No blessings on this night
RED SOX 9, RAYS 1: Joe Maddon's lunch with a friend in the church can't prevent ugly loss and another injury.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 20, 2006
BOSTON - Joe Maddon had lunch Wednesday with an old friend, Father Raymond Deviney of the Christ the King Parish in Blakeslee, Pa. They talked, like they always do, about secular topics such as baseball and books and movies, and Maddon joked that Deviney's best words of wisdom were to bring in the right relief pitcher.
"He's a very progressive priest," Maddon said. "He said he'd love to perform an exorcism among the group at some point."
After Wednesday's 9-1 debacle of a loss, Maddon might want to sit down with Deviney for some additional conversation.
Or absolution.
As much as Maddon has tried to find the positive in everything the Rays do, there wasn't much good to be said about what happened Wednesday.
Doug Waechter had a rough start, allowing a career-high seven runs (six earned) while failing to get through the third inning.
The Rays (7-8) were sloppy in the field, making four errors, including two in the same inning by transplanted leftfielder Ty Wigginton.
And the hitters couldn't do much against Boston ace Curt Schilling, who backed up his surprising criticism of Scott Kazmir with an unsurprising solid six-inning outing to improve to 4-0.
"It was not a good night," Maddon said.
And as bad as all that was, it wasn't the worst news of the day: Leftfielder Carl Crawford became the latest starter to be sidelined by injury, scratched from the lineup with a right shoulder so sore he couldn't swing a bat, and may be out a few more days.
Crawford is the fifth member of the Rays projected starting nine to be injured. Centerfielder Rocco Baldelli (who has yet to play), shortstop Julio Lugo (who played three innings) and third baseman Aubrey Huff (who was hurt in the eighth game) are all on the disabled list, and second baseman Jorge Cantu missed five starts.
"It's been tough all year," said Travis Lee, the only unscathed starting infielder. "We've just got to grind."
Waechter made it tough on them from the start, allowing a towering home run to Kevin Youkilis on his third pitch. He got quickly to the third and got the first out but never got out of it as six of the next seven Red Sox reached. By the time reliever Jason Childers got the final out, the Sox, who have a baseball-best 11-4 record, had sent 12 men to the plate and opened an 8-0 lead.
"It was just one of those days," Waechter said. "I felt like some of the good pitches I threw were getting hit. Sometimes it happens."
That was kind of the feeling throughout the Rays clubhouse, with the combination of their poor play and Schilling's good pitching (one run, six hits, one walk, seven strikeouts) a bad mix, even though Schilling claimed - with a straight face - that he struggled with command and consistency.
"We just did not get the starting pitching we needed against their starting pitcher, and that made it a little more difficult," Maddon said. "Doug did not have one of his better nights."
Neither did Wigginton, who described his evening in leftfield as "eventful" and "not very much fun." He did, however, respond to the Fenway fans who gave him a mock cheer when he did catch a fly ball after his rough fifth inning by tipping his cap.
The Rays have now lost eight straight at Fenway Park, three shy of their record for futility at Yankee Stadium (April 14, 2004-April 18, 2005) and Oakland's McAfee Coliseum (July 9, 2003-current).
The last time the Rays beat the Red Sox in Boston was July 18, 2005, and the time before that Sept. 14, 2004, and the common theme was Kazmir, who started both games. He will be on the mound again tonight, though still wondering why Schilling chose to blame him for the previous conflicts between the teams.
For the Rays, good words were hard to come by Wednesday night.
"We know we're faced with a little adversity right now," Maddon said. "We know that. But there's no excuses to be made."