As the Devil Rays blew out the Yankees in New York, the Red Sox did the same to the White Sox, finishing them off with Julio Lugo's grand slam in a 10-3 victory in front of 36,737 at Fenway Park. Not only did it boost Boston's American League East lead to eight games, it pushed Josh Beckett into a tie for the major league lead in wins with 13.
It didn't start that way. Two hours after a closed-door team meeting called by Francona, the manager found himself in short center field face to face with third base umpire Tim McClelland.
"I think I'm stating the obvious when I say that I was disappointed with the call," Francona said. "I'm talking ad nauseam about getting a two-out hit, this and that, and taking two runs off the board is not easy to take. I'm very thankful we came back and played a great game after that, because it doesn't really feel like you're going to end up smiling when you leave the field that early."
Ortiz walked with two outs to start the fireworks, and Ramirez was hit by a pitch. Then came Drew's hit. Although Ortiz scored, Ramírez slowed rounding the bases as Drew pulled into second, thinking the ball had rocketed into the front shelf of the Monster Seats. Which it had.
But the umpires convened and ruled the shot hit off the wall. Ramírez was out at home and the inning was over. That was when Francona got animated. And that was when bench coach Brad Mills ran to the outfield to retrieve the manager.
"The replay indicated that [the umpires] did not rule on it correctly, but the replay is from an angle that people down on the field do not have," said vice president of umpiring Mike Port. "All that can be said is that they did the very best from where they were and the replay was what it was."
So instead of walking to the mound with a 3-0 lead, Beckett had a one-run lead to work with. And though he struck out the side in the second inning, including Josh Fields on a 97-mile-per-hour fastball, he allowed a three-run home run to Jim Thome in the third. It was 3-1, White Sox, but it should have been 3-3.
