Tampabay.com
SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Papelbon: It happens

The Red Sox didn't sound too devastated based on the quotes that came out of their clubhouse after last night's loss, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

From closer Jonathan Papelbon, on Dan Johnson's game-tying homer:
"Ball three, strike one, strike two, home run. Pretty simple. You fall behind, 3 and 0, that's not obviously what you want to do. You throw a ball middle belt-high over the plate, 3 and 2, when a hitter's sitting probably fastball, what are you going to do?
"It's part of the game. It's not going to be my first blown save, and it won't be my last. That's going to happen. There's a human factor involved in this thing. We are humans, and we are going to make mistakes. I'm human. I didn't throw the pitch where I wanted tonight."

On the impact of the loss:
"We're going to fight and grind. Especially here at home, it's obviously tough to lose. But we've still got a long season left, we've got a lot of games left, and this one game is not going to determine whether we're going to make the playoffs or whether we're going to be a good playoff team."

From 3B Mike Lowell on the game:
"It shows that they're a very good team. They don't back down. This was a nice win for them. We had such a nice emotional lift after Jason (Bay's) home run. You feel like you have all the confidence in the world with Pap. But Pap's a human being, and that's going to happen."

And there was this perspective from Globe columnist Bob Ryan on Dan Johnson's homer:
"It was a stadium silencer here and it would have been the cause of immense celebration in the Tampa-St. Pete area if only anyone actually cared about baseball down there. Dan Johnson hasn't even been to the Trop as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays yet, but we can safely say those people don't deserve him.''

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