Team Effort Leads To Sweep of Angels (7/28/10)

Today's game was a microcosm of the Red Sox season, a group of men banding together putting personal stats aside to get the W. Their opponents should be equally applauded for their guts and determination.

At the start of the game, the LA Angels starter Joel Piniero (who was supposed to be the Red Sox closer in 2007) was scratched due to an oblique strain. Right then and there the Angels entire bullpen had to be ready to go. At first it didn't go so well for them.

The first member of the Red Sox to step up was Adrian Beltre, clocking his 17th home run in the top of the second off emergency starter Scot Shields. 2 batters later, Bill Hall stepped up with his 11th moonshot of the season. Eric Patterson began his incredible day by doubling before back to back walks of Marco Scutaro and Darnell McDonald loaded the bases and chased Shields from the game 1 1/3 innings in.

Now it was the Angels turn to show their guts and determination. After Fransisco Rodriguez put the fire out with no further damage, the Angels struck. Sox starter Josh Beckett (2-1) pitched admirable today but in the second Bobby Wilson drove in Hideki Matsui and Reggie Willits drove in Howie Kendrick to tie the game. Rodriguez would pitch scoreless third and 4th innings before giving way to Rich Thompson in the 5th. In the bottom of the 5th, Willits hit a leadoff double before being sacrificed over to third by Erick Aybar. A Maicer Izturis sac fly scored Willits to give the Angels a 3-2 lead. Their starter was scratched before the game began and their emergency starter was knocked out in the second inning, but the never say die Angels had taken the lead.

Now it was the Sox turn to mount a comeback. Rich Thompson shut them down in the 5th and 6th striking out 3 in the process. Then Kevin Youkilis stepped up by belting his 19th homer of the year to tie the game. Thompson recovered to strike out David Ortiz and Beltre to give him 5 K's in 3 innings. Beckett ended his impressive comeback by striking out 2 of the last 3 batters he faced to lower his ERA and put his team in position to win.

In the top of the 8th, Rich Thompson gave way to Fernando Rodney. Bill Hall and Jeremy Hermida walked which brought up Eric Patterson. Patterson attempted a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, but he dropped it so good he beat it out to be credited with a single. With the bases loaded, Marco Scutaro put an exclamation point on the day (he had walked twice and hit 2 singles earlier) by launching a grand slam just over the left field seats to put the Sox up 7-3.

In the bottom of the 8th it was Manny Delcarmen and the Red Sox defense's turn to step up. Manny managed to strike out Aybar and Izturis but allowed a double to Alberto Callaspo and a walk to Bobby Abreu. Then Juan Rivera seemed to have hit a sure single to center but Bill Hall defied the laws of gravity by jumping up and snaring the ball to preserve the 4 run lead.

In the top of the 9th, a real class act moment occured. Once again Hermida and Hall had walked bringing up Patterson with a chance to hit for the cycle. Instead, Eric declined his shot at history to lay a bunt down to move the runners over. Even if he gets released, putting the team in front of his own stats is a class act in my book. In the bottom of the 9th, it was up to Ramon Ramirez to step up and finish off this day. Ramirez closed the game out with a pop out and 2 strikeouts to end the game 7-3 and complete the sweep. The Angels put up a valiant fight deserving of respect, but the Sox got a team wide effort to win the ballgame.

The road-trip spanned 10 games producing 6 wins and 4 losses....all but 1 of the losses being 2 runs or less. The Sox are now 7 games behind the Yankees and 5 behind the Rays with plenty of baseball left to be played. Jon Lester (11-5) goes for the Sox friday night at home against Detroit.