The Sox wasted no time scoring in the top of the first against St. Louis starter Lance Lynn when Mr. Mookie Betts swatted his 7th home run of the year 4 pitches into the game to put the Sox on top. Dustin Pedroia flied out and Xander Bogaerts grounded out, but Andrew Benintendi was hit with a pitch. Mitch Moreland grounded out to end the inning, but the Sox had a 1-0 lead.
Rodriguez had a strong top of the first inning by getting Dexter Fowler to fly out to center. Tommy Pham grounded out and Matt Carpenter flied out to end the inning.
The Sox struck again in the top of the second. Christian Vazquez struck out but Jackie Bradley Jr clobbered his 3rd home run of the year to center to increase the lead. Deven Marrero and Rodriguez grounded out to end the inning but the Sox were up 2-0.
Rodriguez also had a strong bottom of the second as well. Jedd Gyorko flied out and Yadier Molina struck out but Aledmys Diaz walked. Randal Grichuk lined out to end the inning.
Lynn settled down in the top of the third inning. Mr. Mookie grounded out, Pedroia flied out and Bogaerts whiffed to end the inning. The Cards came roaring back in the bottom of the third. Kolten Wong singled and Rodriguez made the (no pun intended) cardinal mistake of hitting Lance Lynn the pitcher. The Cards pounced as Fowler doubled home Wong and Pham hit a sac fly that scored Lynn to tie the game and advance Fowler to third. Carpenter hit a sac fly to score Fowler to give the Cards a 3-2 lead. Gyorko singled but Molina lined out to end the inning with the Cards ahead......damn.
The Sox took and gave in the top of the fourth inning. Wong gave the Sox a gift by missing the first basemen on a throw, allowing Benny The Kid to reach on an error. Moreland flied out and the Cards pulled off a strike em out, throw em out double play on Vazquez and Benny to end the inning. Rodriguez recovered in the bottom of the fourth inning. Diaz struck out but Grichuk walked. Wong flied out and Lynn struck out to end the inning.
The Sox clawed back in the top of the fifth inning. JBJ walked and Gyorko booted a ground ball hit by Marrero and everyone was safe. Rodriguez did his job with a ground out to advance both runners and JBJ scored on the Mr. Mookie ground out to tie the game. Pedroia then put the Sox on top with a single to score Marrero. Bogaerts grounded out but the Sox had the 4-3 lead.
Rodriguez got the lead and wouldn't give it up. Fowler grounded out and Pham struck out, but Carpenter singled......but wait! Carpenter tried to stretch it into a double but was thrown out by Betts to end the inning.
Lynn recovered for the top of the sixth as Benny The Kid flied out, Moreland struck out and Vazquez flied out to end the inning. Rodriguez came back for the bottom of the sixth and got Gyorko to fly out. Molina grounded out but Diaz singled. Grichuk struck out to end the inning. Rodriguez had battled back from a terrible third inning to toss 6 solid total.
Jonathan Broxton came n to pitch the top of the seventh and JBJ greeted him with a single. Marrero sacrificed him to second and Sox manager John Farrell pinch hit Rodriguez with Chris Young. Young flied out and Mr. Mookie grounded out to end the inning. Robby Scott took over in the bottom of the seventh and got Wong to ground out. Cards manager Mike Matheny pinch hit Broxton with Greg Garcia, and Scott walked him. Fowler popped up and that was it for Scott. Heath Hembree came in and Pham grounded into a force to end the inning. The Hembee/Scott combo has worked pretty much all year.
The Sox iced the game in the top of the eighth against Sam Tuivailala. Pedroia lined out but Bogaerts singled to chase Sam. Lefty Brett Cecil came in and Bogaerts swiped second base. Benny The Kid and Mitch Moreland worked back to back walks to load the bases. Great relief by Cecil. Miguel Socolovich came in to pitch to Vazquez and Christian hit a sac fly to score Bogaerts with an insurance run. Pham then aided the effort by dropping a simple pop up hit by JBJ and Benny The Kid scored, but Moreland was thrown out at home to end the inning, but the Sox now had a commanding 6-3 lead.
Hembree returned for the bottom of the eighth and struck out Carpenter to begin. Gyorko flied out but Molina singled. Diaz popped up to end the inning.
Marrero singled to lead off the top of the ninth, but Hanley Ramirez pinch hit for Hembree and grounded into a double play. Mr. Mookie popped up to end the inning. Craig Kimbrel came on for the save in the bottom of the ninth. Grichuk and Wong flied out before Matt Adams pinch hit for Scolovich. Kimbrel blew him away on 3 pitches to end the game. The Sox had won it 6-3.
Hero of the Night is Dustin Pedroia. His rbi single put the Sox up for good.
The Good:
Andrew Benintendi walked, was hit with a pitch and scored a run in 4 plate appearances.
Jackie Bradley Jr was 2 for 3 with a walk, a home run and 2 total runs scored.
Deven Marrero was 1 for 3 with a run scored.
Eduardo Rodriguez earned the win by tossing 6 innings of 3 run ball while striking out 5.
Robby Scott retired 2 batters in the 7th.
Heath Hembree tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Craig Kimbrel earned his 12th save with a scoreless ninth.
The Bad:
Chris Young was 0 for 1 as a pinch hitter.
Hanley Ramirez hit into a double play in his only plate appearance.
The Ugly:
Mookie Betts was just 1 for 5 but made the one hit count as it was a home run to lead off the game, he also had another rbi.
Xander Bogaerts was just 1 for 4 but scored a run and stole a base.
Mitch Moreland was 0 for 3 but walked
Christian Vazquez was 0 for 3 but hit a sac fly.
Final Thoughts:
Now that's more like it. After playing lifeless baseball against the Rays, the Sox came back to play better on the road against the Cardinals. They were aided by a multitude of errors by St. Louis but every win counts in the era of the second wild card. Hopefully this can be the start of a nice winning streak. The win improved the Sox to 20-18 on the season, 4 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. Tomorrow night Rick Porcello goes for the Sox against Mike Leake at 8:15 PM.
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