Stinging loss for Red Sox

Devil Rays spoil finale of very good road trip

July 30, 2007|Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The splitter was left up and out over the plate, exactly where Daisuke Matsuzaka did not want to locate the pitch to Dioner Navarro. So, as the pitch flew out of the park to right field, 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball, including a ground out with the bases loaded in the second, became moot. The scoreless tie was broken and, though Manny Delcarmen would help put the game out of reach for the Red Sox, it was Matsuzaka who took the loss in a 5-2 defeat at Tropicana Field.

But after a seven-game road trip through Cleveland and Tampa Bay, the focus just as easily could have been put on the two straight series wins, the 5-2 record, and the emergence of the bat of Manny Ramírez, who took another pitch out of the park yesterday, his fourth in his last eight games.

Though they lost a game in the standings to the Yankees, one day after gaining a game, it matters that the Red Sox hit the road to such success. Because they'll be seeing it a lot over the next few weeks (three games at Fenway before heading to the West Coast and Baltimore).

"I think we're playing really good baseball," Mike Lowell said. "Five-and-two on our road trip, with four games in Cleveland? We do that, we're going to be fine. I don't think we can have any complaints."

While he might not, Matsuzaka did. He wasn't terribly pleased with the splitter he threw to Navarro. He had been getting good results on his offspeed pitches, but that single pitch negated much of that.

"Since he hit it, I guess it was a mistake," Matsuzaka said through a translator. "With both teams at zero runs at that point, that was the situation I most wanted to avoid. I was going for a swing-and-miss there. Unfortunately it [didn't happen]."

Matsuzaka wasn't the only pitcher throwing well yesterday. Scott Kazmir, noted Red Sox nemesis, had entered with a 5-3 record and a 2.76 ERA in 12 starts against Boston. He had already faced Matsuzaka this season, a 4-1 win for the Red Sox back on July 3. But this one wouldn't go that way.

Kazmir struck out eight, scattering six hits over six innings, walking just one. Though Kazmir allowed at least one runner in every inning other than the sixth, his stuff was good enough to leave a few batters shaking their heads -- like Dustin Pedroia, who struck out swinging in the fifth on a 96 mile per hour fastball from the lefty.

"You don't see Pedroia miss three fastballs very often," Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He had good stuff all day. There were some times when he exhibited great stuff. That was one of them right there."