The Red Sox trail by four runs in the third inning thanks to one broken bat.
Kyle Weiland retired the first seven batters he faced tonight before allowing a one-out double to John Jaso in the third. While he would get Reid Brignac to pop-up for out number two, Desmond Jennings would draw a walk, bringing B.J. Upton to the plate.
That was when the inning should have ended. On a 1-0 pitch, Weiland induced a relatively weak ground ball that would've been an out in any other situation. This time, however, Upton's bat broke and flew right towards Marco Scutaro at short along with the ground ball. A small jump to avoid a fast-moving shard of wood was all it took; the ball rolled under the elevated shortstop and into left field to score the run.
That wouldn't be so bad, except that it gave Evan Longoria a chance to swing the bat, and boy did he ever. The fourth pitch of the at bat was a fastball that caught too much of the plate, and Longoria just barely had enough, sending a fly ball right past the outstretched glove of Josh Reddick and into the pen for a 3-run shot.
It's impossible to blame Marco Scutaro for that, but if ever the Red Sox didn't need terrible luck like that, it was tonight.