Wretched performance makes O's big winners

08:32 AM EDT on Thursday, July 22, 2004

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

AP photo Red Sox starter Pedro Martinez, center, leaves the mound after being taken out in the seventh inning of last night's game by manager Terry Francona, right.

BOSTON -- Ugly. Uglier. Ugliest.

That pretty much summed up the Boston Red Sox' wretched performance in a 10-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles last night at Fenway Park.

Pedro Martinez finished the night with an ugly pitching line, charged with eight earned runs in 6 2/3 innings in suffering his first loss overall since May 16 and his first setback of the year at home.

Johnny Damon's play in center field was uglier, including a botched line drive and typically weak-armed throws that contributed to Martinez' ugly line.

And the ugliest play of all was a Keystone-Kops-like unplanned triple-cutoff play that turned a triple into an inside-the-park home run for David Newhan (4-for-5, 4 runs), enabling the Orioles to stretch their lead from 6-4 to 8-4.

The standings aren't looking any prettier this morning, either. The setback dropped the Sox eight games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East, and they didn't do themselves any favors in the wild-card chase, either.

The only items of beauty last night for Boston were home runs by Gabe Kapler (game-tying three-run drive in the fourth) and Kevin Millar (solo shot in the sixth).

But the importance of defense in winning baseball was on display early, and it wasn't the Red Sox throwing the leather.

A dazzling, back-to-the-infield diving catch in center field by Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada (3-for-5, 5 RBI) robbed Jason Varitek of a two-out, two-run hit in the first inning. Instead of a 2-0 lead, the inning was over. And the Sox never led.

"They caught the breaks," sighed Damon, whose nightmarish night was capped fittingly when he rapped into a game-ending double play, blunting a possible comeback bid that already had produced one run.

"This was one of those nights where anything that could go wrong did go wrong," said Damon.

No one play typified the Sox' ineptitude last night better than a clout they managed to turn into a two-run inside-the-park homer by Newhan in the seventh as the Orioles stretched their lead to 8-4.

Newhan clubbed a drive to straightaway center that Damon tried to chase down. He couldn't catch up to the ball, which hit high off the wall. Damon tried a Spiderman-like leap, though, with his glove facing the wall, apparently hoping for a miracle carom into his leather.

That didn't happen, though. He chased down the ball after it hit the wall as Newhan raced to third, seeking a triple. Damon threw the ball toward third. Second baseman Bill Mueller was in the cutoff position, backed up by shortstop Mark Bellhorn.

But left fielder Manny Ramirez, who had come over to back up Damon on the carom, got in the way. He caught the ball in self-defense, falling as he did so. From his knees, he threw the ball to Bellhorn, who quickly threw to the plate, but far too late to nail the speedy Newhan.

"Manny made a highlight catch," said Damon. "Unfortunately, it was an embarrassing one for us. It happens."

What happened in the fourth was equally unfortunate and ugly. With runners at second and third and one out, Tejada scorched a liner to center. Damon thought he had it. But at the last second the ball veered away from him and rolled to the wall for a two-run triple. Tejada scored on a sacrifice fly, giving Baltimore a 3-0 lead.

"I was getting ready to catch it chest-high because the runner was going to tag and I was going to throw home," said Damon. "All of a sudden, the ball shot to my right about 10 feet."

Damon's disaster also included a wide throw home from extremely shallow center field, as Melvin Mora tagged and scored from third on Javy Lopez' fly ball, putting Baltimore on top, 6-3, in the sixth.

None of which helped Martinez, who fanned six of the first 10 batters he faced before allowing a hit. Martinez, who was trying to go deep into the game to help out a fried bullpen, gave up some soft hits, was beaten with hits on good pitches and made a few mistakes, too.

"He definitely didn't deserve to give up that many runs," said Damon.

Maybe that wasn't surprising, though, since the Orioles were the opposition. Baltmore has battered him for 15 earned runs in 11 2/3 Fenway innings this season, an 11.57 earned-run average, compared to 2.06 against everyone else at home this year. And that doesn't factor in the 10-run disaster in 4 1/3 innings on April 15 last year.

"Nothing to say, I just gave it up," said Martinez, whose record dropped to 10-4 (6-1 at home) and his E.R.A. jumped to 4.01.

"I guess you have to give them credit. There's no other way to explain it," said Martinez. "Let it go and say Pedro gave it up. That's pretty much it. Say Pedro got shelled."