THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 11 ...
IT'S TIME TO "COWBOY UP"
The Royals give the Red Sox a victory

April 30, 2003 ... Helping the Red Sox compensate yet again for their beleaguered bullpen, the Royals enabled one of the weirdest walkoff victories in recent lore as their relief corps, including vaunted closer Mike MacDougal, tied a major league record in the bottom of the ninth by plunking three batters and their defense committed two crucial errors as the Sox eked out a 5-4 triumph before 31,334 at Fenway Park.

The Sox staged the last-ditch comeback after their bullpen culprit of the night, Ramiro Mendoza, put them in jeopardy amid a 2- 2 tie in the top of the ninth by coughing up two runs to the Royals. The Sox also overcame an unprecedented stretch of futility this season: They left the bases loaded each of the three previous innings after stranding runners at second base each of the first two innings.

Trailing, 4-2, Todd Walker started the rally by leading off the ninth with a single against MacDougal, who not only leads the American League in saves (10) but leads the league's relievers in hit batsmen (4). MacDougal was throwing in the mid-90s. Tell it to Garciaparra, who was dinged by MacDougal, moving Walker to second. The drilling cleared the way for Manny Ramirez to single home Walker and Kevin Millar to knock in Garciaparra with a sacrifice fly before the game took a stranger turn. First, MacDougal struck Shea Hillenbrand on the left elbow with a pitch, bringing up Johnny Damon, who had entered the game as a pinch runner in the seventh. In came D.J. Carrasco, who induced Damon to pop up in foul territory near the Sox on-deck circle. But Royals catcher Brent Mayne lost the ball as he stepped on a bat and misplayed it for an error, giving Damon another life. At that, Carrasco plunked Damon, loading the bases for Jason Varitek and prompting warnings to both teams by plate umpire Larry Poncino. The rash of hit batsmen ended there. But the last Royal error had yet to be committed. That unfolded when Varitek grounded to Mike Sweeney, who bobbled the ball, letting Ramirez dash home with the decisive run.

The victory helped the Sox match their best April in franchise history (18-8 in 1998). Since they lost their season opener March 31, they enter May at 18-9, not bad for a club with one of the worst bullpens in baseball, at least in the early going. For the once-sizzling Royals, the loss was their fourth in five games, though they enter May with their best start at 17-7. Alan Embree, who made one pitch to get the Sox out of the top of the ninth after Brandon Lyon followed Mendoza's meltdown by yielding a two-run single, picked up the win.

Lost amid the ninth-inning heroics was the fine start by Derek Lowe, who unexpectedly has emerged as one of the biggest question marks in the Sox rotation. Lowe, who has struggled to regain the consistency he commanded last year, reached another small peak as he rebounded from an abysmal outing last week against the Rangers, when he surrendered seven runs in just two-plus innings in a 16-5 Texas massacre. Lowe rationed the Royals two runs over seven innings by giving up only two hits, second-inning doubles by Desi Relaford and Michael Tucker,  and hitting a batter. He also walked three.