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Closing Time: Yankees beat up Lester, Sox in Bronx 09.24.11 at 7:12 pm ET
By Rob Bradford

Jon Lester had perhaps his worst of the season at a most inopportune time Saturday. (AP)

Just when the Red Sox thought it couldn’t get any worse …

The Yankees jumped all over Sox starter Jon Lester with eight runs in just 2 2/3 innings, leading to a 9-1 loss for the visitors at Yankee Stadium Saturday. For the Red Sox, whose starters now have a 7.34 ERA in September, Lester’s rough outing marked the 10th time this month that a Sox rotation member allowed five or more runs.

The Red Sox are now 5-17, giving them the third-most losses in September of any Red Sox team. The only Sox teams to have more defeats in the season’s final month were the 1952 (20) and ’74 (18) clubs.

Here is what went wrong (and right) as the Sox dropped to 88-69:

WHAT WENT WRONG

- Lester has now had four outings in his career where has allowed eight or more runs, this time giving up six runs in the second inning — half of which came on a three-run homer to Derek Jeter — and two more in the third before giving way to Scott Atchison. Lester threw just 55 pitches, having now allowed 16 runs in 13 2/3 innings over his last three starts.

- Not helping matters in the second for Lester was the combination of shortstop Marco Scutaro and third baseman Mike Aviles failing to get a sure out  at third for what would have been the second out of the frame. With runners on first and second, Andruw Jones hit a ball between the two fielders which Scutaro gobbled up. But the shortstop failed to go to third, perhaps because of the late arrival at the base by Aviles, resulting in late throw to second, loading the bases.

- Immediately after the blunder on Jones’ grounder, an even more damaging defensive play arrived for the Sox two batters later. Following an RBI single by Jesus Montero for the game’s first run, Carl Crawford failed to come up with a sinking liner off the bat of Russell Martin, watching the ball drop off his glove while the left fielder went into a slide. If Crawford had made the catch, he surely would have been able to double up Jones at second, limiting the inning to just one run.

- The Red Sox’ offense wasn’t able to do anything against Yankees starter Freddy Garcia, who had struggled to a 10.95 ERA over his last three starts (15 runs in 12 1/3 innings). Against Garcia, the Sox stranded seven runners over the pitcher’s six innings, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

- Almost nothing, save for a couple of solid performances by members of the bullpen. Most notably, Atchison continued his strong September with 2 1/3 shutout innings. Junichi Tazawa also tossed 1 1/3 scoreless frames, while Trever Miller punched out Robinson Cano; the veteran left-hander has retired all six batters he’s faced as a member of the Red Sox.

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  • http://Www.reluctantlawyer.com Peter Rustin
  • Stew

    The Suck has pervaded the entire team…

  • 451dstreet

    Melt. Down. Embarrassing. Hard to watch anymore.

  • Harry

    The Fat Lady’s warming up…

  • Craig in CT

    Disgusted. And despite the fact I think a lot more of Francona than many people who post here, I am beginning to come around to the idea that it’s time for him to go. A manager’s job is to get the most out of his players. That’s not happening. On a game after game basis now, it’s not happening. Sometimes you have to ax a manager or head coach not because they’re unqualified, but because you have no other option to try and regain the attention of the players.

  • Brian

    The Red Sox are no longer playing as a cohesive team…rather they are a bunch of talented individual contributors that lack the desire to win! Maybe next year folks…

  • PABach

    The Red Sox have proven themselves to be a collection of front-runners and frauds. We can beat up overpaid underachievers like Lackey and Crawford all day, but no one has disappointed and disgusted me more than Jon Lester. Damn him, he’s supposed to be an ace, and he’s now lost three games in a row when his team has needed him the most?? His 15-9 record couldn’t be more deceptive. What an utter, complete fraud. I’m actually rooting for the Rays or the Angels to take the wild card so we don’t have to watch this train wreck of a team get swept in the first round of the playoffs.

  • npd1969

    Just plain pathetic! To me it looks like nearly the entire team spent today making tee times for Friday afternoon. Sunday will likely be the same as today, shutting it down.

  • Babe Ruth Is Dead

    wow…and now we have Lackey & Wakefield pitching this weekend…a sweep at the hands of the Yankees…frickin great….

  • WHITEY

    Quite simply the staff that THEO said was the best in baseball ….does not have a stopper…won’t even have a 15 game winner. Its a very very poor starting pitching staff. Money wasted on Jenks, Lackey, Crawford, Cameron…all could have gone to one very good starter.

  • Angela

    Scary. It could be a tie by tomorrow night.
    This team looks like they’re going through the motions.
    Papi jogging to first on his double play ball.
    Crawford makes Jason Bay look like a Gold Glover.
    Adrian Gonzalez:
    vs.
    Detroit – .130
    NY Yankees – .186
    Tampa Bay – .131
    Phillies – .091 !!!
    Does NOT hit good team’s pitching, gaudy stats mean zero with him.

  • vin

    Good stats Angela. Been saying all year Gonzo disappears against the better teams. People can heap praise on him for destroying Orioles pitching, but he’s nowhere to be found against NY and Tampa Bay. I don’t know if they’ll blow it or not since I think they win one or two more which means Tampa has to win all but one. However, if they make the playoffs it’s hard to see them winning a game. As long as we keep paying overpriced heartless talent it’ll be a long time before another title comes this way.

  • Steven

    I thought all you Red Sox fans are comparing this struggling, fading squad as the 2011 equivalent of the 2000 Yankees, who won only 87 games but ended up winning the World Series over the Mets, 4 games to 1. I mean, if you believe it, it will happen, right?

    Then again, that Yankees team had won the World Series in 1996, 1998, and 1999 and won 12 WS games in a row after losing the first two to Atlanta in 1996. In other words, it was a strong, cohesive team, not a bunch of overpriced guys who think that having a scruffy look make them a lunch-pail, blue-collar squad will endear them to Red Sox fans.

    Guys, you’ve been duped by this team and will now labor under the obscene contracts Theo & Company doled out.

  • Steve

    Red Sox are a waste to Human Life

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