Tribe Vs. Bosox: Same Old Story

The Indians gave up an eighth-inning run and lost to the Red Sox in Boston, 5-4, Wednesday. Been there, done that. Several times. Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day," is the poster child for Cleveland's matchups with the Red Sox the past couple of years. Try as they might -- and the Tribe battled back from a 4-0 first-inning deficit this time -- the Wahoos are always Maxwell Smart in Boston.

"Missed it by that much," Smart would always say.

So does the Tribe in Fenway.

It wasn't Big Papi who beat them, nor Dustin "Pesky" Pedroia. It was the dynamic duo of Jeff Bailey and Mark Kotsay who manufactured the winning run.

Bailey tripled and scored on Kotsay's double off Rafael Perez (4-4, 3.43 ERA) in the eighth to snap a 4-4 tie.

Kotsay, whether it was when he was in Oakland, Florida, or anywhere on the planet, has always been a thorn in the Indians' side. The veteran outfielder went 2-for-4 with two RBI, making him 43-for-111 (.387) in his career against Cleveland.

Fausto Carmona (5.44 ERA) who appealed his six-game suspension in order to make the start, would have been better off sitting in Siberia. The right-hander gave up five hits and four runs in only one inning of work.

Unlike his last start Friday against the Detroit Tigers, when he hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch that led to a bench-clearing brawl, Carmona didn't give the Indians a fighting chance.

But they fought back anyway against former teammate Paul Byrd, who yielded 11 hits and four runs over five innings.

Josh Barfield (.160) had an RBI single in the second inning; then Shin-Soo Choo (.308) drove in a run with an infield single and later scored on a single by Jhonny Peralta (.276) in the third.

Choo and Peralta singled to open the fifth and Victor Martinez (.276) added an RBI single to tie it.

Bryan Bullington (5.59 ERA) showed the form that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft by Pittsburgh. Acquired by the Indians in midseason, the right-hander struck out six over five scoreless innings of relief. He gave up only two hits.

Lefty Rich Rundles (2.08 ERA), who was drafted by Boston years ago and made his MLB debut with the Tribe earlier this month, worked a scoreless seventh.

Choo, Peralta, Martinez, Grady Sizemore (.272) and Jamey Carroll (.275) all had two of Cleveland's 13 hits.