Sox: 4 O's: 0
Sox:10 O's: 11
Sox: 6 O's: 5
Last night's game was a giant, hulking disaster of a debacle of a catastrophe. It was the kind of game that could have sent the team reeling, demoralizing them into dropping the series. But, drop the series they didn't, despite the dismal first eight innings of this afternoon's game--they came back in the ninth to tie and in the eleventh to win it, showing that two can play the comeback game.
Before we get into last night's calamity, let's start at the beginning. Lester once again shows ownership of the 0's by blanking them over seven frames. The pen holds the lead and Paps gets a one-out save when he comes in with the tying run at the plate. With that save, he tied Bob Stanley's record of saves with the Red Sox. Drew comes a double short of the cycle and Lester gets his seventh W of the season.
With all that happened last night, Smoltz's strong pre-rain delay four innings got lost in the events that followed. Had Mother Nature not intervened, he could have gone possibly two more innings and, had they gone as well as the first four, picked up his first win as a Red Sox. A 1 hr 10 minute rain delay kept Smoltz in the dugout for the rest of the game, as they didn't want to risk re-injuring his shoulder by getting him warmed up again to resume pitching after the delay. The line on Smoltz: 4 IP, 3 H 1 R 1 BB 2 K
Masterson came on after the tarp was taken off the field and threw two dominant innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced. When he came out for the seventh inning, however, he was a completely different pitcher. He went from lights-out to throwing batting practice. Part of that could be due to Francona lifting Tek in favor of Kottaras, changing catchers on his young pitcher midstream and part of it could be due to Masterson being further removed from the earlier weeks in the season where he was in the starting rotation and not stretched out enough to go three innings.
After Masterson lit the match and stoked the flames, seemingly unable to record an out and allowing four runs, including a 3-run bomb by pinch hitter Oscar Salazar, the skipper sent Manny Delcarmen in to try to put out the fire. He gets two outs, but allows another hit, which scores a runner he inherited from Masterson. Tito gets nervous and pulls MDC in favor of Oki. Oki gets the third out and it looks for the moment like the fire has been put out, at least for that inning.
One inning later, the embers are still burning as Oki comes back on the mound for what the Sox hoped would be a clean inning to keep the score at 10-6. No such luck, as Oki apparently came to the mound with gasoline in tow and promptly poured it on the embers and the fire raged once again. Oki allows five hits, only recording one out. Saito comes in with his own can of gasoline and allows another hit and another inherited runner scores. He records the second out. Fire still raging, Pap comes in to try to get a four-out save. More gas on the fire, in the form of a two-run double and the second blown save of the season for the closer.
In just two innings, the Sox' vaunted bullpen surrenders 10 runs, obliterating a nine-run lead. Perhaps the baseball gods were irked by more than half the team walking off the field with only two outs in the sixth inning. Maybe the Sox infielders (plus Masterson) got a little cocky with such a big lead and they figured they only needed to get two outs to finish off the Birds. Or maybe they just plumb forgot how to count to three. Whatever it was, those were two of the ugliest innings I've ever seen.
Today's game looked like a carryover from last night, with the O's leading the Sox 5-1 going into the ninth. Beckett did not have his A game in the early innings and it appeared he was stricken by the same bizarre bug that ate up the bullpen last night. Later on, he settled down enough to keep the Sox within striking distance. The rally in the ninth started with a 2-run dong by Youk, his second in as many games. After Bay (who collected a Platinum Sombrero for striking out five times) and Ortiz whiffed, Jacoby singled, Bailey and Tek walked to load the bases. Lefty-killer Rocco came on to pinch hit for Nick Green and singled home two runs, tying the game. Two shutout bullpen innings later (ninth belonged to Bard, tenth to Ramirez), Julio Lugo, of all people, knocked the game-winning RBI off Danys Baez. Pap nailed down the save in a redeeming 1-2-3 bottom of the eleventh and the Sox get their revenge for last night.
Having gone 6-3 on the trip and improving their road record to 23-20, the Sox are ready for some home cooking at Fenway. They'll celebrate the holiday weekend by hosting the Mariners. The A's come in next week and then the Royals (sans Coco, whose season is over after being injured last month). After that, the All-Star Break.
LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! WAY TO BOUNCE BACK TODAY!!!!
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