Image from the Boston Globe
When the Red Sox and the Angels get together, well, the Red Sox usually win. Or they seem to when it matters, at least. But last night was not one of those games. With both teams steamrolling towards playoff berths, it wasn't a must win for either side. But we'll get to context later. The game itself was a wild one at Fenway Park, with the Red Sox blowing a 5-3 lead and the Angels blowing leads of 3-0, 7-5, and 8-7, the last of which was the score going into the bottom of the ninth.
The ninth began with Angels closer Brian Fuentes getting Jason Bay and Mike Lowell out on five total pitches. Lowell hit a shot, but right at center fielder Torii Hunter. It would be the hardest hit ball of the inning.
With two down and nobody on, the fun started. Fuentes threw four straight sliders out of the strike zone to David Ortiz. Then with Joey Gaithright pinch running for Ortiz, the Angels went into a shift for JD Drew. After a taking a few, Drew fought off an inside pitch into short right center field that just eluded shortstop Eric Aybar who was to the right of second base.
With men on first and second, pinch hitter Jed Lowrie grounded a ball right down the left field line that third baseman Chone Figgins dove to knock down. It rolled away from him and the bases were loaded. That's when the proverbial shit really hit the fan.
Up stepped pinch hitter Nick Green, who revealed after the game that his right knee was so injured he had trouble standing up. Green swung through the first two pitches and fouled a few off. Then on the fifth pitch, he checked his swing. The Angels thought he had swung. He didn't break his wrists and if he broke the plane of the front of the plate it was by about an inch, but it was close enough that it could have been called either way. It was called ball one.
Green worked the count full and then took this pitch at the knees:
The pitch zone at the bottom right of the picture shows where the pitch is in the strikezone. I tend to think those things are a bit low, but you can see where the catcher's glove is too. One way or the other it was probably a strike. The plate umpire thought it was low and called it a ball. Ball four, and the tying run walked home.
Here is a screengrab of MLB's Gamecast. You can see pitch number nine in green right at the bottom of the strike zone:
It's a tough call to have go against you, but it didn't cost them the game. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the action.
With the game tied, up steps Alex Gonzalez. Gonzalez hits a flair into left field and it falls in front of left fielder Juan Rivera. Lowrie scores and the Red Sox win.
The strange thing about that play, aside from the fact that it was the third time on base for Gonzalez, a guy with a sub-.300 on base percentage, was the way that Rivera in left field loafed after the ball with the game on the line.
In the above Gamecast screengrab, you can see the red dot down the left field line in the bottom left of the image. That's where Gonzalez's hit landed. It was a pretty high pop too, and when it was hit it was no sure single. It looked at the time and was confirmed on replay that Rivera just gave up on the ball well before he should have. It landed right in front of him, I mean inches away. He picked it up as it was coming off the first bounce. With the game on the line and the losing run literally crossing the plate, he made zero effort to catch the ball. Strange.
Stranger still was the Angels collective reaction. I didn't find anything from anyone about Rivera's lack of effort. Instead, the Angels went after just about everyone else. They don't appear to teach any of the usual 'they're a good team and it's a tough loss, but we'll get 'em tomorrow' platitudes in Anaheim. Instead, Brian Fuentes who walked Ortiz and gave up legitimate hits to Drew and Lowrie, was furious at the umpires. "We're out there playing our hearts out,"
Fuentes said. "It's obviously emotional for both teams, and to have it taken away from you like that is discouraging. It's frustrating, especially here and in other places where they seem a little timid to make a call. It just seems like that's the way it is here, time and time again."
According to the same article, yesterday was Fuentes third career game at Fenway Park, so how he can make the determination that umpires call games differently at Fenway than other parks I have no idea. Also the idea that a single ball or strike call determined the game may be true on a literal level, but that's never really the case. There were too many pitches thrown in the whole game, let alone the ninth for that to be the case and a veteran pitcher like Fuentes should know that.
But the complaining didn't stop there. Center fielder Torii Hunter went a step further, calling his teammates
gutless. Even Manager Mike Scioscia got into the act, saying the count to Green at the end of his at-bat was, "3-4", a reference to the check swing as well as the final pitch of the at-bat.
All this was on the heels of the Angels loss to the Red Sox on Tuesday, after which losing pitcher John Lackey
called out his teammates after two costly errors - one of which he committed himself - saying the offense had to score more runs.
Keep in mind the context here. This is not a team struggling to make the post season in a situation where every game is a must-win. No, this is a first place team with a six game lead and seventeen games to go. For all intents and purposes, they're in the playoffs. This game didn't really matter, and neither did Tuesday night's.
For all the credit the Angels get, and they get a whole lot of credit - ESPN's TV announcers last night were falling all over themselves saying what a great fielding and smartly coached team the Angels are - when ever they encounter any turbulence they start attacking each other.
This isn't the only time this has happened. Last year in the playoffs after the very first game of the series, a 4-1 loss, starting pitcher John Lackey (sensing a theme here?) called out his offense,
saying "It's pretty frustrating when one pitch can lose the game for you. You've got to find a way to score runs in the postseason. You face good pitching every night [in the post-season]."
I understand it's the heat of battle, these guys care, blah blah blah. But there's a curious lack of understanding regarding the context the team is in. It's a strange reaction from a team that should be concerned with preparing for games that matter, not over reacting to ones that don't.
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