"We're frustrated with him," said manager Terry Francona, whose team coughed up leads of 5-1 and 8-3. "We lost some pretty significant leads tonight."
As the Lopez homer exited the park, Foulke swung his arm in the air and looked at catcher Jason Varitek.
Foulke hadn't appeared in any of the Sox' previous four games, so the lack of work might have affected him. "Yeah, but I'm not going to insinuate anything before I talk to Keith," Varitek said.
Johnny Damon had his own theory, one tied to the fact that the Sox have played all 21 games this season against division opponents.
"Everyone says the Red Sox have Mariano Rivera's number," Damon said. "Keith has thrown a lot of games against the American League East lately. We have to figure that out. Hopefully, he's not tipping pitches. He's going to have to figure that out and hopefully [pitching coach] Dave Wallace will help him figure that out."
Foulke didn't record an out until his 16th pitch, a Sammy Sosa lineout to center. His ERA, already at 4.00 coming in, ballooned to 7.20. He's allowed 20 base runners in 10 innings. Overall, Baltimore pounded Sox pitching for 20 hits, the most allowed by Boston since July 24, 2003, vs. Tampa Bay (21 hits).
Sox starter Matt Clement, meanwhile, was furious with himself for his 4 2/3 innings. It was Clement and Baltimore starter Rodrigo Lopez who engaged in a captivating display of pitching last week at Camden Yards. Each went eight innings, and only Lopez allowed a run, and it was unearned.
But last night, the Clement-Lopez combined line read: 8 IP, 19 hits, 15 earned runs, 5 walks, 4 strikeouts.
Clement was roughed up for seven runs, more runs than he'd allowed all season. (In 25 1/3 innings, he'd allowed just six earned runs.) He came in with a 2.13 ERA, sixth best in the league. That climbed to 3.90. He also came in averaging 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, fourth in the league, but struck out just one.
