Surely the most debatable topic was Sox manager Terry Francona's decision to allow a tiring Bronson Arroyo to face the Angels' most prolific hitter, Vladi Guerrero, with one run in and two runners on in the sixth inning of a 4-all tie. Guerrero flattened Arroyo's 109th pitch for a two-run gapper, perhaps leaving the ball as misshapen as the one pricked by Burks.
Then came the seventh, when the Sox turned a promising rally into a Goya scream. Manny Ramirez raised a few eyebrows by jogging to first on his third hit of the night, one that very nearly skipped past left fielder Jose Guillen. Jason Varitek moved Ramirez to second with his third hit, lining a single to right, Ramirez doffing his helmet to Guerrero after the right fielder threw a rocket to third.
Ramirez may have been too shocked to salute Angels catcher Jose Molina, who picked Ramirez off second after Brian Daubach, attempting to bunt on his own, missed a bunt on the first pitch. Daubach's decision to bunt, of course, flies in the face of an organizational aversion to do so.
"We were just trying to be a little bit aggressive there," Ramirez said. "It was my fault. They made a great play."
Daubach wound up popping out, and Kevin Millar waved at a slider from Francisco Rodriguez to end the threat.
Arroyo had retired Guerrero on his first three trips to the plate and had made him look bad doing so, whiffing him in the first and retiring him on infield popups his next two at-bats.
"That's why he was in there," Franconca said. "I knew he was getting toward the end. We were reaching there. He had made good pitches to him, but the last time he didn't."
Daubach, who earlier made a damaging error in the Angels' two-run fourth, made it close with a two-run, two-out home run off struggling Anaheim closer Troy Percival, who had blown three of his last six save opportunities. But that home run was merely a prelude to one last conversation piece, the astonishing catch made by backup third baseman Alfredo Amezaga on Millar's smash down the third-base line to end the game. The airborne Amezaga, a natural shortstop, was fully extended into foul territory and parallel to the ground when he gloved Millar's bid to keep the game alive.
