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Very bad day for Ricky Romero. A lousy strike zone from plate umpire Rob Drake didn't help, nor did some bad defense, but Ricky was nothing less than terrible. The game was pretty much over after the first inning. 4 hits, 2 walks and a terrible Edwin Encarnacion error added up to 6 Red Sox runs in the first. Ricky left after 3 innings plus 2 batters, 7 hits, 9 runs, 8 earned, 6 walks, just 1 k.
Jesse Chavez was better in relief than he has been in either of his starts. He did allow both the runners he inherited from Ricky to score and one more run off a David Ortiz solo homer. But 3 innings, giving up just 3 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts is pretty good. Luis Perez pitched 2 perfect innings to finish out the game.
On offense, we got a run in the first from the two guys at the top of the order: Brett Lawrie doubled and Colby Rasmus drove him home, to give us the lead for a moment or two. Beyond that, we had a solo homer from Jose Bautista and a 2 run shot from Edwin (following a Bautista double). Homers number 25 and 22 respectively. Kelly Johnson almost hit one out in the 9th, a nice catch from RFer Darrnell McDonald pulled it back into the park.
No Jays of the Day, though the top 4 guys in our line up had 5 hits, 4 of them extra base types. Suckage goes to Ricky (-.450 WPA), arguably the worst start of his career, though he give up 8 earned, on 7 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 innings against the Yankees back on July 3, 2010.
There was some bad defense. Edwin's error was hard to believe, right when Ricky could have used a play. Rajai had two fly balls hit at him in the 4th, after Ricky left the game. The first I thought he should have easily caught, but he pulled up on it, and let it drop for a single. The next, an out later, he must have figured he should have gone after the other, he dived at, but missed it, letting it get by him. Really it didn't matter, we had lost it already but still, make the plays.
Tomorrow we start a 4 game set against the Angels. Brett Cecil gets to show us his first 2 starts weren't flukes. The Angels haven't announced their starters for the series.
The loss drops us to 38-37, last place in the East.