Tim Wakefield’s former manager Jimy Williams had an expression for what happened to Kevin Youkilis and the Red Sox on Friday night in a 7-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners in 11 innings at Fenway Park.

In the fourth inning, a fan wearing a white hat held his ground for a souvenir instead of giving way to Youkilis on a foul ball near the Mariners dugout on the third base side. The ball was one row deep into the seats but Youkilis had a bead on it.

The batter, Ryan Langerhans, rips the next pitch to left-center for a double that started a three-run rally against Wakefield.

“It was a pretty big sigh of relief because when I first hit it, I thought it was easily into the stands and then I saw that Youkilis had a pretty good bead on it and thought, ‘Oh no!’ The guy getting in his way definitely gave me a big sigh of relief and then I was able to get on the next pitch,” Langerhans said.

Williams would call it ‘Buzzard’s Luck.’  But fans were hardly in the mood for reminiscing on this night.

The fans start to cheer ‘It’s all your fault’ during the inning and the fan eventually vacates his front-row seat.

But not before Langerhans and Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia have a funny exchange at second base, moments after the Seattle batter had been given new life.

“Pedroia and I had a pretty good laugh about it out at second base,” Langerhans said. “I was like, ‘They’re about to wear him out.’ And he said, ‘Oh, you have no idea.’”

Several Mariners were spotted laughing and smiling at the fan, almost out of appreciation.

“Griffey said he was going to high-five him on the way by,” Langerhans said.

As for the Red Sox, they all thought Youkilis was about to record a very important second out that would have likely resulted in a scoreless fourth.

“By (Youkilis’) reaction, I thought he had a chance,” Nick Green said.

“I thought it was going to come back,” added catcher George Kottaras. “The ball always tends to come back that way. I heard Youk. I thought he had a good chance to catch it.”

But not on this night. This night, the Red Sox were done in by Buzzard’s Luck.

3 Comments for “Red Sox run afoul with bad luck”

1. Mike P Says:
   July 4th, 2009 at 9:48 am

   This is ridiculous to say that this dude cost the Sox the game. What cost them the game was that FranCOMA kept in Wake too long. I was shocked he came out in the 8th, then shocked he didn’t get pulled after the hr and the hit after that. Does anyone not see this?

2. J.L. Says:
   July 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am

   Didn’t see the game or the play…but where I come from, fans try to help the team win by cheering, supporting, and getting out of the damn way when one of them can make an out, even when it is one row deep. This guy may not have cost Red Sox nation the game, but I guess he didn’t want to help them win either. Next time stay home.

3. Nicole Says:
   July 5th, 2009 at 11:41 am

   Always let the home team field!

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