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THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
The Orioles bushwhack the Sox, 13-4
May 31, 2004 ... The
sad truth is, there's no sugarcoating the pasting the Red Sox absorbed as Derek Lowe's anguished quest to regain his winning ways grew ever more sour. With Lowe lost again at crunch time and their bats too often working like toothpicks, the Red Sox ended an otherwise upbeat 10-game homestand getting bushwhacked
by the Orioles, 13-4, before 35,465 in a Memorial Day makeup game at Fenway Park.
Even so, the Sox wound up going 16-14 in May, which hardly seemed possible when they opened the month with five straight losses, their worst May start in 28 years. They sealed their recovery by going 7-3 on the homestand.
The Sox went from opening the month with a three-game edge over the Yankees in the American League East to sharing the lead with the Steinbrenner Nine after yesterday's loss. But they were playing without Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon, coping with the failure of
their original fifth starter, Byung Hyun Kim, and trying to make their way with Lowe searching desperately for the stuff that made him the majors' second-winningest pitcher (behind Toronto's Roy Halladay) over the previous two seasons.
In his last four starts, Lowe has allowed a combined 12 runs in the sixth inning while recording a total of seven outs, giving him an ERA of 46.35 in the inning over that span. Lowe also got little help from the offense. Lopez, whose ability to change speeds and locate his pitches has bedeviled the Sox (he went 4-0 against them in 2002), gave them an opening in the first inning when Johnny Damon singled leading off and Mark Bellhorn singled
Damon to second. But the heart of the order was unable to deliver as Lopez fanned David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez before he got Jason Varitek to ground out.
Only after they sank into the 9-0 quagmire did the Sox muster much offense. With Lopez tiring in the sixth, Ortiz walked and advanced when reliever Darwin Cubillan walked Ramirez, surrendered a single to Varitek, and induced a run-scoring ground out by Millar.
Damon doubled home a run in the seventh before Cubillan wild-pitched home another run. And Millar took Eddy Rodriguez deep in the eighth to complete Boston's scoring.
Manny Ramirez led the American League in May with nine homers. He hit .317 in the month with 21 RBIs and 21 runs. Several teammates also posted impressive numbers in May, including David Ortiz, who tied for second in the league with 27 RBIs behind Cleveland's Victor
Martinez (30). Mark Bellhorn led the club in May with 27 runs and also knocked in 24, while Kevin Youkilis scored 15 runs in just 13 games. As a team, the Sox batted .280 in May, up from .260 in April, while the pitching staff logged a 4.55 ERA in May, up from 2.95 in April |
