"I don't know if I had a fever or chills when I heard the crowd chanting, `Sweep! Sweep!' at the end of the game. I've never heard that before," said Rangers manager Buck Showalter.
The good will from three-game sweeps of the Yankees in New York and the Devil Rays at Fenway last week is now a distant memory, particularly now that the Yankees have won six straight with sweeps of the A's and Royals and the Sox have lost three straight for the first time in '04.
Pedro Martinez's double whammy -- blasting the Sox organization Friday night and then getting waxed for six runs and nine hits in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader -- left a bad taste.
Yet there's no need for panic, because the Sox have what should be an easy schedule for most of the month. Seven games against Cleveland, seven against Toronto, and three each against Kansas City and Tampa Bay before the West teams arrive at Fenway at the end of the month. It's a good month for the Sox to put distance between themselves and the Orioles and Yankees. However, after last night's loss, the Sox were only up 1 1/2 games on the streaking Yankees, who face the A's out West this week.
The Sox should have salvaged a game last night given how well Tim Wakefield pitched (seven innings, two runs), but Boston hitters couldn't do anything against the 29-year-old Dickey.
Rangers right fielder Brian Jordan robbed Brian Daubach of extra bases with a diving catch in the fourth, but when Johnny Damon attempted a sliding backhand stop of DH Brad Fullmer's drive to center in the bottom half, it got past Damon for a triple. Fuller scored on Mark Teixeira's ground out to first base. In the seventh, David Dellucci poked a low 3-and-2 knuckler 379 feet into the right-field bleachers for an insurance run.
The Sox bullpen came back down to earth in this series. The 32 1/3 scoreless innings -- the most by the Red Sox in more than 30 years -- ended with a thud, the pen allowing six runs in seven innings over the three games.
