BOSTON –
That ladder, painted the same pale green as everything else here so
it's hard to see against the Green Monster, has probably been attached
to that wall since Fenway Park opened 105 years ago. Paul Molitor played
more than 100 games here and can't recall that ladder ever coming into
play.
So of
course it did Thursday night, right in the middle of a Red Sox comeback,
right when it could affect the outcome of the game. The Twins blew an
early three-run lead and fell behind for good during one of their
unluckiest innings of the season, with that ladder a memorable
participant. The final score was 6-3 Boston, and the Twins left Fenway
Park shaking their heads.
"A ball
gets hung up in the ladder, and it happens in as bad an inning as you
could draw up," grumbled Kyle Gibson, who was hardly blameless for the
Twins' third loss in four games here, but who also encountered plenty of
misfortune behind him, too. "It's just really unfortunate. I thought I
was throwing the ball really well."
That's at
least partly true, though Gibson made some bad pitches, too. Like the
one he threw inside to Mookie Betts in the fourth inning, just after the
Twins staked him to a 3-0 lead, a fastball that Betts clanged off
another ancient feature of that big green wall: the light tower atop it.
"He's hit that pitch out on me before," Gibson said. "I tried to go in.
It was off [the plate], but he's really good at hitting that pitch."
The fifth
inning, though, is when the Twins messed up and got messed with, in ways
Fenway-related and otherwise. Gibson got ahead of Hanley Ramirez 1-2,
but then threw three consecutive balls. Ramirez flinched at a slider for
ball four, and the Twins thought he might have swung, but they didn't
get the call.
And if
you're familiar with Gibson's work, you know a leadoff walk seems to be a
trigger: Things get bad, fast. Jackie Bradley Jr. fouled off a pitch
that just carried out of reach, keeping him alive. He cashed in by
smacking a ball off that ladder in left — and it ricocheted straight
down, landing at the base of the wall.
"It really
deadened it. Obviously changed the carom. Came straight down and died
on the track, allowing Hanley to score" from first, Molitor said. "It's
been in play as long as I can remember, [but I] can't think of one that
had that type of effect on a baseball."
Christian
Vazquez then hit a grounder at shortstop Jorge Polanco that glanced off
his glove for an error. Then, with the Twins anticipating a Tzu-Wei Lin
bunt and using the "wheel" defense, which sends the shortstop to cover
third and the second baseman to cover first, Gibson fielded a
comebacker, a seemingly sure double play. But when he turned to second
base — nobody there. He settled for one out, but it was at first, not
third, with both runners moving into scoring position.
"I never
even thought about being in the wheel there and not having anybody at
second," Gibson said. "It's not a play you practice — you always go to
second to start the double play. It wasn't in my mind that I needed to
go to third."
The tying
run then scored on a chopper to third, and Betts put the Red Sox in
front for good with a perfectly placed grounder up the middle, just out
of Polanco and Brian Dozier's reach. A walk, one well-hit ball, and four
straight grounders — that was the Boston rally. Gibson gave up another
long home run an inning later to Ramirez, but the Twins, who had grabbed
a 3-0 lead against David Price, couldn't generate anything after that.
"It was
one of Gibby's better nights," Molitor said. "He was attacking, used his
fastball well, got some jam shots on righthanders. Just some bad luck
changed it."
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