Game 1- Sox: 5 Tigers: 1
Game 2- Sox 10 Tigers: 5
Game 3- Sox 6 Tigers: 3
The AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers have been successfully caged by the Red Sox in a rather interesting mid-week series that was filled with both individual milestones and some bizarre baseball. The individual milestones: Tito's 500th win as the Sox skipper, JD Drew's 200th tater, Rocco Baldelli's 500th career hit and Mike Lowell's 1,500th career hit.
The bizarre baseball? Well, Tuesday we had Dice-K, whose outings are always, well, a little loony. High pitch counts, lots of baserunners, five or six different pitches, you know the drill. He held the Detroit nine to a mere run, however, and picked up his first W of the season. J-Bay went yard for the 16th time in '09 and the Sox chased the very young Rick Porcello after 4 1/3.
Last night, Beckett was on his game, and had a no-no going through 6 2/3, but Detroit CF Curtis Granderson said no to the no-no with a single to right. Beckett ended up going 7 2/3, allowing two hits and no earned runs. Here's where the wacky part comes: In the bottom of the 8th, after the Sox doubled their run total in the top of the inning, defense took a holiday. Three quarters of the infield made errors that eventually led to matching five-spot by the Stripes. Bard pitched the last third of the inning and allowed no-no spoiler Granderson to rip a bases-clearing double after the infield failed to turn a double-play. Then, Green bobbled a ball hit by Josh Anderson (and was charged with one of the three errors) and his late throw caused Anderson to kick Youk in the ankle as he hopped into first base. Youk tripped and had to leave the field angry and in pain. Pedey got dinged with a throwing error when Green couldn't get a glove on a ball Pedey hastily flipped to him (hence the botched double play attempt). Lowell made an error on a bobble. The entire inning lasted almost an hour! Saito closed the game out and preserved the 10-5 lead, and not a single pitcher was charged with any runs.
Today's game had some craziness in the third, when Dontrelle (D-Train) Willis appeared to be pitching blindfolded, as he couldn't find the strike zone to save his life. He walked in two runs and Zach Miner added three more to D-Train's total damage, thanks to a Jason Bay two-run double and a Mike Lowell RBI single. Rocco Baldelli, playing RF with JD DH-ing (or, as today had it, he was the Designated Walker, reaching base four times via the BB), knocked in the sixth run. Wake allowed three Tigers runs, all coming in the bottom of the second. He went 6 2/3 and was touched for 8 hits, but didn't hand out any free passes.
So, the tag line for this road trip might as well be "It's not how you start, it's how you finish". After hitting the skids for two games apiece in Minny and Toronto, going for a stretch where scoring runs was like pulling teeth, Tito tinkered with the lineup and the bats responded. Pedey was moved to leadoff, with JD second, Youk, Bay and Lowell in the heart of the order, Papi in his new six-hole, with Tek, Jake, and Green rounding out the bottom. Although today's game meant another alteration of the order, with Papi resting, Kottaras in to catch Wake, Rocco in right, and Lugo at short, the top of the lineup remained the same. With the revised lineup, the Sox scored 29 runs in the last four games, after scoring 21 in their first six.
Tomorrow night, it's back to Fenway. The Texas Rangers, another first-place team, are in town. Like everything in the Lone Star State, the Rangers' bats are big, but, at the Fens, so are the Sox sticks.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! GREAT WAY TO END THE ROAD TRIP!!!!!
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