Close the book

Blue Jays are the ones who finally get to streaking Papelbon

May 04, 2006|Chris Snow, Globe Staff

Sooner or later the spellbinding and the surreal had to end, and last night it did. Jonathan Papelbon's streak of 25 1/3 scoreless innings spanning 21 appearances went down in the ninth inning, and with it went the Red Sox. They had overcome deficits of 3-0, 4-3, and 6-5, but could not overcome Toronto's last gasp, in the ninth, when they got to Papelbon for three hits -- only one struck hard -- for a 7-6 win on a misty and cold night at Fenway, where it required maximum effort by both the Sox and their 35,881 fans to hang around.

Papelbon came in with the score tied, 6-6, thanks to Mike Lowell's full-count RBI single up the middle in the eighth against high-90s hurler Dustin McGowan (''one of the best at-bats I've seen in a long while," Sox manager Terry Francona said).

Papelbon's initial task was a most untenable one, in the person of Lyle Overbay, who grounded a single to center for his fourth hit of the night, reaching base for the fifth time. Shea Hillenbrand lined to Dustan Mohr in right for an out. But Gregg Zaun grounded a single between third baseman Lowell and shortstop Alex Gonzalez, setting the stage for pesky No. 8 hitter Russ Adams to become the man who finally got to the precocious rookie closer.

Adams got a splitter up in the zone, where Papelbon didn't intend it to be, and sliced it down the right-field line, plating the deciding run.

Papelbon had not allowed a run since Jorge Cantu homered off him Sept. 19. His wasn't the only streak that ended. The Sox had won a major league-record-tying 18 consecutive one-run wins at home, a feat done previously by the St. Louis Browns (1925-26) and Baltimore Orioles (1963-64).

''I'll think about it a little tonight," Papelbon said. ''I'm not going to ponder losing the ballgame for us. I won't lose sleep over this. That would be stupid. The sun will rise tomorrow."

Does he want the ball soon?

''No doubt about it," he said. ''Best-case scenario is we take the lead, one-run lead, and I save it. I want the ball tomorrow. No doubt about it."

The Sox did have a chance to tie it in a wacky ninth inning. Mohr, who had entered for Trot Nixon and struck out looking in the seventh, struck out swinging with two outs in the ninth for his 16th K in 32 at-bats. But the ball got away, and Mohr scampered safely down the line. Willie Harris pinch ran, stole second, and advanced to third on Zaun's wild throw. He would get no closer to home; B.J. Ryan got Jason Varitek looking for his third strikeout of the inning, a 90-mile-per-hour pitch. It was hard to tell from the press box what he threw Varitek.

''I couldn't [tell] either," Varitek said, adding that he determined it to be a backdoor slider. ''I did not read the ball well. I've got to change something against him."