Josh Beckett pitched well for the Red Sox, but the bullpen failed them.
Red Sox reliever Franklin Morales wipes his brow while pitching in the sixth inning against the Rangers Wednesday night at Fenway Park in Boston. By JON COUTURE
BOSTON – Well, cross Franklin Morales off Boston’s bullpen savior list.
And chalk up another loss in which the first instinct is to second-guess Bobby Valentine.
The Red Sox skipper brought Morales in to start the eighth inning of a one-run game, and the lefty who’d been nearly perfect before last night put six straight Texas Rangers on base.
Three insurance runs later, Texas was on its way to a 6-3 victory, securing a two-game sweep in their only visit to Fenway this season.
“He’s had four good outings for us. I was hoping to salvage that one,” Valentine said. “It didn’t work.”
Mike Napoli further cemented his status as a Red Sox assassin, slugging a two-run double to cement the win in the eighth after launching a two-run homer into the Monster seats in the fourth off Josh Beckett (1-2). The catcher has 16 home runs in 44 career games against the Sox, including postseason, and nine in his past 12.
Those extra runs proved critical when the Sox made some noise in the ninth against new Texas closer Joe Nathan.
After a leadoff walk to Cody Ross and a David Ortiz strikeout, Kevin Youkilis reached on an Adrian Beltre throwing error, the runners moving into scoring position when the ball went out of play.
Ryan Sweeney knocked a pinch-hit single to right to make it 6-3 – he’s 5-for-5 in the ninth inning this season and batting .424 overall – and put runners on the corners, but potential tying run Jarrod Saltalamacchia ripped a full-count liner that was snagged by leaping first baseman Brandon Snyder.
With Sweeney running on the pitch, Snyder stepped on first to propel the twice-defending American League champions to 10-2, matching the 1989 team managed by Valentine for the best start in team history.
Boston, meanwhile, lost its third straight following three straight wins against Tampa. Playing a schedule that’s included nine games again 2011 playoff teams, and which next brings the Yankees into Fenway for the park’s 100th anniversary weekend, the Sox are 4-8. They have been in last place in the AL East every day this season.
“It’s just getting it to go together,” Valentine said. “We’ll get some little things going our way.”
The night after a 21-run slugfest between the teams proved a pitchers’ duel, Beckett building off his eight stellar innings against Tampa by going seven against the AL’s top offensive team.
Following Napoli’s home run, which made it 3-2 in the fourth, Beckett retired the last 12 men he faced on just 48 pitches, his fastball regularly reaching 93-94 mph. The Rangers ran his pitch count up early, though, and Beckett came out after 110.
“Pitched plenty good to win a game,” Valentine said. “Had his good stuff. Just missing with his cutter away, seemed there were a lot of pitches that were real close that could have limited the pitch count.”
Morales got the first out of the eighth, but walked three batters, uncorked a wild pitch and hit pinch hitter Craig Gentry with the bases loaded to make it 4-2 before Napoli’s double.
Valentine confessed to sticking with Morales to show he trusts the lefty.
“He’s a guy I want to pitch against both sides of the plate,” Valentine said. “I wanted to keep the confidence that I wasn’t going to pull the plug too soon. .¤.¤. I was keeping Franklin in for Franklin.”
The Sox took a 2-0 lead in the second, Kevin Youkilis responding to being dropped to sixth in the order with a blast off the left-center light tower, but the Sox mustered just three hits from that point. Derek Holland (2-0) tossed his third straight quality start, fanning seven before giving way to Alexi Ogando, who tossed a perfect eighth.
Josh Hamilton, along with Napoli, had three hits for Texas.