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CARLOS BELTRAN |
THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
The Sox can't hold on to finish the Royals
May 9, 2004 ... The Sox
appeared perfectly poised to complete a three-game sweep of the hapless Royals after Bill Mueller socked a two-run homer to stake Derek Lowe to an early lead. It turned mournful because it slipped away. With Lowe betrayed by some untimely wildness and reliever Mark Malaska unable to rescue him, the division-leading Sox
stumbled, 8-4, before 34,589 who weathered a 16-minute rain delay hoping in vain for a sunny finish. The loss snapped Boston's four-game winning streak while Kansas City won for only the third time this season in 17 tries on the road.
Deadlocked at 2-2 after Mike Sweeney countered Mueller's homer with a two-run double in the third inning, the game got away from Lowe with two outs and a runner on first base in the sixth. First he walked Desi Relaford, the eighth batter in KC's order. Then he walked
the ninth batter, David DeJesus, loading the bases. The next batter, Angel Berroa, whacked an infield single to third as the Royals seized a 3-2 lead and Sox manager Terry Francona summoned Malaska, the rookie lefthander. Francona wanted to force the switch-hitting Carlos Beltran to bat
righthanded since Beltran was hitting only .179 from the right side of the plate and .297 lefthanded. And the manager went with Malaska because he figured it was too early to call on his veteran lefty, Alan Embree.
Trouble was, Malaska promptly threw three straight balls to Beltran. Beltran then scorched a 3-2 pitch into the left-field corner for a double to clear the bases and stick the Sox in a 6-2 jam.
But even after the Royals rolled up their 6-2 lead, the Sox threatened to erase it in the sixth as they loaded the bases on a double by David Ortiz, a walk to Manny Ramirez, and a two-out infield single by Kevin Millar. Up came Mueller, who jolted the first pitch from
reliever Jaime Cerda just foul of the pole by the Green Monster. Mueller went on to wage a valiant, 13-pitch at-bat before Cerda prevailed, inducing a rally-snuffing ground out. But Mueller wanted no consolation points for his dogged plate appearance.
Overall, the at-bats hardly looked shabby for the Sox. But the results were not so glowing. Other than Mueller's two-run shot in the second off May, the Sox scored only on Ramirez's solo blast off Cerda in the eighth and Johnny Damon's broken-bat single in the ninth.
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