Have a Meatball, Courtesy of Matt Albers

The name Matt Albers doesn't exactly fill me with a lot of confidence. And I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way.

He threw a meatball down the middle of the plate to Billy Butler in the 8th inning with two on and a one-run lead, and Butler made him pay, and the Sox went down to a 6-4 defeat.

Daniel Bard was staked to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, and wunderkind Will Middlebrooks did it again: he doubled and scored the first run. He's now played in five games, and gotten an extra base hit in all five, tying the MLB record for doing it in the first five games in a career. But he had to leave in the 3rd inning with a tight hamstring, the one that kept him out of one game over the weekend with the Orioles.

Bard gave three runs back in the bottom of the inning, which included balking home a run (he also balked again in the inning). But he settled in, and by the 8th, he had thrown only 86 pitches. And with a pen that was worked to death last weekend, I can understand Bobby Valentine staying with him. But Bard walked the first two hitters in the 8th, and then Albers showed up. The End.

No word yet on whether Middlebrooks will play in the finale tonight in Kansas City. He said after the game it was just for precautionary reasons he left.

Can the Red Sox actually win a series in Kansas City? We'll find out with Jon Lester on the mound for the Sox tonight.