CHICAGO -- It was a slow ground ball. Painfully slow, in fact. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was sitting in the dugout putting on his gear as he watched Juan Uribe's grounder roll lazily toward surehanded Red Sox second baseman Tony Graffanino. Pierzynski followed the ball, and swore softly to himself.
''I'm thinking, 'OK, who's up next inning [for Boston]? Who are we going to have to try and get out?' " Pierzynski said. ''I'm thinking, 'I guess we'll try to get them next inning.' "
Graffanino was processing 10 things at once. He was thinking he didn't get a good jump on the ball. He was thinking he should charge it. He was thinking he was distracted for a split second by Joe Crede, who motored past him as fast as he could to second base in hopes of breaking up what appeared to be a textbook double play.
''I didn't get a good read on it," Graffanino said. ''I tried to rush it, to get two. I just missed it."
The ball slipped under his glove. It was the bottom of the fifth, with the Red Sox leading, 4-2, and he blew the play. Instead of getting out of the inning, suddenly there were runners at the corners, and still only one out.
You know by now what happened next. David Wells induced Scott Podsednik into a foul pop to third base, then hung a curveball to Tadahito Iguchi that the rookie tattooed 372 feet for a three-run homer.
The 4-2 Red Sox lead was now a 5-4 deficit. And Tony Graffanino, the surehanded, affable, reliable second baseman, was suddenly added to the list of Red Sox personnel who have made postseason blunders.
''When [Iguchi] hit that ball out, it crushed me, of course," Graffanino said. ''Suddenly it's 5-4, and we're losing, and it's my fault."
The first thing Graffanino did after his error was approach Wells, his teammate with the White Sox in 2001, and apologize for not getting him out of the inning.
''I told him, 'My bad,' " Graffanino said. ''I asked him to pick me up."
Wells, Boston's money pitcher, was unable to do so. Yet in the wake of a disappointing loss, he wasn't about to blame his infielder for his troubles.
''I was upset, yeah, but you can't show any emotions out there," Wells said. ''I'm not going to show him up. He's played great for us since he's been here . . . if you point at anyone, point at me. I'm the one who hung the curveball."
In the quiet clubhouse following this difficult loss, Graffanino's teammates swiftly rallied around him. He has been a welcome addition, one of Theo Epstein's best late-season pick-ups, and nobody wanted to see him take the loss all on himself.
''The fact of the matter is we still could have gotten out of that inning with a two-run lead," pointed out captain Jason Varitek. ''Don't pin this on one guy. We have to do this as a group."
