Filed under: Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox win streak over the Orioles was ended yesterday after a 4-3 loss. Wakefield didn’t get much run support although give credit to Baltimore pitcher Eric Bedard who held Sox batters to two hits and only one run in seven strong innings. The Sox led 1-0 after a first inning RBI from David Ortiz, but fell behind 2-1 after former Red Sock Kevin Millar took a Wakefield knuckler deep for a 2-run homer.
Big Papi then made it close by drilling a two run shot off Chris Ray in the top of the ninth inning. Wily Mo Pena then singled to short after Manny and Mike Lowell both struck out looking. Willie Harris entered the game to run for Pena, and Trot Nixon came to the plate with a man on first and two out.
The story of the night came two pitches later, when, after Trot took the first pitch for a ball, Harris decided to steal second base despite getting the hold sign from third base coach Bill Haselman and skipper Terry Francona. Harris has a 77% success rate with stealing(50 for 65 career) so obviously he knows what he is doing and is good at his job. But last I heard, the reason the coaching staff is there is for situations exactly like this. You can’t just go around ignoring the coaches and just doing whatever you want. I mean, this isn’t the NBA here. You are suppose to take the signs. Francona might have known something about Nixon facing Chris Ray. Had Harris not stolen, Trot would be sitting on a 2-0 hitters count as well. Although I do understand that if he had stolen second and Trot had gotten a hit we would be singing a different tune.
After that game Nixon said that “'’I thought he was in there. That’s Willie’s game. Obviously, I did want to bat, but I’d never blame a guy for playing hard to get in scoring position.” I guess we cant come down too hard on Willie. Although I hate when people play ‘hard to get’ when I’m about to score. Next time Willie will focus more on the signs. Honest mistake I guess. We move on. Hopefully he’ll will have that much more motivation to swipe a base when we need it next chance he gets.
Sox are off today and begin inter-league play this weekend playing at Philadelphia before hosting the Bronx Bombers next week.
theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com
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