Boston Red Sox fans are blaming a child for Pirates sweep

The Red Sox were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier this week, and Boston fans blamed a child and their family for the so-called Yoshida curse.

Boston is winless since Masataka Yoshida’s first career home run, but why is that relevant?

Boy am I glad you asked.

The Red Sox fans who caught Yoshida’s first career home run refused to give up the ball despite several requests from the press relations staff. As is usually the case, the team offered up several autographs and free tickets, but the child who caught the ball didn’t give in. So, the family honored their wishes.

All of this was confirmed by Red Sox general manager Brian O’Halloran via an appearance on The Greg Hill Show.

Red Sox: What happened to Masataka Yoshida’s home run ball?

I wrote about the Red Sox attempts to acquire the Yoshida home run ball on Wednesday, and why it failed:

"“It should be made clear that until we hear from the fans themselves, we don’t really know what happened. Perhaps the Red Sox offer was underwhelming, or Yoshida himself didn’t care all that much about the ball. it’s always a possibility, just as Albert Pujols allowed fans to keep his 700th home run ball. Sometimes, it ought to be a collectible.This doesn’t feel like one of those times, however. Hopefully, Yoshida can lay claim to that baseball sooner rather than later.”"

The Red Sox were swept by Pittsburgh at Fenway, and now head on a road trip to Detroit. Fans are begging the family which caught Yoshida’s home run ball to give it back, thus ending the so-called curse.

There’s plenty more where that came from.

Sports fans are a superstitious bunch. Once the Sox win, odds are this will all go by the wayside.