SEATTLE -- It was only the first inning, but the sound of TV sets shutting off all over New England could be heard 2,500 miles away. Why risk sleeping through the morning alarm, when Kason Gabbard couldn't throw a strike?
For Red Sox fans who hung in there, even after Gabbard walked home two runs and hit a batter to force in a third, the rest of the night had to be as disorienting as it was ultimately unrewarding. You dozed off at your own peril.
Gabbard lasted just 3 1/3 innings, the shortest outing for a Sox starter this season, but improbably left with the game still within reach. Indeed, the Sox came back to tie the score, not once but twice, against Felix Hernandez, who was the same pitcher in name only as the guy who threw a one-hit shutout in Fenway Park in April.
But each time the Sox squared the score, coming back from deficits of 4-1 and 6-4, the Sox bullpen gave it right back to the Mariners. Manny Delcarmen gave up two runs on a couple of hits, a hit batsman, and a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Javier Lopez was taken deep for a two-run home run by Richie Sexson in the sixth that gave Seattle an 8-6 lead, and with J.J. Putz striking out the side in the ninth, the Mariners held on for an 8-7 win before 35,045 in Safeco Field.
Why was the lefthanded Lopez allowed to face the righthanded Sexson, who blasted his 15th home run to the opposite field? Manager Terry Francona revealed after the game that former Mariner Joel Piñeiro had stepped on Eric Hinske during stretching the previous day and twisted his right ankle, making him unavailable.
"Javy can get anybody out," Francona said of Lopez, who had retired Sexson all three times he'd faced him previously. "But that was not the matchup we wanted. It was a tough night. We were fighting uphill all the way.
"We showed a lot of fight and spirit coming back against good pitching the way we did. Hernandez was hurt for a while, but his last outing was tremendous and he was throwing in the high 90s, a slider and breaking ball. I'm sure they felt pretty good with him out there with a lead."
The Sox had the makings of one more comeback in the eighth, when Coco Crisp walked to open the inning and Dustin Pedroia blooped a single to right. But lefty reliever George Sherrill struck out David Ortiz, and Putz gave up a sacrifice fly to Kevin Youkilis before retiring J.D. Drew on a tapper to first.
In the ninth, Putz struck out Mike Lowell on a fastball that Lowell took at the letters, got Jason Varitek on a neck-high fastball when the catcher could not check his swing, then needed only three pitches to fan pinch hitter Manny Ramirez, who was unable to catch up with another fastball. Putz has converted all 22 of his save opportunities this season.
