While Jacoby Ellsbury has had a brilliant season -- "Phenominal, magical. Diary stuff. Scrapbook. God bless him," says the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley -- his failure to catch Robert Andino's drive to center with two outs in the bottom of the sixth Monday, which wound being an inside-the-park, three-run homer and was the key hit in the Orioles' 6-3 win, was emblamatic of the Sox' failures down the stretch this year.
"I'm sorry, but the missed catch? It's not an error, but . . . good outfielders make those plays in late September," Buckley said on Mohegan Sun's Sports Tonight.
When asked by co-host Michael Felger if Ellsbury should have caught the ball, CSN's Lou Merloni, the ex-Red Sox infielder who also serves as a radio host on WEEI, agreed.
"In this situation, where this team is right now? Yeah, he's got to step up and make that play," said Merloni. "To say that it's easy? No. But an All-Star-caliber, American League MVP makes that play.