That played out in a major way Wednesday night, when two bad pitches were the difference between a mammoth win and a devastating loss.
The first came in the seventh, when Josh Beckett, who was outstanding for the bulk of his 7 1/3-inning start, misfired on an offering to Mark Reynolds with a man on. The Orioles first baseman hammered the pitch over the Green Monster, tying the game 4-4.
"Curveball, hanging curveball," Beckett said. "Hung it inside, tried to get it down and away."
Beckett emerged to begin the eighth with the score still tied. A single and a double put runners at second and third with one out, and spelled the end of the night for the righty.
In came Alfredo Aceves. First base was open. The free-swinging Vladimir Guerrero was at the plate. It was a situation that begged for nothing even close to the zone.
Instead, Guerrero got a fat fastball right down the pipe and knocked it into center for a tie-breaking two-run single. It was one of the few glaring mistakes Aceves has made all season, but it came at the worst possible time.
"We go to Aceves and [we're] trying to, the idea is to throw balls, and we didn't do that," manager Terry Francona said. "Ends up being too much."
It did, for a night at least. With the way this race is playing out, something like that could end up being the difference between a postseason bid and an early tee time.
