BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox, hunted down and caught by the Toronto Blue Jays, are now the pursuers.
For 50 days, Boston was atop the American League East and New England's fans -- gun-shy after decades of the Greek tragedy playing at Fenway Park -- wondered when the collapse would happen. Now they know.
On Wednesday night, the Red Sox dropped into second place for the first time since July 30, losing their eighth game in 10 tries. At the same time, the Blue Jays won their sixth straight to move past Boston, which held a 6 1-2 game lead on Sept. 4.
Red Sox infielder Jody Reed said his team must not let itself be devastated, 'We've got to bounce back and be resilient.'
'We just have to regroup and get started again,' said pitcher Greg Harris. 'It's not like it's over.'
Catcher Tony Pena tried to fire his teammates up on Tuesday night, after another loss in Baltimore. He threw a chair and reportedly called his teammates 'quitters.'
The label angered Mike Greenwell, who said, 'Nobody on this team has quit ... There's not aguy on this team that's like that. Whether we win or lose, it's not going to be from lack of trying.
'I think that word damaged us. If we do lose, we're going to have to look back 10 years from now and read that we were quitters and that's not right,' said the outfielder.
Pena is from the Dominican Republic and English is not his native language. Teammate Dwight Evans hoped Pena's words were not what he meant, 'I know there is a language problem there, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.'
Manager Joe Morgan was originally pleased that Pena had tried to rally his teammates, but about the term 'quitter' he said, 'Obviously Tony used the wrong word. That is not the nature of this team. Case closed.'
Pena later said says his comment was ''There are a lot of games where we quit.''
Toronto and Boston each have 12 games remaining. Both teams had Thursday off before starting weekend series, the Red Sox going to New York while the Blue Jays host Cleveland.
'You couldn't ask for better timing for a day off,' said Greenwell.
After Boston's three-game series with the Yankees, the Red Sox play their final eight games at home. Because of Boston's recent play, Morgan said, 'I'd love to go home one game out, the way it stands right now.'
On Sept. 28-30, the Blue Jays and Red Sox will meet in a three-game series.
'Toronto is on fire and if we're going to keep pace with them, we have to win some ballgames,' said Reed. 'It will be do-or-die for ourselves when we play them.'
Since star pitcher Roger Clemens left the rotation on Sept. 4 due to tendinitis in his pitching shoulder, Boston has lost 7 1-2 games to Toronto. The righthander, who has a 20-6 record and leads the AL with a 1.98 ERA, is scheduled to pitch Sunday in New York. Clemens's return was approved Thursday by Dr. Arthur Pappas, the Red Sox team physician.
'He should be able to throw more than he threw (on the sidelines) in Baltimore, which was in the 75-pitch range. He'll be in the 100-, 100- plus pitch range,' said Pappas. 'I think he's realistic about calling his own pitch limit, if anything feels uncomfortable.'
Clemens, who has 204 strikeouts, says he needs to let hitters hit the ball for outs, instead of using extra pitches to gain strikeouts.
'I'll have to be more of a pitcher than a power pitcher and work my way through it,' said Clemens.
