Follies in the field responsible for team's failure

It started with Mark Bellhorn's error in the fourth inning.

The second baseman, who has turned plenty of double plays with the Red Sox, bobbled a feed from third baseman Bill Mueller with the bases loaded and one out, allowing two runners to score. It didn't get any better for the Sox last night, a 7-0 loss to the Indians at Fenway Park scuttling a seven-game winning streak.

''It was a big point in the game, and probably the turning point," Bellhorn said. ''That was probably my fault. I didn't come up with the double [play]. I think if I would have turned [it] that it probably would have been a different situation for the game."

Then in the seventh, Grady Sizemore hit a deep fly to right. Trot Nixon backpedaled into position, but the ball went off the side of his glove and over the wall for a two-run homer.

If the ball had dropped, it would have landed on the warning track.

''It should have been an out. It could have been a good play that I made, and it turned into a blooper," said Nixon, who was not charged with an error.

Three pitches and two batters later, Bronson Arroyo gave up another home run, this one a Travis Hafner shot deep into the right-field stands.

Finally, as if second base had been jinxed, Ramón Vázquez, who replaced Bellhorn in the ninth, missed a routine ground ball for another error.

''[I was thinking] catch the ball and throw the ball. That's it," Vázquez said. ''It just bounced about four inches, and hit me in the fingers."

So ended a night of awkward defensive plays that, at times, seemed rather amateur.

Nixon admitted the team was off defensively in losing the opener of the three-game series. He credited Indians starter Kevin Millwood for having more control than in his last start against the Sox, when he surrendered six runs in six innings in a 9-2 loss June 21 in Cleveland.

''They got an early lead, and [Millwood] just put it in cruise control and continued to do well," Nixon said. ''We just couldn't get anything going."

Manager Terry Francona said he took Bellhorn out for no other reason than to give him a break. In the fifth, one inning after his error, Bellhorn missed a throw from Manny Ramírez in center, allowing Hafner to try stretching his hit into a triple. Luckily for the Sox, first baseman Kevin Millar grabbed the ball and got it to Mueller, who tagged Hafner.

Francona thought giving Bellhorn ''even one inning" might be a helpful rest.

''They get the bases loaded. We have a chance to get out of it. Uncharacteristically, [Bellhorn] doesn't look [the ball] into his glove. If it tails at all and he doesn't look it into his glove, you saw what happened, and that's very uncharacteristic," Francona said.

Bellhorn was quick to blame himself for how the night progressed. On his error, he was playing a bit closer to first base, leaving him looking for the bag and looking for the ball at the same time, he said.

''It bothers me. I take pride in turning a lot of double plays whatever the speed of the ball is," he said. ''Somehow I didn't come up with that one. You have to forget about it, learn from it, and come out tomorrow."

Nixon said games like last night are going to happen -- that errors get too much attention and great plays too little. But he also said his misplay in the seventh happened because of his own poor judgment.

''Some outfielders can turn their back to the ball and kind of turn to the other side," he said. ''I just am not very comfortable doing that. I can do that, and I probably should have done that on that play, and when I started turning around and backpedaling, which you really don't want to do, I kind of lost where I was on the warning track and jumped too early."

Francona said he knows better than to approach Nixon about his mishap.

''He'll wring somebody's neck," Francona said. ''He gives you everything he has. It was one of those freak plays. I'm sure once the anger wears off some guys will be getting on him, but probably not tonight."