Roche On Red Sox Loss: 'That's Baseball'
BOSTON (CBS) - When former Red Sox pitcher Bruce Hurst was asked about a key play, error, or anything about the game that he just pitched in, he would always give the same response to us reporters: "That's baseball."
And, we're finding that out as we come down the stretch of this 2011 Red Sox season.
Take Thursday night's 9-2 loss to Tampa Bay. The Rays scored their first run off of Kyle Weiland courtesy of a "fluke" play. With two outs, BJ Upton breaks his bat on a ground ball to shortstop Marco Scutaro. No big deal, right? Except that Upton's bat is the first thing to reach Scutaro. The bat goes by... distracts Scutaro... and shortly thereafter goes the ball. Base hit, 1-0 Rays.
Very next batter, Evan Longoria... three-run home run. 4-0 Tamps and that was it. Ballgame over.
"I thought maybe tomorrow, I'm going to tell (Tim Bogar) to hit me bats and balls," Scutaro joked after the game.
Read: Dan Roche's Sports Blog
Now, those strange things happen in the game as Mr. Hurst used to tell us. And sometimes they happen at the most unfortunate of times.
"Us not scoring runs cost us the game," said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. "You can't put the blame on one person, it's a team effort."
But, what matters most is how you respond to those plays.
Do the Red Sox continue their slide and blow their three game Wild Card lead over the Rays? Or, does that Scutaro play symbolize "rock bottom" of the slide and the Sox snap out of it?
You just don't know. But the Red Sox are definitely feeling the heat.
"It's hard man. You play to win and it's not happening," said David Ortiz.
We thought last Saturday that the Sox were going to have that "turning point win" after they rallied in the 9th in Tampa only to lose in extra innings. The problem is you just don't know. And, that's the worst thing that can happen. Baseball can give you the high of a turnaround or the ongojg pain of a downward spiral.
Sox fans had better hope Josh Beckett steps up huge Friday night, because this is getting ugly fast.
13 to play... and a three game lead that was nine on September 1st. What happened?
"That's Baseball"
