Sox pitcher Joel Pineiro tries unsuccessfully to tag out the Rockies’ Kaz Matsui at the plate after Pineiro threw a wild pitch in the eighth inning.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — Willy Taveras’ speed caused Boston shortstop Julio Lugo to commit an error in the first inning, leading to a run and a 1-0 Colorado advantage.

Taveras, the Rockies’ leadoff batter, had a National League-best 25 infield hits entering last night game, 19 of which were bunt singles.

He chopped the second pitch of the game toward short. Lugo knew he had to charge the ball, and he did, gloving it just on the infield grass. He knew he had to hurry, but as he rushed to make the play, he momentarily lost his grip on the ball.

Lugo double-clutched a bit, and by the time he finally got his grip again, he panicked and threw hurriedly. The ball took off on him, sailing way wide of first baseman Kevin Youkilis on the home-plate side of the infield and bouncing into the Boston dugout.

Taveras was credited with a single, his 26th infield hit (and 60th hit overall), and moved to second on the error. He scored from third with two outs on a double by Garrett Atkins.

The Rockies’ center fielder notched infield hit number 27 on the season on another chopper to short in the eighth.

He should have eaten it

Mike Lowell, a veteran third baseman who boasts one Gold Glove for his fielding prowess, made an uncharacteristically poor defensive decision in the second inning, costing the Sox another run.

With runners at first and second and two outs, the Rockies’ Matt Holliday hit a slow roller toward third. Lowell raced in and barehanded the ball.

He really didn’t have a play on Holliday at first, but he threw the ball anyway. And it wasn’t a good throw. It was a little wide of Youkilis, to the first-baseman’s right. He tried to make a backhanded pickup of the short-hop throw, but the ball deflected off his glove and rolled past him, permitting the runner from second to score an unearned run that made it, 3-0, Colorado.

Lowell, though, got that one run back, crushing a solo homer into the Monster seats in the bottom of the second.

Failure to communicate

Communication is vital on the baseball field. But it was in short supply early last night on several occasions.

In the top of the second, with Yorvit Torrealba on third and one out, Taveras hit a fly ball to shallow right, drifting toward the line. J.D. Drew made the catch and rifled a throw home in case Torrealba tagged up.

The throw was a little bit in front of the plate, so catcher Jason Varitek moved up to catch it and, thinking Torrealba must be running, quickly turned and lunged with his glove to the plate, expecting to make a tag.

Torrealba, though, wasn’t running, a fact pitcher Curt Schilling, backing up the plate, did not convey to Varitek, who had a few amicable words for his pitcher after the play.

In the bottom of the third, with Youkilis at first and two outs, David Ortiz dunked a single to center. Taveras fielded the ball and threw toward third, with Youkilis steaming around second. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, though, cut the ball off, a case of not knowing the opposition because there was no way Ortiz would have taken the extra base had the ball gone through.

They might or might not have had a shot at Youkilis. Taveras, seeing Tulowitzki cut the ball off, threw his arms up at his sides, palms up, as if to say, “What was he doing?”

Also in the bottom of the third, with Red Sox runners at first and third and two outs, Colorado pitcher Josh Fogg tried the step-off, fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff move. He not only surprised Ortiz, the runner at first, but he very nearly picked off his own first baseman, Todd Helton, who clearly was not expecting the throw. Ortiz was safe, but Helton did catch the ball.

Win some, lose some

As has been noted in the past, Manny Ramirez plays a very shallow left field.

That allows him to steal a few base hits, and it almost produced a forceout in the fifth inning when he fielded Holliday’s liner on one hop and threw quickly to second. Only the speed of Kaz Matsui, running from first, prevented the forceout.

But playing shallow cuts down Ramirez’s lateral range, so he was unable to catch up to Todd Helton’s slicing two-out bases-loaded liner in the sixth. The ball got past him and rolled to the wall, permitting all three runners to score and plunging the Sox into a 9-2 deficit.

skrasner@projo.com