E9! Can I get an E9 from the congregation?

How many times this season was a Red Sox game decided on a poor fielding play? Have there been that many games in which the Red Sox defensive lapse was the definitive moment of the game? I can’t think of that many- maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention, or don’t have a keen enough perception for the subtle art of defensive positioning or a bad jump on a ball. I just don’t think that there have been that many examples of this. One in particular stands out to me, and that was the game where Coco lost the ball in the sun, jumped up against the wall, missed the ball horizontally by six feet, and then had Manny flick the ball back to him with his glove. That was a pretty terrible play, and that resulted in an in-the-park homer. I don’t even know if that was definitive, but I know it was significant. There have probably been a couple of others, but not many to my recollection.

That is why last night’s game was so strangely unique. In a very tight game, a well-pitched game, the definitive play was Wily Mo’s total screw-up of the pop-up to right field in the top of the ninth. He had to run for it, and it would have been a fine play. It was probably shallow enough to hold the runner at third and avoid a tag-up run. Wily Mo so clearly was mentally focused on the throw before he finished the catch that he just blew it, and the lead runner came home, securing the 3-2 win. It was another tight game, and another disappointing game. It wouldn’t have even been close enough for Wily Mo to screw up if it hadn’t been for another miraculous hit from Papi in the bottom of the 8th. I don’t know how he can clear his head and just focus on putting the ball in play in those situations, but his RBI single was yet another major argument in his favor for the MVP.

I’m not at all ready to concede the season. It’s still too early for that. The monstrous, probably heart-attack inducing five-game series this weekend against the Yankees will be more definitive on whether or not this season is over. I’ll check back in on that one Monday, assuming I’m still capable of abstract thought.

But back to the point- why was last night’s play so unique? Two reasons. First, that this year’s Sox team blew a game primarily because of a defensive mistake. As has been frequently pointed out, this has been one of the most solid defensive teams in recent Sox history. Sure, you couldn’t call an outfield with Manny, Coco, Trot, and Wily Mo legendary or historic in their brilliance, but they’ve been surprisingly solid- especially Manny. The right side of the infield has also been reliable- neither Youkilis’ nor Loretta’s range would be likely to make you forget Roberto Alomar and Keith Hernandez. The left side, however, has been probably the best ever in Boston. Lowell and Gonzalez, at positions that routinely could see 30 errors out of the likes of Renteria, Garciaparra, Valentin, Stynes, you name it now has fewer than a dozen. That defense has been a major reason that we’re even here at this point where blowing all these games in a playoff race is such a major disappointment. They’ve kept us in this thing this far with their gloves.

The other remarkable point is that Wily Mo wasn’t given an error on the play. As I said, he did have a good run in order to get to the ball, but it wasn’t extraordinary. It wasn’t a run that the average right fielder couldn’t have made. The error was mental- he took his concentration off of the catch and focused on the throw to come. It was E9, plain and simple.

The larger point that I’ve noticed, and that has been pointed out in an article I read recently (and would attribute if I could find it), is that errors are being called with less frequency. This could be a function of better fielding, better ballpark groundskeeping, or some historical trend related to the number of ground balls versus fly balls. As likely as not, it is also a function of the official scorekeepers bowing to increasing pressure from the teams and the all-encompassing focus on statistics. A shortstop with 10 errors on the season is probably due for a stronger arbitration argument than a guy with 20 on the season. A solid half of those errors are probably a judgment call by the official scorekeeper that could go either way. A history of getting bitched at after the game by the manager and shortstop, or by some front-office flunky, might be enough to make the scorekeeper decide calling an error is not worth the hassle. On the other hand, pitchers could be bitching the other way, concerned about their ERA, though my guess would be they probably don’t do this as much for fear of appearing to be a bad teammate who doesn’t support his fielders.

Whatever the reason, the drop in overall errors called in the league has been substantial- with more than 30% fewer errors called per team per year on average these days than thirty or forty years ago. The result of this is that this year’s Red Sox team is actually on pace to break the MLB record for fewest team errors in a season- a record of 64 or 65 (I’ll have to double-check) set by the Mariners a few years back. As of right now, the Sox are still well under 50 errors for the year. That’s pretty amazing. It might even be a minor point of pride, a little bright spot for a team that is well on its way to missing the playoffs for the first time since 2002. But is it historic? Is this the best defensive team ever? Um, let’s take another look at Wily Mo’s play last night, and you tell me.