The ball -- chucked off line and, basically, into the ground -- bounced into shallow left field. Arroyo, standing helplessly, slapped himself in the head. Joe Mauer scored. Matthew LeCroy scored. Jacque Jones, running from first, scored.
''All of a sudden we have guys running in 18 different directions," lamented Sox manager Terry Francona. ''They're running the bases. We're backing up bases. It really puts you in a hole, and it got worse."
That play, which staked the Twins to a 4-0 lead, was microcosmic of an entirely haphazard evening in which the Sox absorbed a 12-0 undressing, halting the club's season-best winning streak at eight games. The Twins, who went into last night 0 for 24 with runners in scoring position in their previous five games (four losses), tied a season high with 16 hits (the Sox had four) and plated a season-high 12 runs.
The loss marked Boston's second worst of the season -- the 15-2 pounding by the Blue Jays July 1 still stands as a greater indignity, when employing run differential as the measuring stick. But, as shutout losses go, the Sox hadn't been pounded this badly since sustaining a 13-0 flogging July 23, 1990, in Milwaukee.
''I'd rather lose this way than a 1-0 game," said Kevin Millar, whose homerless drought reached 139 at-bats thanks to former Lowell Spinner Lew Ford, who soared over the wall in center to haul in a seventh-inning drive that Millar hit at least 410 feet. ''We got our [butt] kicked."
And while that was true, the Sox lost this game as much as the Twins won it. Arroyo, for instance, needed 40 pitches to complete one inning and 91 pitches through 3 2/3 innings, at which point he was lifted, having allowed seven runs. But, only two were earned.
His throwing error accounted for two unearned runs in Minnesota's four-run first, and Bill Mueller's fourth-inning throwing error led to three runs, none earned.
