One night after managing to shake the proverbial monkey off their back by ending a seven-game road losing streak, the Red Sox saw Manny Ramirez fling away the 500-pound gorilla that had latched onto him for more than two weeks and encountered an umpire with a memory as long as an elephant’s and the apparent hearing of a skittish deer.Predictably, it led to an absolute zoo of a game at Safeco Field, where the Sox fell to the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, on Jose Lopez’ run-scoring single off Mike Timlin with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Sox, who squandered an opportunity to move back into first place in the AL East, also lost starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka in the fifth due to what the club called shoulder fatigue.
League-worst Seattle ended a seven-game losing streak when Wladimir Balentien reached on an infield single to the shortstop hole, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Lopez’ two-out liner down the left field line. Safeco continued to be a personal house of horrors for Timlin, who fell to 0-6 with a 10.29 ERA at the ballpark.
