Thursday, April 9, 2015

One Mistake Sends Red Sox To First Loss, 4-2

(AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
If we view yesterday's game in the larger picture, it's why we love baseball. Despite the Red Sox losing, 4-2 to the Phillies, the game embodied two examples of the "randomness" that makes the sport so great. First, after pitching 5.1 solid innings, Rick Porcello made one bad pitch—a hanging cut-fastball that was clouted out of the park for a three-run home run. A mistake was made and a hitter took advantage of it. Random bad luck. Later, Hanley Ramirez came to the plate with Boston trailing 4-2 and the bases loaded. Ramirez unloaded on a high fastball from former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon that got caught in the driving gale above Citizens Bank Park. What appeared to be his second grand slam in as many days, was knocked down to simple fly out. Again, random bad luck. What is certain is that the beautiful randomness of baseball will fall in our favor a few times this year as well. Just wait.