The Red Sox lost to the Giants 3-2 last night, and now trail the Rays by percentage points in the AL East.

Reliever Brayan Villarreal, who was acquired in the three team Jake Peavy trade last month, made his Red Sox debut and walked in the game winning run.

Franklin Morales started the 9th inning, but loaded the bases after walking Andres Torres and hitting Hector Sanchez with a pitch. Villarreal was then inserted into the game, and walked Marco Scutaro on four pitches.

“I feel like we got squeezed,” Peavy told MLB.com’s Ian Browne after the game. “The last pitch was a strike. There’s no other way to say it.”

John Farrell told reporters he pulled Morales because of an “uncertainty of strikes.” But why he turned to Villarreal, who has walked 7.4 batters per nine innings this season, is inexplicable. Ball four to Scutaro may have caught the outside corner; however, Villarreal put himself in that situation by falling behind 3-0.

If Farrell wanted to insert a pitcher into the game who can throw strikes, he should’ve turned to closer Koji Uehara. Uehara’s control is impeccable, as he’s only walked nine batters in 55.2 innings this season. Villareal, conversely, has walked nine batters in 4.1 major league innings this season.

Uehara, despite only throwing 13 pitches over the last seven days, was never considered an option to enter the game because Farrell is a caveman and like most managers in baseball believes, “thou shalt not put closer into game when team does not have a lead.”

“I’m holding Koji back because if we push in a run, he’s going to close the game out,” Farrell said.

The conventional wisdom in baseball is to hold your best reliever out of the game until some hypothetical scenario arises. It is perceived to be far more tactful to put in a guy with an ERA north of 20.00 with the most important game of the season to date on the line. Makes perfect sense. Or maybe not.

 

The Red Sox will face left-hander Barry Zito in the series finale this afternoon, and hope to avoid dropping the series to the last place Giants. The team is hitting .207 against left-handed starting pitchers since the All Star Break.

Photo via Christopher Evans/Boston Herald

 

 

 

 

 

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