Asked what was going through his mind, Drew said, “Let it drop, pretty much.’’
And that was what he should have done, at least according to a few Sox players after they lost last night’s game, 3-2, to the Rays in 10 innings, courtesy of a home run by Dan Johnson.
Drew said he should have pulled up, should have done anything except stick out his glove and make the grab. It was a good catch, but a bad decision, as Pena came in to score on the sacrifice fly to tie the game.
In fact, Drew’s still not sure how it happened, even going so far to say that he nearly stopped running. So why didn’t he stop? And why did he catch it?
“I don’t really know how in the world I caught it,’’ Drew said. “That’s kind of amazing to me. If I tried to make that play in a situation with two outs and the game on the line, I probably would never be able to get to it. For some reason, that thing stuck in my glove. I had every intention of letting it drop. Just instinct, you know. Put the glove out right at the last second as I saw the ball coming down, and it ended up in there. It’s kind of beyond me.
“How in the world I got over the mound, into the chairs, into the wall and all that stuff, it was one of those absolutely great plays in a situation where you need to let the ball drop.’’
That wasn’t the only mistake the Sox made in the inning. Pena was only on third base because of a two-base error by Clay Buchholz.
After Pena reached on a fielder’s choice, Buchholz threw over, seemingly a strange decision given that Pena is hardly a threat to run. But the choice to throw over was not Buchholz’s. Bench coach DeMarlo Hale said the Sox didn’t want Pena to get any kind of lead with just a one-run advantage. So they tried to keep him close — and instead, he ended up on third.
“I just threw it away,’’ Buchholz said. “I’ve done it 1,000 times. I tried to get it over there a little too quick, and he wasn’t as far off as I thought he was.
“That was called. It was from the dugout. I just tried to throw it too quick and get it over there. It was basically just a check-over throw, just make sure that he knew that I still knew he was over there. I screwed it up.’’
