I want to blame Mike Timlin. I really do. He’s clearly the bullpen equivalent of a white flag. But before blaming Timlin, these people need to take some credit: Terry Francona, Josh Beckett and Sam Holbrook.

This was probably Tito’s worst managed playoff game in his five years as Sox skipper. Beckett clearly had NOTHING. He couldn’t hit his spots, and his fastball that’s normally around 95-96 was topping out at 92-93…down the middle. Despite that, heading into the bottom of the 5th the Sox had a 6-5 lead. I totally understand wanting Beckett to get one shutout inning before handing everything over to the pen. But here’s my question: after the game was tied 6-6, and Evan Longoria who was already 2-2 with a HR and a double off Beckett was coming to bat, isn’t this clearly the time to go to the pen? And when the Sox were losing after that at bat 7-6, and you’re still in the 4th, why do you use Lopez FOR ONE PITCH? If you didn’t do that, maybe you would have had somebody other than Timlin to go to in the 11th. Just a thought.

I know, I know, if Lopez gets the out and the Sox win, Tito’s a genius. But I can’t imagine how he can defend those decisions even if they worked out.

As for the aforementioned Timlin, he was squeezed, pure and simple. After Mark Kotsay was called out on a pitch at least 6 inches off the plate in the top of the 11th, Timlin was having pitches called balls that were clearly strikes. Even the stupid TBS pitch tracks system said so. Did Sam Holbrook have dinner plans? I wish we could get a video of how the strike zone changed throughout the game. I have a feeling it’d look a bit like Oprah (”She’s fat, she’s thin, she’s fat, she’s thin – I mean, come on, pick a body and go with it!”). Holbrook should be ashamed. He handed one team the game on a silver platter. But then again, so did Tito.