The bad-hop single over Marco Scutaro gave Colorado a 2-0 lead with an insurance run that became necessary when Boston scored in the top of the ninth, ending the club's 13-inning scoreless streak.
Mike Cameron singles in Adrian Beltre to make it 2-1, but pinch hitters Bill Hall and Mike Lowell are retired, Lowell on a grounder into the hole between third and short that almost any other player in the majors would've beat out at first.
It wasn't quite enough and the Sox' six-game winning streak comes to an end, despite another solid effort for Jon Lester, who allowed a run in six innings.
Things do not get any easier with Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound Wednesday for Colorado and red-hot Jason Hammel starting for the Rox on Thursday.
We will be following both for you right here. First pitch is 8:40 p.m.
End 8th, Rockies 2-0: Manny Delcarmen gets his man and the Sox remain within two entering the ninth. It appears as if they will face Matt Belisle, who has one career save, which he picked up in 2005.
11:16 p.m.: We said moments ago that the Rockies could use an insurance run, but we didn't think it would come in the form it did. After Colorado gets one hard single and one bloop single with one out, a perfect double play ball hit at Marco Scutaro bounces right over his head, allowing Todd Helton to come in with the game's second run.
Hideki Okajima got the second out before Manny Delcarmen entered with runners on the corners.
Mid 8th, Rockies 1-0: I mentioned that the Sox can now get at this Rockies bullpen, but I didn't mean to suggest it is a sorry lot of relievers. In fact, they're pretty good, entering with the fifth-lowest ERA in the National League. Rafael Betancourt shuts down Boston in the eighth, the 13th straight inning the Sox have failed to score dating back to Sunday.
However, Colorado does have a shaky situation at closer. Huston Street was activated from the DL before the series but manager Jim Tracy indicated he will not come into any save situations right away. Default closer Manny Corpas has given up eight runs in his last two appearances.
The Sox are down to their last three outs, but the Rockies may want to get some insurance runs in order to give Corpas something to work with.
End 7th, Rockies, 1-0: Losing Jon Lester the way the Red Sox did in the top of the seventh and getting no runs out of it hurt. It would've stung even more if Ramon Ramirez came on and got knocked around. Fortunately, Ramirez works a clean seventh and the Sox can now get at this Rockies bullpen.
By the way, Ramirez has very quietly been a pretty good pitcher of late after such a rocky start to his 2010 campaign. He has allowed three runs on just four hits in his last 10 1/3 innings.
Mid 7th, Rockies 1-0: For the second time in five innings the Sox leave the bases loaded, and now they've lost Jon Lester and David Ortiz, who grounds to second to finish the top of the seventh.
It is doubtful many of you are interested in any humor after seeing the Sox waste another scoring chance, but one of the online box scores I like to follow is Yahoo's, which is easy to navigate to each player's page, at least on my computer.
Well, while Ortiz was up the Yahoo box score showed the Sox tying the game in the seventh when Adrian Beltre stole home. It also said something about unicorns running around in center field.
10:40 p.m.: Jon Lester's night is over as David Ortiz will pinch hit for him with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh. The move by Terry Francona prompts one from Colorado skipper Jim Tracy, who has called on left-hander Joe Beimel to face Ortiz.
Ortiz has a hit in his only at bat against Beimel.
Lester had thrown just 90 pitches and was coming off his best inning, but there is no need to consider sending him up to the plate in this situation.
End 6th, Rockies 1-0: Jon Lester's first 1-2-3 inning is a gem. He strikes out Brad Hawpe looking on a 3-2 cutter and then blows away Miguel Olivo with a 95 mph fastball at eye-level.
Lester has six strikeouts against one walk.
Mid 6th, Rockies 1-0: The Sox left the bases loaded in the third and have ended the fourth and the sixth with double plays.
Victor Martinez hits into a DP to finish the sixth, his 10th of the year.
Jon Lester heads back out there having thrown 75 pitches.
End 5th, Rockies 1-0: Jon Lester blinks first. After allowing the first two to reach in the bottom of the fifth, he retires the next two but surrenders a two-out RBI single to Todd Helton.
Lester has been very good in this one, again. But he had yet to get through an inning without allowing at least one hit and the Rockies finally got a knock with someone in scoring position.
Jhoulys Chacin will be facing the top of the Red Sox' order for the third time. We will see if they can solve him this time around.
Mid 5th, 0-0: I stretched and then sat back down. By the time my backside hit the chair the top of the fifth inning was over. Jhoulys Chacin needed eight pitches to retire the bottom third of the Red Sox order.
End 4th, 0-0: Jon Lester has yet to have a clean inning, allowing one single in each frame, but he is matching zeroes with Jhoulys Chacin.
As I've mentioned before, the Sox pitching will be even more important over the next two months with so many road games. The offense simply isn't the same away from Fenway and there will be days like these. Mom says so.
Mid 4th, 0-0: Adrian Beltre extends his hitting streak to 11 games (16-for-42, .381) and improves to .395 (87-for-220) at Coors Field with a one-out single to right. Two pitches later, Daniel Nava hits into a double play and the inning is over.
End 3rd, 0-0: New England breathes a sigh of relief as a line drive glances off Jon Lester, but does not hurt him. The shot off the bat of Jonathan Herrera appeared to get Lester in the right forearm and then rolled into foul territory as Herrera reached.
No issues for the big lefty. He gets Todd Helton to ground into a double play and is through three with 44 pitches.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: It is doubtful that the Red Sox wanted Mike Cameron to try to steal his first base since last September against a catcher who had thrown out 53 percent (18-of-34) of runners this year, so we can only assume that there was a missed sign. Cameron, who singled to lead off the inning, is an easy out at second, preventing the Sox from what could've been a big inning.
Josh Reddick, who may have missed a hit-and-run indication, did end up singling and moving to second on Jon Lester's sacrifice.
Marco Scutaro and Dustin Pedroia then drew walks to load the bases and Victor Martinez had a 3-0 count, but Jhoulys Chacin threw two straight over the plate and then got Martinez to bounce to second on the payoff pitch. Would've been nice to see Martinez take a rip, but Chacin was all over the place at the time.
Either way, if the Sox lose a tight one they can look to the third inning as a big reason why.
End 2nd, 0-0: Somewhat of a funky second inning, which sees the Red Sox get the old 3-4-1 putout on leadoff man Brad Hawpe (the ball deflected off Kevin Youkilis directly to Dustin Pedroia) and Rockies catcher Miguel Olivo get a hit on a ball hit no more than 10 feet.
Lester ends the frame by striking out Clint Barmes on the eighth pitch of the at bat.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Six up, six down for Jhoulys Chacin, the one pitcher nobody was talking about entering this road trip. Adrian Beltre is one of Chacin's three strikeout victims, going down on three pitches in the second.
End 1st, 0-0: The last pitch Jon Lester had thrown on the mound at Coors Field was ball four to then-Rockie Garrett Atkins, a small blip in an otherwise solid outing during the clinching World Series win three years ago.
The next pitch Lester throws is a strike, the first of three against leadoff hitter Jonathan Herrera.
Todd Helton flew to center before Carlos Gonzalez ripped a two-out single off Lester. Ryan Spilborghs was nipped on a close play at first after a grounder to short to end it.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Marco Scutaro entered a .308 hitter when leading off the game and had a .337 mark when starting any inning. He figured to bump those numbers up a bit when he lined the fourth pitch of the night back up through the box.
But Jhoulys Chacin stuck his glove up just in time to snag the liner, starting a 1-2-3 first inning for the young righty.
Chacin was 33-16 with a 2.65 ERA in the minors and looks as if he throws pretty hard. This could be a challenge for the Sox the first time through the lineup for, at least.
8:37 p.m.: Terry Francona said prior to Tuesday's game that Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and Adrian Beltre figure to each play two games in both Colorado and San Francisco. We will, in all likelihood, see Youkilis play third, unless Mike Lowell gets a rare start over there.
8:05 p.m.: There has already been a lot of talk about the Red Sox' opponent on the mound for Wednesday, and with good reason. Ubaldo Jimenez is 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA and has won each of his last seven starts.
However, the whole trip is filled with some intriguing arms. Tuesday's starter, Jhoulys Chacin, is young and wild but does strike out a batter per inning and has had moments of dominance.
And Thursday, the Sox will face Jason Hammel, whose numbers overall do not jump off the page but who has been dominant himself of late. Hammel will enter that start opposite Daisuke Matsuzaka with 25 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. The former Tampa Bay Ray is 4-0 with a 0.79 ERA in his last five starts.
Boston also figures to face both Jonathan Sanchez (2.90 ERA) and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum once they get to San Francisco.
It is a stretch that provides no easy pickings and will challenge this high-powered offense, as I touched on in Sunday night's story.
7:05 p.m: Terry Francona has provided a handful of injury updates in his pregame meeting with reporters, as well as confirmation on the Josh Reddick move.
With J.D. Drew now out until Thursday, in all likelihood, Reddick was recalled and righty reliever Robert Manuel was sent down.
Manuel did not appear in a game since being recalled Saturday.
When Daisuke Matsuzaka returns for his start Thursday, Reddick may be shuttled back to Pawtucket, provided Drew is good to go by then.
In other injury news, Josh Beckett will throw 55 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday and is scheduled to toss a simulated game this weekend. After that we may get a more concrete timeline for Beckett. It may involve a couple of minor league rehab starts.
Also, Jacoby Ellsbury is reportedly feeling better as he continues to rehab at the Athletes' Performance center in Arizona. He will be re-evaluated later in the week, according to Francona.
There was also some news on the Jed Lowrie front. He may get a chance to play soon for the Lowell Spinners as he continues to come back from mononucleosis. Lowrie has been playing in extended spring training games, although Francona said that Tuesday was a rough day for the infielder.
Lowrie may have been forgotten by some, but there is a spot on this roster going forward, provided the outfield situation ever becomes remotely settled. Bill Hall is the only backup middle infielder but is not the greatest option at shortstop or second base and currently is forced to devote nearly all of his playing time to the outfield.
We will be back in a bit with more. In the meantime, feel free to check out my appearance this afternoon on Danny Picard's I'm Just Sayin' radio show. Danny's shows are always a great listen start to finish, but if you just want my Sox talk it is about 17 minutes in.
Oh, almost forgot. Here is the Rockies lineup against Jon Lester:
Jonathan Herrera, 2B
Todd Helton, 1B
Carlos Gonzalez, CF
Ryan Spilborghs, LF
Brad Hawpe, RF
Miguel Olivo, C
Chris Nelson, 3B
Clint Barmes, SS
Jhoulys Chacin, P
5:45 p.m.: Another day, another new lineup configuration for the Red Sox. We expected that David Ortiz would get plenty of time off during this six-game stretch in National League parks, but it appears as if J.D. Drew is still not ready as Josh Reddick has been called back up and is penciled into the lineup.
Here is the latest edition of Terry Francona's nine:
Marco Scutaro, SS
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Victor Martinez, C
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Daniel Nava, LF
Mike Cameron, CF
Josh Reddick, RF
Jon Lester, P
We have not received word of who would be sent down if/when the Reddick call-up is made official.
8 a.m.: The last time the Red Sox were at Coors Field, they were likely drinking Coors, and whatever else was floating around a raucous clubhouse immersed in a World Series-winning celebration.
With thoughts of the 2007 triumph on their minds, the Sox continue interleague play Tuesday when they open a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies.
Boston has gone 10-2 thus far in interleague action and is 92-46 against NL opponents since 2003, the best mark in baseball.
Jon Lester, who started the clinching game of the 2007 World Series and threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, gets the start. He is 6-1 all-time against NL teams.
Tuesday's game marks the first in a stretch that will see the Sox play 32 of 48 games on the road.
First pitch is scheduled for 8:40 p.m.
