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| (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) |
Everyone will focus on the bullpen meltdown in analyzing Boston's
most devastating loss of the season, 9-7 in 11 innings last night. With two outs in the ninth,
Alex Wilson and
Koji Uehara could not protect a four-run lead. That said,
it was the countless missed scoring opportunities early in the game that should have turned this into a laugher for the Red Sox. Your Carmine Hose left 14 men on base. If just
three of those baserunners scored, they win. Great performances by
Andrew Bailey and
Daniel Nava are forever lost in this morass. This is the kind of loss that can either destroy or embolden a team—it was that bad. We'll see how the Red Sox respond in the next several days—it might just determine whether they are champions or chumps.
