Red Sox limp home with loss

It has been an exhausting six-game beginning to the season for the Sox, who lost in the ninth inning Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, won in the ninth inning Wednesday, came within a Blue Jays hit of losing in the ninth inning Friday in a game they led by three runs entering the inning, and lost in the ninth yesterday.

"We need to get back home," said Kevin Millar. "It feels like we've been on the road since October. We need to get back there."

Mike Timlin took the loss, though his only mistake was a pitch up and away to Orlando Hudson in the ninth. Hudson lined a double that one-hopped off the left-center-field wall, scoring Reed Johnson from first.

"I came out, missed my spot, dropped the game," said Timlin, who was probably excessively difficult on himself. "I'm having a little problem there. I feel I let the team down."

In actuality Johnson wouldn't have been on base to begin with had Mark Bellhorn not fallen victim to the stadium's new FieldTurf.

"The turf is slippery," said Bellhorn, who fielded Johnson's one-out grounder without needing to dive but couldn't plant and throw until it was too late. "I got my foot caught, hooked into the turf. My foot spun a little bit."

The play was liberally scored a hit, though Bellhorn said he would have made it had he not slipped.

The Sox, trailing, 3-1, by the fifth inning, were in a tie in the ninth only because of Edgar Renteria's clutch single on a 2-and-2 count with two on and two out in the top half. Closer Miguel Batista threw a 96-mile-per-hour fastball well up and in to Renteria two pitches earlier, leading Renteria to sit fastball up and away, which is what he got.

"If it was there, I would get my hit, or he gets me," Renteria said. "The at-bats before I tried to do too much. [In the ninth] I tried to play the game right."

The hit lifted his average to just .167 (4 for 24) in this young season, rather similar to the 3 for 25 that Orlando Cabrera began his Red Sox career with last July.