Pauley whacked by Francoma, bullpen

Big surprise the Yankoffs beat the Red Sox on 6-6-06. It is a no brainer. It would be like the Patriots losing on Patriots Day...but Tuesday night they had a (Grady) little help from Sox manager Terry Francoma, who squandered rookie David Pauley's superb 6 and 2/3 innings performance.

With the game tied at 1 and 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, Miguel Cairo chopped a ball just to Pauley's left. He was unable to make the play. At that point, with Johnny Damon coming up Francoma should have gone to the pen, to bring out anyone. Instead he kept Pauley in there, who proceeded to give up a single to Damon (or is it Damion). Again Francoma, who had pitchers up in the pen all inning, should have pulled Pauley. Pauley stayed in and walked Melky Cabrera. Enter Francoma. Enter Rudy Seanez.

A 5 pitch walk to Jason Giambi later and the Yankoffs have a 2-1 lead. Seanez then fanned Double Play-Rod (0 for 4, 2 K's, 2 ground outs) on three pitches, leaving the bases loaded and keeping it a one-run game. Your Uncle Buck had to chuckle at the Yankoff fans raining the boos down on A-Fraud...

The Sox came to bat, but after Big Papi David Ortiz (who had a solo homer earlier in the game for the Sox only run) struck out, Manny Ramirez was robbed of a home run to left as Cabrera pulled the ball back into the park. Ironically, it is doubtful that any of the Yankoff starters would have made that play. If you haven't seen it here it is:

The Red Sox have now lost 4 strait to the Yankoffs, but may have found a temporary pitching solution as David Pauley came up big in the Bronx...After the game Francoma told Pauley he would have to think about starting him over the weekend against Texas. A camera in the locker room caught Pauley's reaction: