BOSTON -- So, does it make you feel any better that the Red Sox were mad when they lost?
Didn’t think it would.
Dustin Pedroia was ejected from a game for only the second time in his career,
Jon Lester barked at the plate umpire after losing his shutout, Bobby Valentine made a nice show of being angry, more than a few fans vented because Valentine left
Mark Melancon in to pitch in a close game, and all that spleen amounted to just so much background noise to another Sox defeat, Boston falling to the
Texas Rangers, 6-3.
One night after hitting eight doubles and scoring nine runs, the Sox were blanked until
Will Middlebrooks hit a pinch-hit, three-run home run off newly minted Rangers starter
Ryan Dempster in the seventh inning, drawing the Sox to within a run, 4-3.
But Melancon gave up a run in the eighth on a walk, ground ball and single by
Nelson Cruz, and the Rangers added another on a hit batsman by
Craig Breslow and singles by
Elvis Andrus and
Josh Hamilton of
Junichi Tazawa in the ninth.
Pedroia was tossed in the ninth by first-base umpire Paul Nauert, who had drawn Pedroia’s ire the previous inning when he ruled that the second baseman had not checked his swing on a third strike. Pedroia pantomimed his swing on the way back to the dugout, kept cursing at Nauert from the dugout -- one expletive so loud it could be heard in the pressbox -- but when he returned to his position at the start of the ninth did not look at the umpire.
But when third-base umpire Doug Eddings ruled that
David Murphy had checked his swing when Breslow hit him with a pitch, Pedroia was inspired to resume his dialogue with Nauert, and this time his choice of adjectives prompted the umpire to give him the rest of the night off.
Valentine then joined the discussion, the crowd goading him on with chants of “Bobby, Bobby” but despite some animation from the manager, he was allowed to remain on the premises.
Lester was superb through five innings, shutting out the Rangers on two singles. But in the sixth, Murphy doubled and scored on a Monster-ball single by
Ian Kinsler. Kinsler advanced to second on a slow roller and scored on another base hit by Hamilton. A walk, single and sacrifice fly by Murphy produced another run in the seventh, Lester departing after he walked
Mike Olt.
Lester was excised by what he believed were missed strike calls on both Murphy and Hamilton by plate umpire Lance Barrett.
