Brewers 6, Red Sox 5

 

Most of the recent losses, and lord knows there's been a bunch of them lately, have been the fault of the flacid batting. The rest of the losses, including today's, can be blamed on the bullpen.

The batters did what they had to do today - they scored five runs, equal to their last four games combined. Raffy hit a three-run homer in the fourth, Abreu hit a solo homer in the 7th to tie up the game, and in the 10th, Hamilton brought Sogard home with an infield grounder.

But Justin Slaten wasn't able to get a single out in the 10th He gave up a single and then a Milwaukee runner scored on a fielder's choice to tie the game back up. The next batter got the go-ahead RBI on a sacrifice fly and that was that for the day - the Brewers win, 6-5 and sweep the Sox in three. 

This sucks. The fifth straight loss puts Boston (27-31) four games below .500, fourth place in the AL East and nine back from New York and falling, with the Yankees still left to play today.  

We're off tomorrow and I want you guys (I'm talking to the Sox here) to think long and hard about what you've done and how you're going to fix it. Next up, starting Friday, is a weekend series in Atlanta against the Braves, who ain't what they used to be but will still probably sweep the Sox unless some major adjustments are made.