``When it's tied like tonight, it can go either way," Tavarez said. ``Any little mistake, you can lose the game. I made a mistake and I walk away with the loss. But I don't put my head down."
Sandwiching a Wall double to Jason Kendall off a hanging changeup between a strikeout looking and a strikeout swinging, Tavarez allowed those two singles, to Bobby Kielty and Frank Thomas, before getting Jay Payton to ground out to end the inning two batters too late.
``I missed the location," Tavarez said of Kielty's hit, off a slider that didn't have much movement. ``I paid for that. I catch too much of the plate."
The Sox got one back in the home half of the 11th, courtesy of a Gabe Kapler walk, a bit of defensive indifference, and a Jason Varitek single up the middle, all coming after sluggers Ortiz and Manny Ramírez each had found third baseman Antonio Perez, on a foul pop and ground out, respectively. But that was it as Lowell's comebacker to the mound ended it.
Yes, it was Tavarez who took the loss, but two other plays, by veterans Mark Loretta and Willie Harris, turned the momentum in favor of the A's.
Trot Nixon walked to open the bottom of the ninth and it appeared another comeback was in the works. Harris pinch ran and with Varitek at the plate, manager Terry Francona put on the hit-and-run. Except Harris got picked off first, officially the old 1-3-6-1-4 caught stealing.
``Sometimes you wind up trying too hard," Harris said. ``I wasn't leaning at all. I thought [Kiko Calero] balked, personally. Obviously, the umpire didn't think he did. So it was a caught stealing. He did some kind of funky move and it worked out for him."
And that play wasn't even the one that hurt most.
