KEVIN MILLAR

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The Orioles comeback to tie
and then beat the Sox

August 12, 2007 ... Imagine dozens of red flares firing over Boston Harbor as the Red Sox landed at Logan Airport following their 6-3, 10-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles. It is a bleak acknowledgment that the race in the American League East has not been this close since the first of May, when the Sox held a 3 1/2-game advantage over the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees were in last place, five games behind.

Now, the Yankees are only four games in arrears, having swept the Cleveland Indians and knocked them out of first place in the AL Central, while the Sox were losing two of three here to the Orioles, who had not won a series against the Sox in more than two years. Both losses came in walkoff fashion, yesterday at the hands of the American Idiot (as he was called in Baltimore Magazine), Kevin Millar. The former Sox motivational speaker hit a three-run home run off Kyle Snyder after Miguel Tejada took Eric Gagne deep for a tying two-run homer in the eighth.

Gagne has been anything but the solution since he arrived in a much-heralded trading-deadline deal with the Rangers. With the memory of Friday's flameout (four runs in a third of an inning) still fresh in the memory of another Sox-besotted crowd of 48,551 in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Gagne entered with one out and a runner aboard in the eighth, Hideki Okajima having walked the leadoff man in the inning, Corey Patterson. Gagne missed with his first two fastballs to Tejada, which drastically lessened his options. He threw five more fastballs, the fastest registering 96 on the scoreboard radar gun. Tejada connected with No. 7, driving the ball into the left-center-field seats.

Gagne was not without help in losing this one. Five times on this three-city, nine-game trip, the Sox scored four runs or fewer. They had runners on first and second with no outs in the second but did not score, Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts taking a hit away from Jason Varitek and third baseman Melvin Mora making a Mike Lowell-esque diving catch on Julio Lugo. Manny Ramirez doubled home two runs in the third, then was erased at third when he took off on a ball that fell at catcher Paul Bako's feet and no further. Doubles by Varitek and Lugo produced a third run in the fourth with one out, but the rally died there.

The Sox' failure to pad their lead reached ridiculous extremes in the sixth, when singles by Lowell and Varitek put runners on first and third with none out. The next batter was Eric Hinske, Coco Crisp an unexpected scratch because of what manager Terry Francona called "tired legs," perhaps flu-induced. Hinske hit a one-hopper back to pitcher Steve Trachsel. He checked Lowell at third, then whirled and threw to second. The relay beat Hinske to first for a double play. When Lugo popped to third, the inning was over.

Two more chances would pass unrequited. In the seventh, Kevin Youkilis singled and Ortiz walked with one out, Trachsel finally yielding to reliever Jim Hoey. One batter later, the Orioles were headed back to the dugout, Ramirez having rolled into a 6-4-3 double play.

Hinske, the first batter in the ninth, was grazed by a pitch. But Lugo bunted foul twice, then flied to the track in left. One out later, Hinske managed to steal second, but reliever Danys Baez induced Youkilis to ground out.

Schilling neither struck out a batter nor walked one in his six innings, but he allowed just five hits, all singles, and an unearned run, the result of Lugo's two-base fielding error, and was in line to gain the victory that would have given the Sox a winning record on this trip after they'd split the first eight games. Friday night, with a 5-1 lead, Francona had Gagne start the eighth, then brought in Okajima. With a two-run advantage yesterday, Francona opted to have Okajima start the eighth to face the two left-handed batters leading off the inning, Patterson and Nick Markakis. But Okajima walked Patterson, so after Markakis grounded into a force play, Tejada represented the tying run when Gagne entered.

When Gagne was running off a record 84 consecutive saves for the Dodgers, the Dodger Stadium scoreboard used to flash "Game Over," because it was a given Gagne would save the day. Now, on a day Gagne had the odd experience of being booed in the ballpark where he'd just given up the lead to the home team, nothing is a given.

With Francona holding back Jonathan Papelbon in hopes the Sox would get the lead, Manny Delcarmen pitched the ninth and struck out three, including Roberts after Tike Redman's two-out pinch single. With Mike Timlin having already pitched the seventh, the summons then went to Snyder, who gave up singles to Patterson and Markakis to open the 10th. Tejada popped out, and Snyder had two strikes on Millar before he launched his 11th home run, a ball that didn't even elicit a glance from Ramirez as he trudged toward the dugout. So now the Sox return home, with the Yankees closing in, and Gagne a giant Gallic question mark.

Clay Buchholz turns 23 tomorrow. On Friday, he is likely to make his first major league start for the Red Sox. Manager Terry Francona said he doesn't intend to use both Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling in Friday's day-night doubleheader against the Los Angeles Angels, opening the possibility of the Sox promoting Buchholz.

J.D. Drew made his second start in center field. Coco Crisp, who had a day off in Anaheim, missed yesterday's game after being checked by a doctor the night before. Dustin Pedroia's sixth-inning muff of Miguel Tejada's ground ball ended a 41-game errorless streak for the rookie.

Since coming off the disabled list, Jacoby Ellsbury has 17 hits in 37 at-bats for Pawtucket, including two hits last night. That's a .459 pace.