Beltre Slams Indians, Dice K Shines (8/5/10

It was learned all-star first basemen Kevin Youkilis would be lost for the season with a torn muscle in his thumb. In Youk's absence, Adrian Beltre has become a one man wrecking crew.

Tonight it was a team effort to win the game over the Indians. In the first inning Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-3. 3.96 ERA) allowed a solo shot to Shin-Soo Choo and then scattered 6 base runners over 8 innings to continue his resurgance and domination against the Indians.

Indians starter Mike Tomlin was particularly stingy through the first 3 innings before running into trouble in the 4th. Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out but Marco Scutaro singled. Tomlin got Ortiz to fly to right but then walked Victor Martinez and JD Drew to bring up Beltre. Adrian then launched a rocket (20) over the monster for the grand slam to give the Sox a 4-1 lead. The score remained the same as Dice K continued to baffle the Indians and Tomlin returned to form.

Tomlin left after 7 and in the bottom of the 8th, the Sox looked to put the game on ice. With Frank Hermann pitching. Ellsbury reached first after being interfered with by catcher Lou Marson. Scutaro flied out as Ortiz walked. Victor Martinez singled to load the bases and JD Drew knocked in Ellsbury and Ortiz to put the Sox up 6-1.

Then it was on to the 9th where the Sox looked to Hideki Okajima to put the game away with a 5 run lead. Instead, Okajima continued to stink the joint out by walking Matt LaPorta. He did manage to get Brown to ground out, but Lance Nix hit an infield single to third. Valbuena then singled in LaPorta to knock Okajima from the game. In came closer Jonathan Papelbon who promptly struck out Andy Marte but walked Shelly Duncan to load the bases. With the tying run at the plate, Papelbon beared down and struck out Trevor Crowe to end the game and earn his 26th save.

Now comes the biggest series of the season, a 4 game set in New York. Right now the Sox are 6 games out of the AL East and 3 wins out of 4 would put them right back in contention. This is a make or break series and now we see if they're good enough to contend.