Perfection is long gone

Jonathan Papelbon is so good that when he gives it up, it's shocking.

That's the way it feels when future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera comes to the hill in the ninth. You never expect a lead to disappear. When it happened to Rivera early this year -- against these same Oakland A's (a walkoff homer by Marco Scutaro) -- it was stunning.

Last night, it happened to Papelbon.

Papelbon rang in May so differently than he performed in April, when he went 8 for 8 in save situations and there didn't seem the slightest chance of scoring off him.

"I don't know about a perfect April, it's just that we took a lot of pride in being successful," said Papelbon after he blew his first save opportunity last night in a 5-4 loss to the A's in 10 innings. "This is the first bump in the road we've had. If we can have one bump a month, that's pretty good."

We knew at some point it wasn't going to be his night.

Up, 4-2, and trying to preserve a win for Curt Schilling -- and put a stamp on another excellent set-up job by Hideki Okajima -- Papelbon came into the game with his normal pomp and circumstance. He waited for the music to play. The bullpen gate opened. He stepped outside and stood there. Got his steam up. Then he sprinted in to the mound.

That's where the energy he created seemed to expire.

There was a single by Bobby Crosby, and then he went 0-and-2 to rookie outfielder Travis Buck. On a 94-mile-per-hour fastball, the lefthanded-hitting Buck swung for the fences. The right-field fences, to be exact. Game tied. Just like that.

The crowd had been standing, cheering for Papelbon to finish off the A's. They were enthralled, but suddenly they felt ill. The flashbulbs that were going off a mile a minute suddenly stopped, and the fans sank back in their seats to watch Papelbon laboriously throw 35 pitches to get out of the inning.

"It's frustrating, obviously," said Papelbon, who allowed three hits -- one more than he'd allowed in 9 1/3 innings this season (eight outings). "You go out there and try to get the job done but it's just one of them things where the fastball command wasn't good. The slider wasn't good. And my split was OK.

"You've just got to take back and learn from it."

He said he felt good warming up. He had the off-day Monday to replenish his shoulder, but his velocity wasn't overpowering. He topped off at 94, never getting to the 96 and 97 his adrenaline usually produces.

"When you got a guy 0-and-2, my mind-set is he should be out," said Papelbon. "As long as I execute my pitches, he should be out. Unfortunately tonight, just a poorly, poorly executed pitch.

"What can I say? It was one of those things. Same thing happened against Chase Utley [last June] on an 0-and-2 fastball [ actually, a 2-and-2 fastball, and the Red Sox won in extra innings]. I didn't execute the pitch, and he hit the ball out of the park, too."

That was Chase Utley. This was Travis Buck. Not that Buck, 23, won't be a star in this league someday, but he's a kid who played Single A ball last season and came into this game hitting below .200.

"The kid is in the big leagues for a reason," said Papelbon. "If you're facing a big-league hitter and you miss, you deserve to get hit hard. I missed a spot right over the heart of the plate. That ball deserved to be hit hard for a double or a home run."

From a mechanical point of view, he felt his delivery was out of whack. He said he was "pulling off a little bit." He said, "It was just fastball command. When I don't have fastball command, I have to have a secondary pitch and I didn't have that, either. So you're trying to force things you don't have."

Papelbon wanted the closer job again because he loves the adrenaline rush and he thought he'd miss it being a starter. He would not have missed nights like this, however. And now he must sit for his next opportunity, which may not come tonight after he threw so many pitches.

"Your team puts you in a situation to win . . . and I put that loss on my back," he said. "I'll pick up the team again when they need me. It's real disappointing when you've got a starter like Curt who goes out there and performs the way he did, executes pitches and rolls over a lineup as well as he did."

Papelbon said he spoke to Schilling afterward but would not say what he told him.

He's been around long enough to know that he must have a short memory. That's the biggest part of being a closer. You can't bring the last game into the next game.

"I'll go home and relax, have a couple of beers," said Papelbon. "You have a certain confidence level that you expect to have every time you go out there.

"It was kind of a weird night for me. Coming off the off-day. I felt great. It was a night I was supposed to dominate. I don't think it's me taking anything for granted. I don't think it's not working hard. It's one of those nights where you win some and lose some."

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.