Red Sox 6 Blue Jays 7

The Red Sox once again blew the chance to be .500. This game was really odd. It started with Ellsbury getting picked off at 2nd base in the top of the 1st. Then in the bottom of the inning Lester had control problems walking 3 batter including walking a guy home. The Sox had a chance to get out of the inning, but couldn't turn a double play, and Gonzalez dropped an seemingly easy ball to catch. All of this put the Sox down 3-0 early, and Lester was furious punching the wall in the dugout.

Lester had a right to be pissed. Yes, he had control problems, but he was really getting squeezed by the umpire. It looked for awhile that Lester was going to boil over, and even had to be held back by Pedroia, but he was able to calm himself down. Even after the first Lester wasn't himself letting up 5 runs over 5 1/3 innings walking a season high 5 batters, letting up 7 hits and strikingout 5.

It was really too bad, because the Red Sox offense came to play last night. Gonzalez had 2 HRs and 3 RBIs, which puts him tied for the lead in the AL for RBIs (with Konerko and Beltre). Ortiz also went deep, and has looked great at the plate.

The problem once again for the Sox was mistakes. They just aren't playing good baseball. Crawford got thrown out at the plate in the 4th inning. It seemed to me that he went a little wide with his turn, but I really question why he was even sent in the first place, because it really wasn't even that close. We already went over their mistakes in the first inning, but the worst came near the end of the game. Tek/Albers let Rajai Davis steal 2nd and 3rd, which is just pointing out a glaring problem with this team. The Sox flat out can't throw anyone out, and on top of that Salty was being criticized during the game for bad glove placement. I don't know much about what a catcher should be doing with a pitcher, but Gregg Zaun was ripping him all game for how he was handling the pitchers all game.

There are some thing to be excited about with this team. Crawford is getting going, Ellsbury looks like he is going to be good all year, Gonzalez is as good as advertised, Ortiz is hitting and usually get even better as it gets warmer. On top of that Beckett seems to be back to form, but its the little mistakes like getting picked off for no reason, fielding errors, base running errors, not turning double plays, and so on are going that are killing this team.

With the loss the Sox are 4 1/2 games back of the Yankees in the AL East.