Green's homer in 9th beats Braves

Boston — The Braves endured a wet, raw afternoon at Fenway Park Sunday marked by miscues and frustrations, blown leads and determined rallies, and drama and anger that led to multiple ejections.

All of that before Nick Green inserted the final dagger for Boston, when the ex-Braves utility man hit a first-pitch, ninth-inning, game-ending home run around Pesky's Pole into the right-field bleachers for a 6-5 Red Sox win.

The Braves lost six of nine games and all three series on a trip that ended Sunday. None of those defeats was as tough to swallow as the last one.

"Unbelievable ballgame," said manager Bobby Cox, whose analysis included an expletive. And he may have used a few others during a seventh-inning argument that got him tossed along with reliever Eric O'Flaherty and third baseman Chipper Jones.

All three were ejected by home-plate umpire Bill Hohn, who the Braves said missed a would-be strike-three call on O'Flaherty's 0-and-2 fastball to J.D. Drew. On the next pitch, Drew singled in a run for a 5-4 Red Sox lead.

Replays appeared to support the contention that the pitch was a strike, and Drew looked ready to walk to the Red Sox dugout before the call was made.

"It was a ball thrown right down the middle for strike three," Cox said. "It was obvious. He blew the call. [Players] get upset when it costs you, and it cost us. It cost us the game.

"I don't know why umpires miss strikes. I've never understood it. I know [supervisors] are on them when they [call a strike that is] a half-inch outside. But when they're right down the middle. ..."

O'Flaherty: "It's tough when you do your job, and it's taken away."

Jones said, "I hope when [Hohn] goes back and looks at replays of the call, I hope he can admit he missed it. And I hope that Major League Baseball takes a look at how this game was officiated today.

"It wasn't just us, either. I saw a bunch of Red Sox with puzzled looks [on other calls], too."

The umpiring crew left without speaking to reporters.

Calls aside, the game might not have been decided by the Drew at-bat or Green's homer if the Braves hadn't blown two plays earlier that opened doors for all of Boston's first four runs.

Or if they hadn't stranded seven runners in the last three innings.

After being spotted a 2-0 lead on Brian McCann's double, Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens made a first-inning error when he slipped slightly and missed a slow-rolling grounder, putting runners on the corners with one out.

Jason Bay followed with a sacrifice fly and David Ortiz hit a two-run homer for a 3-2 lead. All three of those Red Sox runs were unearned.

"I thought the ball was harder hit and I was going to let the shortstop get it," said Jurrjens, charged with five runs (two earned) and eight hits in 6-1/3 innings. "When I saw that it wasn't, I tried to charge it and it went off my glove."

Boston added a run in the fourth after Ortiz hit a popup that dropped in front of shortstop Yunel Escobar when neither he nor Jones called for it.

"Nobody called for it," said Cox, who thought the wind played a role in the players' indecision. "It was a mistake on Escobar and Chipper."

Jones said, "In hindsight, I probably would have taken more charge, had [Escobar] not had a reputation for calling everybody off when conditions are right. It was both our faults."

One out later, Jacoby Ellsbury singled and Green was hit by a pitch before George Kottaras hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.

Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield faced just 16 batters from the second through sixth innings, but the Braves tied the score with two runs in the seventh on two-out singles by Gregor Blanco and Nate McLouth.