Red Sox-White Sox: Contreras' Miscue Fuels Boston past Chicago

On a full count with two outs against Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jose Contreras, Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell connected, launching a fastball deep into the Boston night.

The ball shot off his bat like a rocket and carried swiftly over the Green Monster and out of Fenway Park.

Lowell watched it soar, pumped his fist, and looked gleefully into his dugout. He hobbled around the bases (he has a terribly painful hip injury) and touched home plate, then vigorously slapped hands with those who scored on his blast, David Ortiz and Jason Bay.

The sellout crowd was raucous, and the White Sox wandering aimlessly in the field and standing cemented in the dugout were stunned.

This three-run homer in the third inning should have never happened, though.

Boston shortstop Alex Gonzalez singled to start the inning and stayed there motionless as both Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were retired.

Chicago had roughed up Clay Buchholz, scoring two runs in the second inning, then two more in the top of the third on a home run by Gordon Beckham.

They held a 4-1 lead and, given that the Red Sox didn’t exactly have a threat going, it appeared their three-run lead would stay intact.

However, Boston wouldn’t let it.

In their lone win against the New York Yankees in their three-game set over the weekend, they scored 13 of their 14 runs with two outs. This trend would continue.

Victor Martinez worked a walk. Kevin Youkilis followed and found himself in a 0-2 hole before getting pegged for the umpteenth time this season. This loaded the bases and put Contreras in an unenviable position.

For the better part of his career, the 37-year-old Contreras has put up respectable numbers, but he has the reputation of being wild.

He throws a forkball—a rare pitch in this day and age—and it has helped him to compile 70 wins over eight-plus seasons, but it is unpredictable.

He has thrown it for strikes, but more often than not, it’s thrown in the dirt and is used to try and get hitters to chase.

What has hurt him throughout his career and has been the reason for his mediocre career ERA of 4.76 and his constant wildness is that hitters haven’t chased it with regularity, nor bit at his lively fastball or crafty slider.

The Red Sox, with one of the more patient offenses in baseball, weren’t any different.

With the bases loaded, Ortiz took a fastball just off the plate, then watched two sliders miss just low. A 3-0 count is a pitcher’s worst nightmare.

In this instance, Contreras couldn’t afford to issue a walk, as it would force in a run. That meant he couldn’t throw an off-speed pitch.

Though a hitter usually takes the 3-0 pitch, forcing the pitcher to throw a strike, Ortiz gave himself the green light, knowing he’d see a fastball. He got what he was looking for, but hit it weakly down the first base line.

Contreras ran towards the line, hoping to corral the ball and tag out Ortiz, which would therefore end the inning, but he got ahead of himself and overran it, allowing Ortiz to reach and Gonzalez to score.

This miscue, which could have been averted if Contreras let first baseman Paul Konerko field the ball, opened the floodgates and doomed a White Sox team in desperate need of a win.

Contreras was clearly rattled by his error and, as a result, couldn’t get the final out of the inning.

His location was lacking against Bay by finding the strike zone only once, while missing high twice and low twice to walk in Martinez from third and bring Boston within a run. Then, with the crowd abuzz, Lowell stepped to the plate.

Despite a substantial amount of rest due to his injury, Lowell has put together an outstanding offensive season; he entered his at-bat against Contreras with a .303 batting average, 15 homers, and 62 RBI.

He partially tore a labrum in his right hip in September of last season and had surgery following the season.

This injury slowed him considerably. He can barely walk now. Yet, he doesn’t complain, keeps hitting, and continues to play the hot corner at Gold Glove-caliber even though his mobility is shot.

He took a slider for ball one, then fouled off two fastballs, one placed right down the pipe and the other on the outside corner, to fall behind Contreras.

Down to his final strike, he had no choice but to swing and make contact with anything remotely close to the strike zone.

He fouled off the fourth pitch, which fell into this category, then let the fifth pitch be, for obvious reasons.

A Contreras forkball slipped, bouncing in front of the plate and past catcher A.J. Pierzynski to the backstop. Lowell waived in Youkilis from third, who rumbled home to tie the game.

Two pitches later, Lowell untied it with one mighty swing.

Lowell’s blast not only knocked out Contreras—who allowed seven runs, but only one earned—but completed the Red Sox' six-run, two-out rally.

The offense kept on scoring, adding two more in the fifth, a burst fueled once again by a Gonzalez single.

Buchholz tried to let the White Sox back into the game, allowing a three-run homer to Konerko in the fifth that ended his outing, but his offense bailed him out, responding with three runs in the seventh to pad its lead.

Some of the Red Sox have admitted that, with the Yankees leading the American League East by seven games, the Wild Card is their objective.

But in witnessing the discipline and passion they displayed in that third inning, especially by Lowell, it is clear that Boston is determined not to settle and still has its sight set on the division crown.

With the way they’re hitting, I don’t blame them.