But if there is ever such thing as a "good loss," perhaps this was it.
Starter Tim Wakefield pitched very well, reaching the 3,000-inning plateau for his career and working into the eighth on a day that the club needed him to spare an overworked bullpen. Batterymate Victor Martinez gave everyone in attendance something to remember with a phenomenal at-bat in the sixth. There was positive news on the ever-expanding injury front with encouraging tests for injured righty Daisuke Matsuzaka. And after the club tucked away its sixth series win in the last eight overall, it was able to celebrate Family Day on the field at Fenway Park and then get ready for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, which some would be attending in person at TD Garden.
All in all, not a bad day at the park, despite the result.
In addition to all of that comes Monday, an extremely rare day off in the middle of a homestand, which gives the players and coaches a chance to relax with family without having to race home on a middle-of-the-night flight from some other major league town. Guys like Kevin Youkilis, who missed the loss after getting hit by a pitch the night before, could use such a respite.
Finally, Sunday presented one of those losses where, in the end, there wasn’t much you could do about it anyway. The opposing pitcher was just that good.
Cole Hamels allowed just a run on five hits while striking out eight in seven innings. He was solid throughout, surrendering only a solo homer to Adrian Beltre in the second, but received particular kudos for his work in the sixth.
After giving up a leadoff double to Dustin Pedroia on a fly to right that Jayson Werth should’ve handled, Hamels and Martinez became locked into a dramatic duel. Throwing primarily fastballs with a few change-ups sprinkled in, Hamels tossed an astounding 15 pitches to Martinez before finally surrendering a walk.
Martinez fouled off 10 pitches in the at-bat, including six in a row before ball four was thrown.
It was the type of losing battle that would crush other pitchers, especially given the fact that Hamels was approaching 100 pitches and the tying run would be brought to the plate in the form of the one man — Beltre — who had already hit him.
However, in just three pitches, Hamels struck out Beltre. David Ortiz then grounded out and Mike Lowell flied to right. Inning over in eight pitches, and a 4-1 lead preserved.
"For him to do what he did after that I think shows even more what type of a pitcher he is," Sox manager Terry Francona said. "That was an unbelievable at-bat and in a lot of ways it can maybe take something out of a pitcher, but we still couldn’t get it done.
"He’s a good pitcher that pitched a great game."
The same could be said for Wakefield, if you remove a handful of pitches in the middle of the game.
The 43-year-old struck out Chase Utley to open the fourth, the 11th straight out Wakefield had recorded. A Ryan Howard double ended that run by Wakefield, and set him up for the only truly miserable portion of the afternoon.
Werth singled in Howard to tie the game and Raul Ibanez knocked the next knuckleball from Wakefield into the Phillies’ bullpen to give his team a lead it would not lose. Two more consecutive hits gave Philadelphia one more run, the last it would need with Hamels on the mound.
Still, Wakefield was able to get the next 12 outs in succession and worked into the eighth inning, a day after five relievers had to combine to throw all nine innings when Matsuzaka went down with a forearm strain at the last second. Even in a losing effort, Wakefield’s mission was accomplished, another silver lining on an otherwise cloudy day.
"[The plan] going into the day was to go as deep as I could," Wakefield said. "Actually I felt great into the eighth. … Unfortunately, just one bad inning."
It was a bad inning, but hardly a bad loss. With a picnic in the park, a hoops game to get to, a much-needed day off and a last-place National League team on its way into town, it will be easy to forget.
