Lot
of L's in that opening line, however those L's turned into a big W as
the Red Sox won last night's game 4-2 behind the pitching of John
Lackey and the hitting of reborn Jed Lowrie.
Lackey
(10-5) was brilliant through the first 7 innings, giving up 1 run and
scattering a few hits while his counterpart Jared Weaver of LA was
pitching a shut out. The Sox turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead
when Lowrie doubled in Marco Scutaro and Darnell McDonald. In the
8th, Beltre doubled off of Kevin Jepsen to drive in David Ortiz for
some insurance.
Since
the bullpen has been borderline awful, Francona left Lackey in after
118 pitches to start the 8th. He managed to get Alberto Callaspo to
pop out, but a Bobby Abreu bomb chased him from the game. With the
score 3-2, the exhausted Daniel Bard trudged in from the bullpen to
once again save the day. He escaped the 8th with the only hiccup
being a meaningless walk to Hideki Matsui.
In
the 9th, the Sox managed to add to their 3-2 lead on a bizarre play.
Angels closer Brian Fuentes intentionally walked Kevin Youkilis to
get to Ortiz. The last time I remember the Angels walking someone to
get to Ortiz, Big Papi hit a 2 run walkoff home run to end the 2004
ALDS. With Ortiz at the plate and Scutaro on second, he hit a ball
into the shift that got past first basemen Mike Napoli. Second
basemen Howie Kendrick got to the ball but with Napoli out of
position, Fuentes was late getting to the bag and the throw from
Kendrick sailed past allowing Scutaro to score. It was ruled a hit by
Ortiz and an error on Kendrick.
Jonathan
Papelbon closed out the bottom of the 9th in short order for his 24th
save. Today's game features Josh Beckett fresh off his 6 2/3 1 run
ballgame against the Mariners against 10 game winner Joel Piniero.
The Sox will be without Bard and Papelbon so Beckett either has to
pitch a complete game shutout or Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen and
Ramon Ramirez has to not give up a run for once.
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