BOSTON — Terry Francona said prior to Thursday's meeting with the Tampa Bay Rays that they are the type of team that makes you pay the moment you give them a chance.
There may never be a better example of that than what occurred hours later in the third inning of Tampa Bay’s 9-2 rout of the reeling Red Sox.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Boston rookie Kyle Weiland faced Tampa Bay center fielder B.J. Upton with a chance to get out of the inning and keep it a scoreless game. Weiland did what he needed to do, sawing off Upton with an inside fastball that shattered the bat and sent a weak grounder to shortstop.
Unfortunately, in a bizarre instance that speaks to the way things are going for the Red Sox right now, Upton’s bat took almost the exact same path as the ball did to a charging Marco Scutaro, who tried to avoid the former and failed to field the latter.
Both bat and ball went through Scutaro's legs at the same time, allowing the first run of the game to score. Three more came when Evan Longoria followed seconds later with a three-run homer to right.
Boston never got closer than three runs thereafter.
"At first I didn’t see the bat at all," Scutaro said. "I was just focusing on the ball and I kind of saw the bat at the last moment. It was bat-ball, so I just jumped. I couldn't do anything else about it."
With the speedy Upton running, it was going to be a close play at first. It's rather likely that Upton would've had an infield hit, and if Longoria followed with the same shot into the Red Sox bullpen it would be a grand slam and an identical score. That's impossible to determine, however. What's clear is that the Red Sox lost a chance to escape a jam, and everything went south after that.
"The bat beat the ball there and that's about as unfortunate as you can be," Francona said. "The bat's flying and it beat the ball. Makes it difficult, impossible. And then [Longoria] got ahead in the count and [Weiland] left the fastball right over the middle of the plate. That's the four runs. He still has to make pitches and they extended the inning and they took advantage of it.
"That’s what good teams do."
The play was so awkward, so unique, that those in the other dugout saw it as more than just a lucky break.
"You're always looking for signs," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "You're looking for signs, man. You’re looking for signs from that baseball heaven, those baseball gods. They've got to throw you a sign once in awhile. They've got to give you something to further the belief. Believe me, when I saw that, I thought, hey, let's see what's going to happen for the rest of this game. And then the home run followed it right up."
In the end, it may not have mattered much. Either Upton beats out the play, or perhaps the Rays eventually get to Weiland and a battered Boston bullpen. And with Jeremy Hellickson throwing well on the other end, it was a tough matchup for the Sox bats.
What it did do is reinforce Francona's biggest fear. Tampa Bay doesn't let a good opportunity go to waste. He has to hope that doesn't apply to the opportunity the Rays have been given for the rest of this weekend.
