Sox Squander Shots Against ChiSox In 5-4 Loss

BOSTON—With the skies gray, the grounds damp and almost everyone in attendance wearing multiple layers of clothing to ward off the chill, it felt and looked like October Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park. And if the Red Sox don’t actually play at home this October, they can look to Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the White Sox as the major reason why.

The Red Sox stranded 11 runners on base, had another thrown out at home plate and squandered numerous opportunities to bury the White Sox in the early and late innings. With the loss, the Red Sox (64-52) fell into a tie for the AL wild card lead with the Rangers (64-52) and the Angels (65-53).

The Sox put eight runners on base in the final two frames against three Chicago relievers, but they left the bases loaded without scoring in the eighth. In the ninth, the Sox closed within one run on Jason Varitek’s two-out, two-run single, but with tying run Manny Ramirez at third base, Orlando Cabrera grounded out when he was badly fooled by an early-breaking slider from Chicago’s junk-throwing closer Shingo Takatsu.

“You get the tying run, the winning run, to the plate with the middle of the order up, you feel pretty good,” Terry Francona said.

The Sox had plenty of chances to feel pretty good earlier in the game against White Sox starter Mark Buerhle, who entered the game with the sixth-best walks-per-nine innings ratio in the American League (1.7). But Buerhle walked the bases loaded in the first, issued another free pass in the second, allowed three hits in the third and needed 74 pitches to get through the third, yet managed to keep the Sox off the scoreboard in each of those frames.

Cabrera grounded out to leave the bases full in the first, Johnny Damon struck out on a full-count cutter out of the strike zone to end the second and Kevin Youkilis was thrown out at home trying to score from second on Cabrera’s two-out single in the third.

Buerhle settled down after that and lasted seven innings. He threw just 36 pitches in his final four innings of work.

“If I could have done anything, it would be a totally different story,” Damon said, referring to his second inning at-bat. “I’m definitely upset we didn’t take advantage of [Buerhle]. This wasn’t one of his better performances and he came out with the win.”

Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo, meanwhile, was as efficient through three innings as Buerhle was uneconomical. Exactly 53 weeks after he threw a perfect game for Triple-A Pawtucket, Arroyo inspired thoughts of another flirtation with immortality when he needed just 36 pitches to set down the first 10 White Sox he faced. But Timo Perez singled to end any hopes of a no-no and Carlos Lee and Paul Konerko followed with an RBI double and an RBI groundout, respectively, to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.

After wasting so many early opportunities against Buerhle, the Sox finally got through to him in minimalist manner in the sixth, when they tied the game by stringing together three hits on as many pitches. Varitek singled, Cabrera doubled him to third and Doug Mientkiewicz drove both runners home with a single.

The White Sox used small ball to take the lead for good in the seventh, when Jose Valentin singled off Arroyo, stole second, went to third on a fly out and scored on Juan Uribe’s sacrifice fly. Lee hit a two-run blast off Mike Timlin in the eighth to give Chicago some much-needed insurance.

It was another hard-luck loss for Arroyo, who fell to 5-9 despite ranking third among Sox starters with a 4.13 ERA. “A loss is a loss for the Boston Red Sox,” Arroyo said. “If we come back and win the game in the eighth or ninth, I’m happy with the outing, because we got a win. But the main objective is to get into the playoffs.”

The Sox made that objective a little tougher to reach Sunday.