Clubhouse reaction

Just got back up from a silent postgame Red Sox clubhouse. It was pretty somber in there, as befits a team that just lost a playoff game in the fashion the Red Sox did. (That would be 13-6, in 11 innings when Eric Gagne and Javier Lopez imploded in the top of the 11th.)

Gagne had left already by the time the media was allowed in, but Lopez remained to speak with the assembled scribes.

"It's very disappointing," Lopez said. "We battled all game long. The lead was going back and forth, back and forth.

"It's just unfortunate that it kind of ended the way it did."

Lopez said that Trot Nixon, who drove in the winning run with a single, hit a cutter away off the end of his bat. "I mean the guy knows Fenway," Lopez said.

"Obviously after I give up that base hit, I'm just trying to get a double play, still trying to limit that to one run," he said. "I still think we're swinging the bat pretty well. Obviously when I throw that wild pitch to Martinez, that's just a total pitcher error. That's my fault there. I don't want to leave the ball out over the plate, and so I wanted to miss in and I missed too far in."

As for Gagne's performance, Dustin Pedroia weighed in on the difficulty of seeing Gagne struggle -- again.

"We need him to win," Pedroia said. "I don't know what to say. We need him to help us win the World Series. We're all 100 percent behind him and pulling for him."

Gagne had blown three saves this season, and lost another game for the Red Sox during the regular season. He had struggled since coming to Boston in a trade deadine deal for David Murphy, Kason Gabbard, and Engel Beltre. He didn't have a great outing on Friday, loading the bases, but striking out the side in the ninth. And it got worse on Saturday, when he took the Game 2 loss for the Sox.

Lopez hadn't pitched all that well against lefties this season, even as he took on the role of lefty specialist on the postseason roster. And he gave up the winning run to Nixon, who was not retained by Boston, partially for his inability to hit lefty pitchers.