Bartolo Colon took the mound in the top of the first inning and Jose Offerman grounded out to third to begin. John Valentin grounded out to short and Jason Varitek struck out swinging to end the inning. Pedro Martinez took the mound in the bottom of the first as Kenny Lofton flied out to Darren Lewis to start. Omar Vizquel hit a broken bat grounder to second but Roberto Alomar grounded a single up the middle. Alomar stole second but Manny Ramirez struck out swinging on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
The Sox struck first in the top of the second inning when Nomar Garciaparra launched a home run to dead center to put Boston on top. Troy O'Leary grounded out to first but Mike Stanley ripped a base hit to left. Brian Daubach struck out swinging before Darren Lewis lined out to second to end the inning with Boston ahead 1-0.
Jim Thome led off the bottom of the second with a ground out to second but Harold Baines singled off the glove of Nomar. David Justice forced Baines at second but Travis Fryman flied out to center to end the inning.
Trot Nixon led off the top of the third by striking out swinging but Offerman drew a walk. Valentin looked to have hit a double play ball but Alomar threw the relay to first away for an error. Varitek popped up to left to end the inning. Sandy Alomar Jr whiffed on a 95 mph fastball to start the bottom of the third but Lofton walked. Vizquel flied out to center but Roberto Alomar dumped a base hit to right to put runners at the corners. Ramirez forced Alomar at second to end the inning.
The Sox struck again in the top of the fourth as Garciaparra doubled off the left field wall to start but O'Leary struck out swinging. Stanley ripped a base hit to left and Nomar made a mad dash home, scoring and allowing Mike to reach second. Daubach struck out on a 100 mph fastball and Lewis grounded out to third to end the inning with the Sox up 2-0.
Thome struck out swinging to begin the bottom of the fourth before Baines popped up to second. All of a sudden Pedro started clutching at his back covering first base on the grounder to first by Justice to end the inning. Turns out Pedro pulled a muscle in his back and left the game after 4 dominant shut-out innings.
Nixon struck out swinging to start the top of the fifth before Offerman drew a walk. Valentin banged into a double play to end the inning. Sure enough, Derek Lowe came in to pitch the bottom of the fifth and Fryman grounded out to second to start. Sandy Alomar grounded back to the mound and Lofton took strike three to end the inning.
Varitek struck out swinging to start the top of the sixth before Garciaparra walked. O'Leary then hit a rocket but was snared at the left field wall but Nomar thought it was off the wall, getting doubled off first to end the inning. That mistake proved fatal in the bottom of the sixth as Vizquel grounded out to short to start. Roberto Alomar grounded back to the mound and Ramirez hit a routine grounder to Valentin.....who threw low to Stanley for an error. Sure enough, Thome hit a home run all the way to the moon to tie the game. The Indians were 1 for 33 against Lowe during the regular season and had done nothing against him up until this point. Baines grounded out to second to end the inning with the game tied 2-2.
Stanley tried to start a rally with a base hit to center to start the top of the seventh but Daubach earned the hat trick with a swinging strikeout on a 98 mph fastball. Lewis took strike three on the outsider corner and Nixon grounded out to second to end the inning. A ticked off Lowe dominated the bottom of the seventh as Justice struck out swinging to start. Fryman struck out swinging and Sandy Alomar struck out swinging to end the inning.
Colon came back for the top of the eighth and Offerman popped up to Vizquel over his shoulder. Valentin and Varitek both struck out swinging to end the inning. Lowe returned for the bottom of the eighth and Lofton grounded out to second to start. Vizquel then hit a bullet but right to Valentin for the second out. Roberto Alomar popped up to Valentin in foul territory to end the inning.
Paul Shuey came in to pitch the top of the ninth and Garciaparra struck out swinging to start. O'Leary popped up to center and Stanley popped up to left to end the inning. Mostly due to the Indians being completely inept all year against Lowe, he was brought back for the bottom of the ninth. He promptly hit Ramirez and was replaced by Rheal Cormier. Thome flied out to left and old friend Wil Cordero pinch hit for Baines. Naturally Cordero ripped a base hit to right to chase Cormier from the game. Rich Garces came in to pitch with Richie Sexson in to pinch hit for Justice. Sexson walked to load the bases and Fryman did the honors with a base hit to left to score Ramirez to end the game. The Indians had walked off the Sox 3-2.
Jackass of the Night is Rich Garces. He allowed the walk and walkoff hit to Fryman to end the game.
The Good:
Jose Offerman walked twice in four plate appearances.
Nomar Garciaparra was 2 for 3 with a walk, a home run and 2 runs scored.
Mike Stanley was 3 for 4 with an rbi.
Pedro Martinez tossed 4 scoreless innings before leaving with injury. He allowed 3 hits and a walk while striking out 3.
The Bad:
John Valentin was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and an error.
Jason Varitek was 0 for 4 with a hat trick of 3 strikeouts.
Troy O'Leary was 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
Brian Daubach was 0 for 3 with a hat trick of 3 strikeouts.
Darren Lewis was 0 for 3 with a strikeout.
Trot Nixon was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts.
The Ugly:
Derek Lowe took the loss but was victimized by a big error and someone else allowed his inherited runner to score. He essentially tossed 4 innings and allowed one earned run.
Rheal Cormier faced two batters and retired just one of them.
Final Thoughts:
This is definitely worse case scenario for the Boston Red Sox. Not only did they lose a crucial game to the Indians but they lost Pedro Martinez as well. The preliminary report is Pedro should be able to make his next start but as we saw last year, that start may never come. The Sox bats were completely dominated by Bartolo Colon and they made too many mistakes against an offense this good. Apart from Stanley and Garciaparra, not a single Sox batter had a hit in the game. As mentioned earlier, the real story is the loss of Pedro because we saw last year that the Sox didn't win a single game after he won Game 1. If history repeats itself then this series is already over. The Indians pitching apart from Colon isn't lights out but Red Sox pitching outside of Pedro isn't exactly the New York Yankees. Still, this was only one game and there's at least two more to go. The Sox turn to Bret Saberhagen in Game 2 tomorrow afternoon to turn the tide when he faces Charles Nagy of Cleveland. The game begins at 5:00 PM Eastern time at Jacobs Field.
No comments:
Post a Comment