Sounds like the recipe for a cakewalk.
On Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park, it added up to nothing more than a gnawing one-run loss sprinkled with missed opportunities and mistakes — most notably those of third base coach Tim Bogar, who waved two baserunners to their demises at home plate.
"Two bad decisions," Bogar said in the Red Sox clubhouse following the 9-8 setback. "I got two runners thrown out at the plate. Obviously, it’s all about results, and obviously, both times I was wrong. So I take full responsibility for it."
Bogar was not the only one worthy of blame — the Sox were 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base, including nine in scoring position. They certainly had their chances.
But when you see a one-run loss on the board and think back to the situations that arose in both the third and fourth innings, the question needs to be asked: Was Bogar to blame?
Bogar’s boss, for one, took his side.
"I think that that is probably one of the toughest jobs in the big leagues, especially here," said manager Terry Francona. "I think that every decision is not going to work out to our advantage. They converted both. If they don’t, nobody’s asking."
Maybe not, but they would be justified in doing so, simply due to how unconventional the decisions by Bogar were.
Victor Martinez, who is still slightly hobbled by a bruised left foot, led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk. Kevin Youkilis followed with a drive off the Green Monster in left-center field. With nobody out, red-hot Adrian Beltre on deck and a guy in Martinez who doesn’t run well even when healthy, it would seem a given to hold the runner.
But Bogar, who called himself "aggressive," sent the catcher and the relay had him by a few steps. The Red Sox failed to score in the inning, lost the lead in the top of the fourth and never reclaimed it.
They did, however, have a chance to add a much-needed run in an eerily similar situation in the bottom of the fourth.
Darnell McDonald led off with a single but banged his left knee trying to get back to first on a pickoff attempt. He was able to walk it off but was hurt enough to have a massive ice pack on the knee after the game.
A Bill Hall single moved McDonald to second, and Jeremy Hermida then grounded one into right field. Again, there were no outs, a runner perhaps not at 100 percent heading into third base and the top of the order coming up. Still, McDonald was given the green light.
It was out No. 1 of an inning which saw the Sox score just once, leaving runners at second and third.
While he admirably took the heat for both runners being tagged out, Bogar was particularly upset about the second one, saying he misread the Hermida hit.
"The second play, obviously I didn’t think it was hit as hard as it was," Bogar said. "That was a bad decision. Sometimes you have to give credit to the other guys, but when there’s nobody out, you have to make sure you can score and it just didn’t go that way.
"Anytime you get somebody thrown out in this situation, you feel like you let the team down a little bit. The guys battled all day. They gave us a lot of opportunities to come back and we just didn’t have enough to do it, so mistakes like that get magnified."
Certainly, there were many more chances to make Bogar’s blunders nothing more than a footnote, but Oakland never relinquished the lead. The Red Sox got solo homers from Marco Scutaro in the eighth and Hall in the ninth, but it was not enough. By one run.
To a man, the Red Sox stuck up for their third base coach, or at least gave credit to the other side.
"I was running pretty good," McDonald said. "They made a good play. The ball could’ve bounced in, you never know. You tip your hat to them, they got the job done. If I would’ve scored there wouldn’t be any problems. Nothing with being hurt or anything, I was running well and they made a good throw and catch."
In addition to admitting to his mistakes, Bogar indicated that his "overaggressive" style has not paid off a few times this year. He will look within, but doesn’t expect to change.
"Is it a fault? I guess if it continues to happen, yeah, I better pull it back," Bogar said. "But you know what? Every time I’ve sent a guy, I’ve felt at that point that I made the right decision. Obviously the results … I’m gonna live with those results. I’m not going to change who I am and how I go about it. Just try to learn and make better decisions."
Francona said he pulled Bogar aside after the fourth and told him he was a good coach and that "sometimes you have to have a little bit of amnesia" in Bogar’s role. Forgetting and moving on is paramount.
Yet, despite all the other chances the Red Sox had to score a run, it was tough to forget the two they lost right at home.
