I thought that ball that Carl Crawford hit in the ninth inning would be his fourth game-winning (I prefer that term to the more commonly accepted "walkoff") hit of 2011. It died on the warning track in Jeff Francoeur's glove.
BTW, why did Tito let Yamaico Navarro bat after that out? I could swear I saw Marco Scutaro, who had the day off, wearing a helmet with a bat in his hands in the dugout. Navarro wound up striking out to end it.
Josh Beckett had just one bad inning on Thursday, allowing a three-run shot to Billy Butler and two doubles that brought in four Kansas City runs. Luke Hochevar pitched even better, allowing just two runs in seven innings.
The 4-3 loss made it a split with those pesky Royals. They have always given the Sox trouble, and had the Sox won, the all-time season series would have been tied at 213 wins apiece. The last time the Sox were at .500 with KC was back in May of 1980. Pretty incredible if you think about it.
The best part of Thursday was Dustin Pedroia's final at-bat in the 8th inning with his 24-game hit streak on the line. The fans were so into, as the applause got louder and louder as the at-bat went on. On 3 and 2, Dustin lined a shot into the Monster seats to make it 4-3 and 25 straight.
Terry Francona had a great quote about the fans, and it's on the right side of this blog under "Words To Live By."
It just makes me love Tito all the more.
The Sox now hit the road for three against the White Sox in Chicago. Tim Wakefield goes for number 200 tomorrow night.