Jason Varitek never got here. The captain, who had been allowed to spend an extra night at home because of his strep throat, was supposed to take a commercial flight here yesterday afternoon. Instead, traveling secretary Jack McCormick said, Varitek's flight was canceled because of severe weather in the Cincinnati area, he was rebooked on another flight to Cleveland with a connecting flight here, but wound up marooned in Cleveland for hours.
"I told him just to go to the hotel when he gets here," McCormick said.
Varitek wasn't supposed to play, anyway, but that left manager Terry Francona sweating what he would do if Kevin Cash, who caught last night, went down. Cash remained intact for all nine innings, but Manny Ramírez didn't make it to the end of the game. The slugger, who singled home Boston's run, left after striking out in the seventh, telling Francona his right hamstring was too tender to continue. Ramírez began the game in left field, where he hadn't played since May 31 because of his hamstring, but this being an interleague game, DHing was not an option.
So it was Coco Crisp, not Ramírez, who came to the plate in the ninth as a potential tying run with Dustin Pedroia aboard on a leadoff single. J.D. Drew had already struck out for the third time - evidently, Wonderboy doesn't travel well - when Crisp came up against Reds closer Francisco Cordero. He lined to left, Mike Lowell rolled to first, and the Sox were losers for the 11th time in their last 15 games away from home.
This loss went to Justin Masterson, who actually was pitching closer to home than he has all season - he grew up in Beavercreek, Ohio, about 90 minutes from here - but experienced defeat in the big leagues for the first time in his nascent career.
Masterson struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings and allowed just four hits, but two of them were home runs. Reds rookie sensation Jay Bruce led off the home first by lining his fourth home run into the right-field seats, and in the fourth, Adam Dunn lined his 17th home run into the right-center-field seats, the ball arriving so quickly it was as if Dunn had taken it upon himself to singlehandedly comply with Bud Selig's mandate to speed up the game.
