Miscues are hard to take

NEW YORK -- For Mike Lowell, it was two more errors, giving him eight already this season. For Coco Crisp, it was blowing up at plate umpire Bruce Froemming and being ejected on a called third strike in the eighth inning, ending a potential rally. They were signs of the frustration the Red Sox felt in abundance in a 3-1 loss to the Yankees yesterday.

Crisp threw his bat, his do-rag, his helmet, you name it. He was trying to hit 99-mile-per-hour Kyle Farnsworth fastballs that were moving to the outside of the plate. Strike three seemed a bit outside the strike zone. But Froemming didn't see it that way.

"What I said loudly [to Froemming] was, 'It was outside,' " said Crisp. "And I think what mainly got me tossed out was the throwing of the equipment. When he's making his pitches, it makes it an even tougher at-bat. I was up there battling in a crucial situation. In the heat of the moment, you try to control as much as you can, and it got a little bit uncontrollable."

The Sox had scored their only run in the inning, on a Lowell single. There were two on and two out. That's what made the called third strike so frustrating to Crisp.

Lowell hasn't made this many errors since he had nine in 2003. The first came in the first inning on Derek Jeter's slow grounder to third; Lowell tried to backhand a short hop and couldn't handle it. The second error was on a Jeter grounder in the fifth, which could have been converted into a 5-4-3 double play, but again the ball hit off his glove and came out.

"Jeter causes you to make that play," said Lowell. "I'm playing even with the bag [in the first inning], and in that situation I didn't think he was going to bunt, so I moved back three steps, and right there I got the tweener. But the fact that he runs so well makes you make that play, because if I stay back on that ball, I don't throw him out.

"I'm just so disappointed. Those are plays that I make and the inning gets extended. That added 15-20 pitches to [Tim Wakefield's] outing. You don't know what could happen. Maybe Jorge Posada [two-run homer in the fourth] doesn't come up in that situation. That's what frustrates me."

Lowell said he's never made so many errors in a short period of time.

"I don't feel like I'm having problems fielding the ball. I feel like I'm getting half-tweeners," he said. "The second one, I have no explanation for. I feel like I closed my glove at the right time. I have to throw the frog out that's living in my glove. Both times it's with Jeter, and you got 3-4-5 coming up. It doesn't make life for Wake any easier. Defense is important for us."

Is it in his head?

"I'm not thinking about making errors," he said. "I'm thinking about making the play. But I wouldn't say my approach or anything is different. I'm human. I don't want to make errors, but when the ball is coming at me I'm not thinking, 'Oh, my God.' I feel like I've been a good defensive third baseman. I feel like I can make the play."

Crisp had cooled off by the end of the game. He said it was actually funny that on Friday night he slid back into first base on a pickoff play and kicked up some dirt on Froemming, who was umpiring there.

Crisp said he said to him, " 'Did I mention I was sorry?'

"The funny thing is the next day I blow up on the guy."