Final Score: Boston Red Sox 0, Oakland Athletics 2Last night may have been the most frustrating game of baseball I've ever watched. I went to bed irritated over it, I woke up this morning (far too early - stupid West Coast and their time lag) with the shocked returned realization of the loss and here I am at the keyboard, still fuming. Domination by a superior pitcher over seven or eight innings is hard enough to swallow, but watching the offense fall to Lenny DiNardo and the Four Jokers was as much fun as snorting ground glass.
I should have realized things were not going to end well after the first inning, when the Sox loaded the bases and still managed not to score. Of course, by that point DiNardo was already handing out walks like candy on Halloween and I figured there was still plenty of time to come back and drop a sweet can of whoop-ass on the confines of the Coliseum. Instead, the Sox load the bases twice, put the leadoff batter on base three times and then ground into enough double plays to make the game look like some sort of extended fielding practice for Oakland. Meanwhile, DiNardo gives up his eighth walk in two starts but escapes with an ERA+ that makes Tim Wakefield's prior high look bad. Good thing the Sox put DiNardo on waivers, huh?
Ok, maybe that was unduly bitter. I'll happily follow it up with another dose, though: if there's anything I hate more than the massive foul areas in Oakland (the ones that seem to work against the visitor and for the home team, which I suppose they're designed to do), it's losing thanks to a couple of cheap hits - balls struck towards the end of the bat that had no right going as far as they did. Dice-K, who has one of the highest amounts of run support in the majors, strikes out eight over seven innings and still gets the loss on two measly runs? What is this, bizzaro world? Knuckles, it's up to you to make things right.
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