Fenway Park is a boon for Boston's hitters, always has been, while its wacky dimensions can leave opponents flustered. It annually leads the league in those I'll-never-see-that-again moments, usually when a visiting player finds a way to turn the routine into the ridiculous.
Away from Yawkey Way, however, the playing field is level, or in the Red Sox' case, slightly slanted toward their opponents.
Boston is 138-65 (.680) at home over the last three years, getting the kind of breaks it got in a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. Over that same stretch, the club is 95-98 (.492) on the road, finding the type of misfortune that struck in Tuesday's 2-1 loss in Colorado.
The discrepancy in destiny was like night and day, or rather, like home and away.
Consider all that what went for or against the Sox in both affairs.
On Sunday, after Clay Buchholz wiggled out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first inning, his team got all it needed on a crazy sequence of handouts in the bottom half.
With one out, Dustin Pedroia yanked a chopper that would've been handled 99 times out of 100, but Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake flubbed it, allowing Pedroia to reach. It was ruled a single, but the expression on Blake's face said otherwise.
Moments later Pedroia bolted for second with the Dodgers in a defensive shift and Blake backing up second on the throw. The instant that catcher Russell Martin's throw got loose for an error, and knowing that third base was not covered, Pedroia raced to the bag all alone.
He had traveled 270 feet on hustle, attentiveness and good luck, more of which was about to come for the happy hosts.
Kevin Youkilis followed with a check-swing tapper toward Blake that left the Dodgers with no option but to hope it would roll foul. Long after Pedroia had crossed home plate, the ball bounced off the bag for one of the weakest hits of Youkilis's career and the third gift from above for the Red Sox.
Fast forward some 48 hours and move the set to Coors Field in Colorado. There, despite a potentially better starting pitching performance by Jon Lester, the breaks went the way of the Rockies, this time in the tail end of the game.
Trailing 1-0 in the eighth but knowing that they will have every opportunity to score against a Colorado team whose closer situation is in a state of flux, the Sox simply needed three outs to get that chance.
With two on and one out, they seemed to have it in their hands when a tailor-made double-play ball was hit to Marco Scutaro. The ghosts of Fenway Park no longer on their side, the Sox saw the ball bounce clear over the head of Scutaro, who was in perfect position to field and shovel to Pedroia.
The Rockies scored what turned out to be the game-winning run. Their players joked that injured Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had left something on the field to mess with the Sox, a line of jocularity that can only come at home.
The other side exhibited no such comedy, only exasperation.
"I don't have an answer," Scutaro said. "Never expected that. What can you do?"
When you're on the road sometimes, not much.
Of course, Boston did get to the Rockies closer, on this night being fill-in Matt Belisle, and had a chance for more when a Mike Lowell grounder with a man on was ticketed to left field. But shortstop Clint Barmes made a diving backhanded stab, rolled over, got to his feet and still had time to nail the cement-footed Lowell.
Had any other player on the team been running, perhaps, Boston would've had runners on first and second and the top of the order up. Such is the way it goes on the road sometimes.
Alas, it was perfectly arranged for a fruitful finish for the Rockies, who get to follow up the series-opening win by throwing 13-1 Ubaldo Jimenez in the second game of the series Wednesday night.
"It doesn't get any easier," Boston manager Terry Francona said.
With the Sox just beginning a stretch of 32 out of 48 games on the road, ease — and the breaks — will be hard to come by. They have been for years now.
