MINNEAPOLIS -- Mike Lamb was looking for a hit like this.
Jonathan Papelbon? He's not used to this.
The struggling Lamb lifted the Minnesota Twins past the Boston Red Sox 7-6 on Friday night with a two-run single in the ninth inning against Papelbon, who blew his second consecutive save opportunity.
On Wednesday in Detroit, he gave up two unearned runs due to Julio Lugo's error and Placido Polanco's broken-bat single. Here in Minnesota, Papelbon (2-2) put runners and second and third and let Lamb lace an opposite-field liner to left that ended the game.
"We can't defense that. You've got a professional hitter that put enough of the bat on the ball and hit it where nobody was," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
Bad luck, sure, but Papelbon -- who has 82 saves and a World Series ring since the start of 2006 -- has not been as sharp as he should be this week.
"It's frustrating as hell right now, just because the simple fact is I'm throwing good pitches. I'm just not finishing them right now and executing them all the way through the strike zone," Papelbon said.
..see, I place blame where blame is deserved ..but still, this can't help Paps confidence but I doubt it will effect his cockiness ..man.
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&brand=foxsports&vid=89af0c67-5564-4d89-b81c-38d94da4499c&playlist=&editor=&from=FOXSPORTS&fg=/mlb&rf=http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb
NufCed
