“If any team goes into a series and plays not to win, it can hurt you,” Gonzalez said. “All ballplayers know that. You go into the (playoffs) and you may not be able to just turn it on again.”
Hoping to yet make lemonade from the steady drip of (dreadful) baseball the Red Sox have played since the start of the month, Gonzalez maintained that they might even be better for it if they manage to survive the week to start all over again in the (division) series.
“It always helps going into the postseason to have played (meaningful) games, intense games,” he said. “We’ve done that now for the last 7-10 days. We haven’t won many of them. But what we’ve got to remember is that we played great (baseball) for most of the season, and that’s what got us in this position to get into the playoffs.”
Their position weakened considerably when Beckett surrendered two home runs, the backbreaker a three-run inside the park drive to dead center by the Orioles’ ninth-place hitter, Robert Andino, to cap a four-run sixth. Jacoby Ellsbury got to the ball but dropped it when he hit the wall. Ellsbury (crumpled) to the ground, Andino circled the bases and the relay to the plate went past the catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.