Ugh-ly

Ugly. Very ugly.

The Red Sox bullpen coughed up another one last night at Fenway. When they took a 5-1 lead, the game felt comfortable. When they took an 8-3 lead, the game felt comfortable. But it never lasted long. Matt Clement put up his worst performance of the year, but things got no better when he left, as Embree gave up a two-run double to the first batter he faced. They got two innings from Mike Timlin, not perfect but scoreless. Then Foulke came in, needing two more scoreless for the win. Double, HR, fly out, single, HR. 4 hits, 2 of them HR, to the first 5 batters he faced.

Which they might have been able to get away with, had the offense not stopped scoring with Manny's 4th inning HR. They didn't do much, but, with a one-run lead, they left a runner at 3rd in the 5th, a runner at third in the 6th, and runners at 2nd and 3rd in the 7th. If they had gotten two of those 4 in, the Tejada home run doesn't give the Orioles the lead, and the rest of that inning may play out differently.

But they didn't, and the end result is yet another ugly loss. It's frustrating when you don't hit, it's frustrating when the starting pitching isn't working, but there may be no more demoralizing way to lose than having the bullpen consistently blow up with leads. Foulke and Embree, in particular, have been very bad so far. I don't expect it to continue, but their record should be better than it is, and it's largely the responsibility of those two...