with a couple of RBIs off his 7th inning double that began all the mess.