RESULT – WIN 6-5
Is there anyway Andrew Bailey
doesn’t remain the closer when Joel Hanrahan gets healthy? After losing his closer role during the
offseason, Bailey is doing pretty much everything he can to make John Farrell’s
decision a tough one when Joel’s healthy.
Bailey had his most dominant
outing of the season closing Wednesday’s victory over the scrappy Oakland
Athletics. He struck out al 3 batters he
faced and all three went down swinging.
He completely dominated John Jaso, Seth Smith and Jed Lowrie on 19
pitches. What I noticed most on the
outing is how he relied on his breaking ball and slider which complemented his
97-98 mph fastball. Hanrahan will begin
a Minor League assignment on Friday and will rejoin the Sox sometime next week
and John Farrell will have a tough decision on his hands. In my mind, you have to go with the hot hand
and Bailey certainly has it right now.
There was a little dicey
situation in his ninth inning save as Jed Lowrie drilled a 2-2 pitch down the right
field line where there isn’t much foul territory. The umpire ruled the ball foul and multiple
television replays were inconclusive as well.
The ball looked like it could have hit some chalk but it truly a hard
ball to judge. Bailey of course was
happy with the results saying, “You know, I’m a big proponent of getting things
right. It’s also a game of inches and
judgment calls. It was on my side today.”
A’s manager Bob Melvin wasn’t as
pleased. “What did I see? I saw chaulk
fly.” He continued, “It makes a huge
difference. Now you have a guy up with a
runner in scoring position and anything can happen.” I’m a proponent for more instant reply but I don’t
think there was enough video evidence to actually show that the ball was a fair
ball. I think even with instant replay
the call would have stood as is.
Jon Lester started for the Sox
and had to grind out his 5 and 2/3 innings.
The big lefty gave up 6 hits, 3 runs while walking 6 and striking out
5. His pitch count was way up to 115 and
the walks were troubling. The A’s seem
to have a lot of tough outs up and down the lineup and really battled Lester
out there. There were a ton of foul
balls and deep counts as they were trying to get Lester’s pitch count up and
him out of the game.
This generally is fine as the Sox
bullpen has been pretty good this year, but lately they have been shaky and
last night continued that trend. Junichi
Tazawa came on to relieve Lester and let up 2 hits and a run. Andrew Miller pitched 1/3 of an inning and
actually struck out the only batter he faced which in encouraging seeing how
wild he’s been as of late. Then Koji
Uehara came on in the eighth and promptly gave up a home run, bringing the A’s
to within 1 run. Koji recovered and
struck out 2 in the inning but that’s the second time in a row Koji’s come on
and given up a bomb in an inning.
Luckily Bailey bailed everyone out with a lights out ninth inning.
The Sox look a lot more potent
with David “Big Papi” Ortiz occupying that cleanup spot. Ortiz was smack dab in the middle of both of
the team’s big rallies on the night. He ripped
a double off the Green Monster to jump start a three run rally in the bottom of
the fourth and also went the other way to beat the shift on an RBI single in a
three run sixth. In his first four games
since coming off the DL, he is batting .500 (8 for 16) with 3 doubles and 3
RBI.
Dustin Pedroia went 2 for 5 and
Mike Napoli (1 for 2 with a walk and hit by pitch) delivered yet another big
RBI double. It was Napoli ’s
tenth double and Major League leading 26th RBI. The 3-4-5 combo of Pedroia, Ortiz and Napoli has the potential to be pretty dangerous this year
if they can continue to hit.
Stephen Drew who had been in an
early season slump, contributed with a big 2 run triple in the fourth but also
struck out 3 times on the night.
Everyone would like to see Drew start being a little more consistent at
the plate. Jacoby Ellsbury got a hit and
a walk and also stole his tenth base of the year. Daniel Nava went 2 for 2 with an RBI coming
off the bench for Jonny Gomes. Shane
Victorino also chipped in a hit and RBI but left the game early with tightness
in his hamstring. Will Middlebrooks took
an 0 for 4 and David Ross went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
The A’s got a huge night from
Chris Young who went 2 for 3 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI. He also walked once and stole a base. Jed Lowrie had 3 hits in the losing effort
and Josh Donaldson also had 2 hits. This
Oakland
The Red Sox get another big
series win and have the best record in the American League at 14-7. They have the Houston Astros coming in for a
four game set this weekend and it’s the first trip for Houston
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Andrew Bailey who completely
dominated in the ninth inning Wednesday night.
The bullpen had given up a run in the 7th and a run in the 8th
to make it a one run situation.
Bailey blew the A’s away 1-2-3 striking out the side for his 5th
save of the year.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
David Ross. Ross went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and
continues to be abysmal at the plate. His
average is down to .120 and he looks like he’s going to be more of a defensive
player first, offense second.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Bottom of the fourth, 2 outs with
the Sox down by two and the struggling Stephen Drew at the plate. Drew got up in the count 2-1 then ripped a
triple down the right field line to score 2 runs. It tied up the game and energized the team
and the crowd.
NEXT
Today, Thursday, April 25th vs.
the 
No comments:
Post a Comment