"Every inning he was averaging about 25 pitches, which makes it tough going right from the get-go," Francona said of Lowe, who was lifted after Bengie Molina's two-out RBI single in the fifth made it 3-1, left fielder Kevin Millar unable to cut down Darin Erstad even though he fielded the ball just as Erstad was rounding third base.
"Derek was bending but not breaking," Francona said of Lowe, who had at least two base runners in each inning he worked but kept the Angels scoreless until the fourth, when Millar pulled up on Chone Figgins's blooper that fell among three Sox players just inside the left-field line. "If he gets Molina, then it's a 2-1 game and we're in pretty good shape. But then it fell apart."
The Sox' bullpen, in one of its dimmer collective outings, absorbed more hits in the sixth. Erstad hit a two-run home run off Curtis Leskanic, accounting for the final margin and practically begging for an appearance by Ramiro Mendoza, who was activated yesterday in a move dictated by procedural necessity. Indeed, Mendoza pitched for the first time since April 7, working a 1-2-3 eighth.
The Angels, who have won all three meetings between the teams this season, moved to within a half-game of the Sox in the wild-card standings. The Sox, who have lost eight of their last nine games on the road and have been beaten in their last four road series, are off to an inauspicious start to what may be the most trying stretch of their 2004 schedule -- 17 of the next 23 games on the road, with the interlude at home including a day-night doubleheader followed by three games against the Yankees.
The Bombers moved eight games ahead of the Sox in the American League East by virtue of their win over the Tigers and the Sox' loss at the hands of lefthander Jarrod Washburn, who held the Sox to three hits and an unearned run in seven innings. The four hits by the Sox were their fewest in a game since their last sojourn to the West Coast, when Jason Schmidt of the Giants threw a one-hitter June 20.
