The Sox luck had to run out sometime. When your starting pitcher gets scratched (again) and your missing your five hole hitter, you can’t just expect to come back in the 7th and 8th innings and keep winning. Plus the homer HansEn gave up in a tie-game in the 6th didn’t help either. Lester should get a lot of credit for starting on almost no warning and only three days rest.

But after my earlier shot at Amalie, I can’t let Dale Arnold off the hook. The man makes me wish for the days of Glenn Geffner. Here’s him calling one at-bat:

Dustin Pedroia walks to the plate. Dustin took the first pitch of his at bat in the first inning for a ball. The next pitch was a fastball for a called strike. On the third pitch of the at bat Pedroia grounded out to short.

In the third inning Pedroia watched the first pitch slider from Garland for a ball, before hitting the next slide from Garland to right…actually, more like right-center…for a sac fly.

In the fifth…zZzZzZzZzZ…

Sorry, I fell asleep there before the first pitch of the AB. Between this and his inability to actually DESCRIBE what’s happening (you know, the job description for a play-by-play announcer), he is quite possibly the worst PBP guy in MLB. I think I made this request last year, but I’d really like to know why the Sox couldn’t bring Dan Hoard from AAA for a few games. All XM listeners would thank them.