The Red Sox fell to the Angels 14-13 in ten innings Thursday night, perhaps finding a new low point to their already tragic season.
Boston would seemingly blow the game open in the second inning against C.J. Wilson. After grabbing a run in the first on back-to-back hits from Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez, the Sox exploded for five in the next frame.
A Mauro Gomez double down the left field line got things started, with Scott Podsednik knocking him in shortly thereafter. Pedro Ciriaco added an infield single, Ellsbury a line drive to center that scored Podsednik, and up came Dustin Pedroia with two on and two out. A fastball from Wilson caught way too much of the plate, and Pedroia took a big swing, finding the Monster seats on a line to make it 6-0.
The lead did not last long at all. Franklin Morales had been strong in the first two, but quickly surrendered a bloop single to start the third, and it all went downhill from there.Back-to-back one-out singles brought a runner in with two men on, and while Morales struck out Mark Trumbo for the second, he would walk the next two to bring in another run.
The inning could have ended there on a ground ball to Pedro Ciriaco, but the third baseman fumbled it, providing the Angels new life that they took full advantage of. With a third run in on the error and Clayton Mortensen in the game, the Angels got another walk for the RBI, and then three straight singles. By the time Junichi Tazawa came in and finally got the last out, it was 8-6, Angels.
As bad as the inning was, however, the Angels were still just two runs away. That became one on an error and a Cody Ross single in the fifth, and then in the sixth the Sox grabbed the lead right back. Mike Aviles tied the game with a home run into the Monster seats, and back-to-back doubles from Pedro Ciriaco and Jacoby Ellsbury made it a 9-8 game in favor of Boston.
Like the lead before it, this one would not last through the next inning for the Sox. as Andrew Bailey had weak contact lead to three hits and an equalizing run.
The Sox would make a strong play for the game in the eighth when they brought two runs across on four straight singles from Scott Podsednik, Pedro Ciriaco, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Dustin Pedroia, but amazingly they could not even hold that lead past the next frame. With one out, Vernon Wells got ahold of an Alfredo Aceves curveball and sent it just barely high enough to earn the home run call.
While replays would show that the ball was perhaps just a double, but it wouldn't matter, since with two outs Mike Trout found the outfield with a line drive that got past Cody Ross. That would have been an RBI right there were the Wells hit just a double, and if not, then the game-tying single from Torii Hunter would have brought him in all the same. Howie Kendrick walked behind Hunter, Mark Trumbo went back up the middle with a single, and just like that it was 12-11.
That lasted three pitches into the bottom of the inning, as Cody Ross quickly found the Triple-A sign over the Monster seats to tie the game.
It was just one of those games.
Just ask Kendrys Morales, who took the second pitch of the tenth deep after the Sox failed to score a walk-off run. An Erick Aybar single and Vernon Wells double later, and it was 14-12. The Sox got one back in the bottom of the inning, but Adrian Gonzalez struck out, and just like that, the longest night of the season was over.
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