RESULT – WIN 3-2
Clay Buchholz was again dominant
Friday night vs. the Twins. He was
denied the win but the Sox were able to win the game in extra innings to run
their winning streak to 3 in a row.
Buchholz went 7 innings giving up
2 runs on 4 hits, walking 3 and striking out 9.
He combined with three relievers to retire the last 17 Twins in order to
seal the victory for Boston
He had a few hiccups in the
middle innings as he gave up a two-run homer to Pedro Florimon but was able to
regain his form and sat down the final seven he faced and seemed to bear down when
he needed to. Clay was locked in early
as he struck out 5 of the first 6 batters and looked like he would cruise to
his 7th victory of the year.
Then in the 3rd, the
Twins were able to get their first hit off of him and the Florimon’s homer put
the Twins up 2-1. In the 5th,
he loaded the bases and it appeared like it may be the end for him but he rallied
and got Josh Willingham looking and then had Justin Morneau fly out to end the
inning.
The bullpen was stellar after
Buchholz’s exit. Andrew Miller was
fantastic going 1 and 2/3 innings striking out 2 and didn’t allow a hit. Alex Wilson got the only batter he faced and
Koji Uehara pitched a perfect 10th with 2 strikeouts to notch his
first save of the year.
In total, Sox pitching struck out
14 Twins on the night and only walked 3.
It’s a good thing too because the
Sox didn’t have anything going offensively.
They managed 10 hits but grounded into 3 double plays and were only 2
for 10 with runners in scoring position.
It seemed like they couldn’t string any hits together and when they did,
it would end with a rally-killing double play.
David Ortiz went 3 for 4 with an
RBI and Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia each had 2 hits apiece. Stephen Drew was on base three times with 2
walks and a double and Jonny Gomes reached base twice with 2 walks.
In extras, Pedroia who was 0 for
4 and had already grounded into 2 double plays led the inning off with a single
then moved to second on a Big Papi walk.
Will Middlebrooks, who went 0 for 4 then laid down a perfect, sacrifice bunt
that moved the runners to second and third.
After an intentional walk to Drew, Jonny Gomes broke the tie with a sacrifice
fly to center to put the winning run across the plate.
It’s rare to see the Sox play
small ball but the 10th showed just how fundamentally sound the team
is this year. Pushing that run across
when nothing else was working last night showed that this team has come a long
way from last year.
The Sox go at it again tonight
with Dempster taking the mound seeking his 3rd win of the season. Hopefully the bats will get going against
Scott Diamond of the Twins who is 3-3 on the year with an ERA in the high
fours.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Clay Buchholz. Clay was denied his 7th win on the
season but threw seven strong innings and looked dominant most of the
night. When your starter can consistently
go 7 strong and keep producing quality starts, the team is going to win a lot of
games.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Mike Carp. Carp went 0 for 4 on the night with 2
strikeouts. He has cooled off
considerably since his torrid start.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The perfect sacrifice bunt by
Will Middlebrooks in the 10th inning. When I think of bunting, Will Middlebrooks
doesn’t come to mind which is why his 10th inning bunt was
perfect. It got the runners in scoring
position and ended up being the biggest play of the night. Way to play some small ball Will.
NEXT
Tonight, May 18th in Minnesota
No comments:
Post a Comment