KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's all well and good that Delta Airlines is the official carrier of the Red Sox. But nothing seemed worse for the Sox in recent weeks than a chartered Delta jet waiting for them on the tarmac. Any tarmac. Anywhere.
Boston, Toronto, Tampa, Anaheim, you name it: If a Delta crew was there preparing to jet away with Terry Francona's barnstormers, the Sox were certain to slouch aboard after a loss.
So much for loving the way Delta flies.
But after a sorry stretch of five straight losses on getaway days, the Sox last night flew home from the nation's heartland on wings of joy thanks to a few unlikely twists of good fortune.
With Derek Lowe emerging from a funk, Mike Timlin submitting his longest relief effort in nearly two years, and two Royals pancaking each other in a violent, game-turning collision, the Sox found a way to salvage the finale of largely forgettable five-game road trip, 5-3, before 22,964 at Kauffman Stadium.
"This is going to be great," Johnny Damon said as his teammates donned their fancy travel threads and prepared to head home triumphantly and make the most of a day off today.
The Sox were tied with the Yankees atop the American League East when they departed Logan a week ago for Anaheim, Calif. They returned trailing the pinstriped ones by 2 1/2 games partly because their pitching staff, which started the trip tied with Oakland's for the league's best ERA (3.87), slipped to third place by posting a 6.00 ERA on their 2-3 swing through California and Missouri.
But no one could blame Lowe this time. After rolling up a 12.83 ERA and going 1-2 in his previous three outings, the sinkerballer showed the most encouraging signs in weeks that he may be close to regaining his winning touch as he rationed the Royals three runs (two earned) over five innings. Lowe paid for one bad pitch, a hanging changeup that Mike Sweeney clubbed for a two-run homer in the first inning, before the Royals managed another run in the fifth thanks in part to a throwing error by Lowe.
In all, Lowe surrendered only two hits other than Sweeney's shot and a walk.
"I know there were an awful lot of guys in the dugout awfully thrilled for him," Francona said.
With Lowe unable to return for the sixth inning because of a blister on his pitching thumb, he needed plenty of help to log the win since the Sox trailed, 3-0, when he departed after five innings. That's when things went wacky for the Royals, to Boston's benefit.
