Wasted Opportunities Doom Red Sox in Finale of Seven-Game Homestand

Postgame, Athletics 9-8: As a massive storm blows through Fenway the Sox are swept out of town with a difficult loss to end the homestand.

Much of the postgame talk centered on third base coach Tim Bogar's decision to wave in a gimpy Victor Martinez and then a banged up Darnell McDonald in consecutive innings with no outs, both resulting in outs at the plate.

To his credit, Bogar took the blame.

"Two bad decisions," he said. "I got two runners thrown out at the plate. Obvoiusly it's all about results and obviously both times I was wrong. So I take full responsibility for it."

We will have more on the missed opportunities and Bogar's day in a separate piece.

Weather permitting, the Sox are soon on their way to Baltimore to start a seven-game road trip. Clay Buchholz starts Friday night's game. First pitch is 7:10 p.m.

Final, Athletics 9-8: It's not often that you get 18 hits and three walks and still lose the game, but that's what just happened to the Red Sox, who have only themselves to blame.

Boston was 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position, had two men thrown out at home and didn't help itself on the other side of things.

Oakland had 14 hits of its own — including four home runs — and scored one run on a throwing error in the seventh.

The Sox go 4-3 on the homestand. They head to Baltimore for three and Cleveland for four before coming back home for nine straight against National League opponents, including one Manny Ramirez.

Mid 9th, Athletics 9-7: If the Sox are able to rally here in the ninth, their ability to cut down a runner heading home in the top of the inning will loom large. With the infield in they get Eric Patterson, who had doubled and stolen third, caught in a rundown on a grounder to Adrian Beltre.

J.D. Drew, Bill Hall and Jeremy Hermida are due up for Boston. My apologies for saying that Hermida was removed earlier on. It's the humidity.

End 8th, Athletics 9-7: The Sox are 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position after Dustin Pedroia is left at second base in the eighth. Kevin Youkilis and Adrian Beltre flew out and then David Ortiz was blown away by a 97-mph fastball by Andrew Bailey.

Boston has left 11 on and had two thrown out at the plate. Nine of those runners were stranded in scoring position.

4:26 p.m.: A walk to Dustin Pedroia and an infield single by Victor Martinez forces Bob Geren to make another pitching change. The Sox have the go-ahead run at the plate in the person of Kevin Youkilis with no outs in the eighth.

4:22 p.m.: Home run!!!

4:20 p.m.: A Marco Scutaro "home run" to left is being reviewed. The call on the field is a tater, but Oakland manager Bob Geren was successful in pleading for a second look. Maybe they can look at that play in Detroit last night while they're at it.

Mid 8th, Athletics 9-6: There have been 28 hits in this one, five of which have left the yard. The Sox have the top of the lineup due up to start the eighth.

Sorry for all the formatting issues below. The program is having major problems today, so just bear with me as I try to clean it up.

4:11 p.m.: Here is a copy and past job from my previous post: "Manny Delcarmen, who has been spectacular this year, is the Red Sox' fourth pitcher of the game." Sorry folks. Didn't mean to jinx it.

Delcarmen serves up consecutive solo shots to Jack Cust and Kevin Kouzmanoff to give the A's a bit of breathing room.

Manny Delcarmen, who has been spectacular of late, is the Red Sox' fourth pitcher of the night.

J.D. Drew stays in the game and will play right. Bill Hall moves to left and Hermida's day is done.

3:55 p.m.: The pinch hittters came off the bench to give the Sox a boost in the seventh. David Ortiz walked and J.D. Drew doubled. Ortiz then scored on Bill Hall's RBI groundout, and A's manager Bob Geren goes to the pen again.

Mid 7th, Athletics 7-5: A caught stealing, the second time the Sox have nailed a runner, looms large when Daric Barton follows with a single off Hideki Okajima. The lefty then fans Eric Patterson to end a long one-run frame.

3:36 p.m.: Adrian Beltre takes the team lead for errors with eight when his low throw to first leads to a run in the top of the seventh. With a runner on second and just one out, Hideki Okajima is on for the Sox.

End 6th, Athletics 6-5: As mentioned earlier, Jeremy Hermida entered without a hit in his last 15 at bats. He has doubled, singled and homered in his first three at bats.

Tim Wakefield is done after six innings. He gave up six runs on eight hits, striking out four. Ramon Ramirez is on in relief.

3:22 p.m.: A Jeremy Hermida two-run homer and Dustin Pedroia's one-out double has ended the day for Vin Mazzaro. Brad Ziegler will be the new Athletics pitcher with the tying run at second.

Mid 6th, Athletics 6-3: This has the potential to be a pretty bad loss for the Sox. Not only have they had several scoring chances go by the wayside, but they had to face Brett Anderson for just two innings, and he has dominated them in his three previous starts.

The Sox bullpen has been stirring but Tim Wakefield has thrown just 78 pitches through six so he will likely go back out there

End 5th, Athletics 5-3: Kevin Youkilis leads off with a double and moves to third on a fly to center off the bat of Adrian Beltre, but is stuck there, another wasted chance for the Sox.

Boston has left six men in scoring position and had two thrown out at home.

Mid 5th, Athletics 5-3: The Red Sox have 10 hits and a walk through four innings, but just three runs to show for it. They are bound to get a few more across in this one. One threat to that could be rain. There is a sense that storm front could be coming. We'll keep an eye on that. The lights are on at Fenway.

End 4th, Athletics 5-3: Where do we start? Oh, how about with the play at home. For the second time in as many innings third base coach Tim Bogar waves in a limping runner with no outs, only to see him get thrown out at home. This time the Sox eventually score, but it takes a stolen base and sacrifice fly to do so.

Here's what happened. Darnell McDonald led off with a single but hurt his left leg diving back into first on a pickoff attempt. He was limping badly before being able to walk it off and remain in the game.

Bill Hall followed with a single of his own and then Jeremy Hermida grounded one through the hole into right. Bogar waved in McDonald, but like Victor Martinez an inning before, he was tagged on the left shoulder heading in.

Hall stole third base — his second steal in as many games — and came home on Marco Scutaro's fly to right.

Mid 4th, Athletics 5-2: Do I need to rehash the Kurt Suzuki numbers every time he comes up and crushes an offering from a Red Sox pitcher? OK, I will. Suzuki just homered for the second time in two innings — a two-run shot — and third time in two games to give the A's the lead and improve to 6-for-11 with five extra-base hits in this series.

Suzuki is now 34-for-93 in his last 23 (.366) in his last 23 starts against Boston.

Of course, that was just the start of the trouble for Tim Wakefield. He surrendered a single and two more doubles in the inning, bringing in two more runs and prompting the dreaded "Scott Atchison warming in the Red Sox bullpen" announcement in the press box.

Nothing against Atchison, it's just not what you want to hear with two outs in the top of the fourth.

For Oakland, there are two injury updates. Brett Anderson left with left elbow soreness, the same injury that caused him to miss a month already. Ryan Sweeney was taken out for precautionary reasons after the blow to the head in the third.

End 3rd, Red Sox 2-1: With the way Victor Martinez was limping into third base it was a bit of a surprise that Tim Bogar waved him in. Had he not, the Sox would've had runners at second and third and nobody out and their hottest hitter in Adrian Beltre coming up. Instead, Martinez was out at the plate and Boston fails to score.

Give credit to the A's for a pretty good relay, but the situation did not seem to call for that.

2:15 p.m.: The A's are dropping like flies here. After having to replace starter Brett Anderson for unspecified reasons, right fielder Ryan Sweeney's day is done after a hard collision with second baseman Mark Ellis.

The two were racing for a foul ball down the line when Sweeney went into a slide and appeared to get struck on the head by the hip of Ellis. Sweeney was very slow to get up and to walk off the field.

Gabe Gross moves from left to right and Eric Patterson is in left.

Mid 3rd, Red Sox 2-1: I stood to stretch and the third inning was over by the time I sat back down. Tim Wakefield on getaway day is a recipe for a quick one. The big news, however, is that Brett Anderson has been pulled in favor of Vin Mazzaro for Oakland. We will get you the injury update on Anderson when we hear it.

End 2nd, Red Sox 2-1:Bill Hall singled and scored on Marco Scutaro's groundout in the second, but the big blow was a Jeremy Hermida double that allowed Hall to go from first to third and snapped Hermida out of an 0-for-15 funk.

Hermida, who had a bunch of big hits in the first two months of the season, had seen his average fall to .203.

Mid 2nd, 1-1: Does it make sense to intentionally walk a guy to lead off the second in a one-run game? No, of course not. But with the way Kurt Suzuki destroys Red Sox pitching, it may be a better alternative.

Suzuki homers for the second straight game and has now hit safely in all 23 of his career starts against Boston, batting .359 (33-for-92) in that stretch.

The Hawaii native is a career .351 (20-for-58) hitter in Fenway Park. He is 5-for-10 with two homers, a double and a triple in this series alone.

End 1st, Red Sox 1-0: Brett Anderson got the first two outs just fine but three straight singles get the Sox on the board first. Victor Martinez started the run, with Adrian Beltre's delivering an RBI, his team-leading 38th.

Martinez has a hit in five straight at bats. In case you are wondering, the club record is 12 (with two walks sprinkled in) by Mike Higgins back in 1938. That is also tied for the major league record.

Long way to go for V-Mart.

Mid 1st, 0-0: No early issues for Tim Wakefield. He gets a strikeout, a pop to short and a grounder to second to float through the first.

1:35 p.m.: Tim Wakefield's last three outings against Oakland have resulted in a combined 21 1/3 innings and just five earned runs. He has just tossed the first pitch under overcast skies here at Fenway.

1:15 p.m.: Keep your eyes peeled for a separate story regarding the Red Sox' preparation for the upcoming First-Year Player Draft, set to begin Monday. General Manager Theo Epstein and Director of Amateur Scouting Amiel Sawdaye spoke with us a few moments ago.

The Sox seem to be pretty pleased with their draft position this year. Their first pick will be at No. 20, and then two compensation round picks at No. 36 and No. 39.

After the first five picks or so, Epstein said, the talent pool stays pretty level for some time, so getting players at those three spots that are comparable to top 10 picks is a possibility in the eyes of Red Sox brass.

On a completely different note, Armando Galarraga just brought the lineup card to home plate before the Cleveland-Detroit game, bringing Jim Joyce (the home plate umpire today) to tears. A nice moment.

12:45 p.m.: The debate surrounding the Armando Galarraga-Jim Joyce situation is feverish in the press box. It's all anyone can talk about. We did, however, also discuss what amounts to a pretty interesting pitching matchup at Fenway.

When Tim Wakefield became old enough to drink, Brett Anderson was in his mother's belly, but was likely no larger than a plum. Yet here is Anderson strolling onto Wakefield's mound with the reputation as a Red Sox killer.

Anderson is 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA in three starts against Boston, all coming before August of last season.

11:45 a.m.: Jacoby Ellsbury is currently doing drills in the outfield, running at almost full speed and shagging flies thrown by a trainer. He will travel with the team to Baltimore and Cleveland after Thursday's game.

The work looked promising but there is no concrete word on whether Ellsbury will be back on time. Also, with photo day and a quick turnaround, there is no new news on Mike Cameron, but the club still hopes to have him back by this weekend.

Terry Francona also talked at length about the blown call in the Armando Galaragga perfect game bid. The Sox skipper is very much opposed to using instant replay in such situations. We will expand on this in a separate piece, but here is a taste of what Francona said to reporters moments ago:

"The game on the field goes so fast," Francona said. "I don't think that people realize because as you get further away you have the ability to slow it down. I think I've talked to official scorers before, when you slow things down everything looks like the play should be made. When you're at field level it's going fast. It was a bang-bang play, it was wrong, it happens."

Essentially, Francona said, where do you stop? That is the burning question.

Also, Theo Epstein will address the media regarding the team's preparations for the draft, which begins Monday. Look for more on that as well.

10:45 a.m.: J.D. Drew is getting a day off, as is David Ortiz, giving the Red Sox lineup Thursday a wildly different look. Just check out this outfield and think back to all those Drew-Mike Cameron-Jacoby Ellsbury discussions this offseason.

Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Mike Lowell DH
Darnell McDonald CF
Bill Hall RF
Jeremy Hermida LF

Here is a complete breakdown of all that went into creating this makeshift lineup.

Heading downstairs to hear from Terry Francona and visit the Sox clubhouse. Back in a bit.

8:44 a.m.:Tim Wakefield will try to atone for an ugly start his last time out when he leads the Red Sox into the finale of a three-game series with the Oakland Athletics on Thursday.

The 43-year-old Wakefield gave up nine runs and failed to get through the fourth inning in a loss to Kansas City on Friday. Prior to that he had allowed just five runs in 21 2/3 innings in his previous three starts.

Twenty-one years younger than Wakefield is Oakland's starter, Brett Anderson, who dominated the Sox in three outings against them as a rookie last year. The lefty returned from a one-month layoff to shut out Detroit for 5 2/3 innings in his previous start.

Boston is aiming for its fifth straight win and third series sweep in as many weeks. First pitch for this getaway game is set for 1:35 p.m.