Sox stone cold

Beckett loses first; Drew gets earful

June 15, 2007|Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

The bats have gone quiet, the pitching has stumbled, and the Yankees are winning every day.

All of that means the gloves have come off at Fenway Park, where a sellout crowd of 36,939 did not let last night's 7-1 Red Sox loss to the Colorado Rockies pass without comment.

The object of the fans' disaffection was not Josh Beckett, who lost for the first time this season and gave up two home runs, including a grand slam by Garrett Atkins, in five innings. It was J.D. Drew, whose slow start at the plate was tolerated while the Sox were winning. With the Sox having lost 8 of 13 games in June, and the Yankees reeling off nine wins in a row, Drew no longer is getting a free pass around here. He was singled out for some booing that was much louder than the periodic murmurs of displeasure he'd heard before last night.

"Pretty rough crowd tonight, wasn't it?" batting coach Dave Magadan noted dryly after the Sox, who were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position, were held to two runs or fewer for the seventh time in the last nine games.

The Yankees, meanwhile, have taken seven games off what had been a 14 1/2-game lead. The Yankees send Roger Clemens to the mound tonight to face the Mets, while Julian Tavarez, Boston's No. 5 starter, goes to the barricades tonight against Barry Bonds and the Giants in hopes he can do what the big dogs, Curt Schilling and Beckett, have been unable to accomplish the last two nights.

Drew, the flavor of the night to be Sox leadoff hitter, a role he hadn't performed in four years, left seven men on base in going 0 for 5. "We put him at the top because of his on-base capabilities, and all he does is come up with men on base," Magadan said.

"It's just one of those ways, especially when things aren't going good, that the game finds you."

It took a terrific catch by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, a rookie two years removed from being drafted, to take a hit from Drew with the bases loaded in the second. "And did you notice, just before the play, Tulowitzki moved a step to his left, because he was behind Coco [Crisp] and couldn't see?" Magadan said.

"J.D. put a beautiful swing on the ball," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Shortstop's playing up the middle and makes a great play. We're looking at maybe being up, 2-1, at that point with a full-fledged rally going. Then they turn around in the top of the next inning and get the grand slam. So it's a big swing."