Bunt single. Single. Single. Fielder’s choice. Sacrifice fly. Double. Single. Single. Fly out. Line out. Single. Single. Home run. And one maddening walk — off the mound, and into the dugout.
No sooner did David Wells rejoin the Red Sox pitching staff was he gone, lifted after 1 1/3 innings, nine hits, and seven runs yesterday in his return to the rotation, three weeks to the day after going on the disabled list with a sprained plantar fascia ligament in his right foot. He put the Sox in a 7-0 hole, which deepened to 13-2 before they pulled within 13-6, matching their largest deficit in defeat this season.
”It multiplied and got out of hand,” manager Terry Francona said, summarizing Wells’s outing. ”Once [Eric] Chavez hits the home run, 7-0, it seems silly to keep [Wells] out there any longer.”
Wells took the loss (his fourth in six starts), took the ERA hit (his climbed to 6.75), and took no interest in whether he might have been better served making a rehabilitation start with Pawtucket.
”I’m going to let you guys write what you want,” said the lefthander, who turns 42 tomorrow. ”I’m not going to answer any questions like that because obviously you guys think I should have. I know what I’m capable of doing. Because the game looked bad today, you guys are going to decide I needed one.”
On top of his base pay of $2.5 million, Wells’s contract pays him $200,000 for each start from 11 to 20 and $300,000 for each start from 21 to 30. Asked if he came back when he did to maximize his number of major league starts, given his age and the mileage on his body, Wells said, ”You write what you want. Anything else?”
I wasn’t there, but I can think of a few follow-up questions for Mr. Wells.
“Are you drunk right now?”
“Have you seen ‘Unleashed’ yet?”
“If Psycodrama and No Trend were both drowning and you could only save one of them, which would it be?”