Sox drubbing at A's hands a big turnoff for the fans

08:15 AM EDT on Friday, May 28, 2004

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

AP photo Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez is unable to catch up to a drive hit by the A's Marco Scutaro in the fourth inning last night.

BOSTON -- Last night was not good for must-see television.

Even viewing the Red Sox game live must have been tough. So fans around New England must have changed the channel for more interesting viewing because a made-for-television movie would have been a better selection than last night's debacle at Fenway Park.

Boston saw its five-game winning streak halted as the Oakland Athletics pounded the Red Sox' pitching staff en route to a 15-2 victory.

In a word -- ugly.

The Athletics pulverized the Sox' staff into submission and had it seeing double -- literally. Oakland banged out 17 hits, including seven doubles, to take the final game of the three-game series.

Boston starter Bronson Arroyo suffered through his second consecutive tough outing, allowing nine runs (six earned) and seven hits through 3 1/3 innings of work. Reliever Jamie Brown couldn't stop the bleeding, surrendering three runs on six hits in only 2 2/3 innings.

At this point in the game, the noise you heard around Red Sox Nation was the switching of the channel and the stomping of feet of the majority of the 35,438 fans leaving Fenway Park.

"Right from the get-go, things didn't go our way," said Boston manager Terry Francona. "And it got worse as the game progressed. The good news is nobody got hurt. I guess this is too much to ask, but the game was probably televised, right? It was just a bad night, a tough night. We took our lumps."

Oakland starter Mark Mulder was the one keeping the Red Sox off balance while the Athletics' offense took care of the rest. Mulder allowed two runs on four hits with seven walks and four strikeouts through 5 2/3 innings.

"I thought he had great stuff," said Oakland manager Ken Macha. "He was popping that ball in there."

Arroyo, on the other hand, had trouble with his command, as most of his pitches were flat.

"There were a lot of line drives," said Francona. "It looked like early on he was having a tough time getting a feel for what he was doing, and he paid the price."

The A's easily pushed across three runs in the first inning, and did so again in the second. But the worst was yet to come.

The Athletics put a six-spot on the board in the fourth for a 12-0 lead, and it was the first time the Red Sox had allowed at least 12 runs to score without scoring themselves since July 23, 1999, at Detroit. That night, the Tigers jumped out to a 14-0 lead before posting a 14-5 victory.

Last night, Boston's only two runs came in the bottom of the sixth, on RBI by Pokey Reese and Doug Mirabelli. Oakland added three more runs in the seventh.

"They came out hitting, and hit pretty well against us," said David Ortiz, who went 2-for-2 to extend his hitting streak to six games. "That was the difference . . . Every time they swung, they hit."

Boston left 10 runners stranded as it suffered its largest margin of defeat since a 22-1 thrashing at the hands of the New York Yankees in June of 2000.

By the end last night, it felt more like a game at McCoy Stadium than one at Fenway Park. Of the nine players in the field for the Red Sox, five had played for the PawSox this season -- Kevin Youkilis, Cesar Crespo, Anastacio Martinez, Brian Daubach and Andy Dominique.

"We've been playing well, so this doesn't bother us," said Ortiz. "(Today) we just have to come out and do what we've been doing."

Well, minus last night's performance.