Nothing Doing

Despite a rare solid outing from John Lackey, the Red Sox offense proved listless yet again en route to a 2-1 loss Wednesday night against Vance Worley and the Phillies. 

Getting shut down on the road on consecutive nights against the vaunted Phillies rotation is nothing to be ashamed of.

After all, they possess four legitimate number one starters, two future Hall of Famers and the lowest combined ERA in the Majors.

Except Wednesday night, it wasn't Roy Halladay silencing the once potent Sox bats. Or Cole Hamels. Or Roy Oswalt. Or Cliff Lee for that matter (he was enjoying some much deserved rest after pitching his third consecutive complete game shutout Tuesday night against Boston in a 5-0 Phillies victory).

Instead, before a sell-out crowd of 46,612 at Citizens Bank Park, it was little-known Vance Worley playing the hero.

Scattering five hits and over seven stellar innings, Worley (3-1) allowed just one run to lead Philadelphia to a 2-1 victory over the Red Sox, who have lost six of their last seven games and now trail the hated Yankees by 2.5 games in the AL East.

"Did that guy just come up or something?" asked David Ortiz of Worley after the game. "Man, because he looked pretty good to me. He had decent stuff, and it really looks like he's been around for a long time."

"They've got four big starters here, right? Well, he looked like one of them out there tonight. He really looked comfortable. It's obvious that he's listening to those big starters over there. It's rubbing off on him."

The 23-year-old Worley entered the game having started just eight games in the Big Leagues. However, after joining the rotation on June 18 due to injuries to Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton, the former Long Beach State star had dazzled.

He allowed just one run over five innings in a 5-1 victory over Seattle in his first start. Then, last time out he pitched six shutout innings in a 1-0 win over Oakland.

However, despite the unexpected brilliance of Worley, the Sox bats continued to show no signs of life. In a desperate attempt at kickstarting the pulseless offense, Terry Francona inserted David Ortiz at first base and moved Adrian Gonzalez to right field for just the second time in his career.

In the end, it didn't make a difference as Ortiz went 0-4 and Gonzalez just 1-4.

Raul Ibanez hit a tie-breaking homer in the seventh off Lackey that proved to be the eventual game-winner.

The loss is especially tough to swallow given the fact that the usually horrific John Lackey (5-7) actually pitched well for a change, allowing just two runs over 7.2 strong innings.

He even knocked in the only Sox run of the night with a RBI double in the fifth inning.

"We've got to find a way to score runs when we're not all swinging well," admitted Dustin Pedroia after the game. "Lack pitched great. We didn't give him any support. Worley had great mound presence, and we were all very impressed. He had a great idea how to pitch. For a young guy to have that kind of presence is pretty special."

One of the lone bright spots for Boston was left fielder Josh Reddick, who went 2-3 and scored the lone Boston run.

Things don't get any easier for the Red Sox as they must face Hamels Wednesday afternoon looking to avoid a sweep against Baseball's best team.

Luckily for Boston, the ball will be in the hands of Jon Lester, their ace and certified stopper.

The countdown to the end of Interleague Play continues.