I think I'm going to need a pencil and paper to work out what just happened

I'm starting a fresh post, because I wrote most of the below in the early innings, and it really feels like a whole different game all of a sudden.

I'll have to admit I had conceded this one even before YoYo took the mound to pour on the gas. With the score 8-4 Tigers, I headed out to run an errand, and was driving back just in time to hear Joe Castiglione explain that Detroit's Francisco Cruceta probably didn't want to face Mike Lowell, per se, but with the count run up on Manny, he might as well put him on base along with Jacoby Ellsbury and take his chances...

Turns out that's what Cruceta did. NESN cut to commercial on a shot of him looking balefully out to the bullpen, where help was not exactly on the way. The score was 8-5 Tigers after Youkilis went deep for the second time tonight. (Beard Power! Youkilis also had a fit at the home plate umpire before all was said and done, accentuating his ferociousness.)

When the game resumed, Mike Lowell took an exceptionally high "strike" from Cruceta, then waited through two more pitches for his meatball, which he crushed into the left-field seats. Tie ball game. 24 combined hits. The Tigers must have been wondering what vengeful god they angered over the last week, because this game was pure insanity, and it looked like another one was slipping away.

BUT! Those tables were turned again before long (while the insanity quotient remained very much the same). There was a pinch hit from Dustin Pedroia that made the score 9-8 Sox, but a totally Twilight Zone ninth inning consisting of an 'excuse me' infield single, a horrible error (You are the weakest link, Julio), a groundout to force across the tying run, and, for the final ridiculous flourish, a broken-bat blooper into left ended things on a disconcerting note, to say the least.

Did I say this felt like two different games? Make it three. Or four. Honestly, I lost count. All I know is, I started off being at peace with a loss, got sucked back in to a possible win, and then somehow wound up watching Jonathan Papelbon show off skills learned at the Josh Beckett School of Water Cooler Abuse in the dugout.

It's hard to complain about the first loss in five games. Especially when the team on the other side hasn't won in just as long, and you see their home fans jump up and down and scream in disbelief...and...I, uh...wait, did Papelbon just blow a save?

P.S. From the "I don't know quite how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal" department, Further Fenway Fiction got a nice writeup in the Globe today.

Comments

[Jane]

Tonight was pretty gross. Lugo's dead to me. Gagne, the next generation. I'm so over him. So, so over him.

Madness.

[maxwell horse]

I keep seeing people (Not Beth, but other people) say that the loss was all on Papelbon (as opposed to Lugo). Their reasoning for that conclusion is that Papelbon clearly didn't have his best stuff (missed a lot of his spots). Well, damnit, he's not ALWAYS going to have his best stuff. That doesn't mean it's a given that he will blow those saves, or that he deserves to blow those saves.

The fact is, even though he didn't have his best stuff, he still was good enough to get this save. As was noted by Eck in the postgame, every single "hit" by the Tigers in the 9th was some cheap, lucky, bloop piece of crap, so it's not like Papelbon was getting hammered. It really took a perfect storm of the little things to cause Papelbon to blow this save.

The only thing that's keeping me from really hating Lugo right now is the knowledge that everyone else is hating Lugo right now and calling for his head. In fact, part of me sort of feels sorry for him right now.

[David]

It's hard for me to remember despising some one in a Red Sox uniform as much as this guy. Truly. Maybe Grady Little. Ok, definitely Grady Little, but just by a hair.

[beth]

maxwell, you're speaking to the biggest papelbon apologist on the internet. of COURSE i don't put the blame on him. :)

in my admittedly biased opinion, as blown saves go, that was pretty cheap. even jonathan himself has blown saves in more spectacular and definite fashion than that. but as errors go, that one from lugo was pretty egregious.

dave, i realize you might be intending hyperbole, and i'm hatin' on julio as much as the next person today, but don't forget edgar renteria when he was in a sox uni. :)

[Evan Brunell]

Good timing for me to write that articl, eh?

[beth]

totally. it was a nice piece. :)

[matt]

"The fact is, even though he didn't have his best stuff"

Where does this come from? The best hit ball was a routine grounder. Checked swing excuse me swings, shattered bat bloopers. His stuff was great. Just wasn't his night.

[beth]

first of all, that they even made contact tells you he didn't have his best stuff. secondly, he ran up higher pitch counts and was way further outside the strike zone than he normally is. note that this isn't meant to say he out and out sucked - but for HIM, he was not 'on'.