Jon Lester gave it all he had on Saturday night. He was shutting down the worst offensive team in baseball, retiring the first 16 Seattle Mariners who came up to the plate. He struck out a career high 13 and appeared to be on the verge of making history again.
Then everyone, including himself, wound up betraying him.
Eric Patterson flubbed Jack Wilson's fly to center and the perfecto was over. Then Lester hung a curveball to Michael Saunders, and he killed it, and it was 2-1, Seattle.
No-no over. Shutout over. Win gone.
The Red Sox were facing former Red Sox pitcher of little note David Pauley and they could do nothing with him, just a David Ortiz home run. They had second and third and one out early in the game, but left the runners were they were. Another night of little offense, and a reliance on pitching and defense.
Patterson was a hero Thursday night, and a villain on Saturday. (To be fair, Patterson wasn't the one who hung the curve to Saunders, so "villain" might be too strong a word. Besides, I just want a win. Anything else is gravy.)
Seattle went on to a 5-1 win, helped out by Manny Delcarmen's latest meltdown (a walk and a hit batter brought in another run). Now I would consider trading him for a few broken bats and a used ball bag. It would be an upgrade for the bullpen.
The AWOL offense has hurt this team mightily since the All-Star break. Victor Martinez looks to back for the Anaheim series, so that's a bit of good news. They can do no worse than a split in this series, but another loss to the weak Mariners would seem like a series loss. Daisuke Matsuzaka will try to prevent that today.
New York lost, so the Sox saw yet another chance to gain ground evaporate. Tampa Bay won, so they remain 7 back, and 4 behind the Rays.
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