The Red Sox have seen the game get away from them, pulled it back, and then had a chance for a tie game snatched away by a bad call from not one, but all four umpires.
The bad luck for Boston came only after some terrible pitching by Kyle Weiland, who seemed to fall apart after he was hurt in the third inning by Darnell McDonald’s defense. Instead of giving the outfield more chances, Weiland just gave up three homers over the next two innings, before being pulled with two outs in the fifth for Felix Doubront.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense finally woke up some. Darnell McDonald provided the first run with a solo shot in the bottom of the third, making up for one of his two mistakes in the top of the frame. Jarrod Saltalamacchia tripled home David Ortiz in the fourth to give the Sox another run, but the fifth is when things really started to get going. A 2-out walk to Marco Scutaro was followed by back-to-back doubles from Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia, pulling the Sox within two runs. David Ortiz stepped up, and hooked the first pitch he saw into right field.
It should have been a double. The replay clearly showed that the ball hit either the line, or to the left of it. Except the first base umpire called foul, and not a single other ump was able to make the correct “fair” call after a conference. Ortiz took another big swing a few pitches later, but the ball died in dead center, and the Sox were robbed of at least a run, and possibly also some momentum.