What I thought would be a nice
pitcher’s duel turned into a slugfest and surprise extra innings game. That’s baseball for you. John Lackey had been doing really well as of
late and Alex Cobb of the Rays had been lights out all year so far.
But on Monday night, Alex Cobb
had his worst inning of his career in the top of the first. Eight straight Red Sox hitters reached base
and six of them scored to stake the Sox to a 6-0 lead before the Rays had even
come to bat. Alex Cobb would settle down
and not let up another run his entire outing but he lasted only 4 innings
giving up 7 hits and 3 walks.
John Lackey and the Red Sox
bullpen couldn’t do much better though as they let the Rays climb right back in
and eventually tie it to send it to extra innings. Lackey went 5 and 2/3 innings and gave up 10
hits, 4 runs, and 1 walk and struck out 2.
He also gave up 2 homers and seemed to be leaving the ball up in the
zone all night. The Rays should have
made him pay even more as there were a lot of hard fly balls and lineouts that
thankfully found gloves in the outfield.
The bullpen wasn’t all that good
last night either save for Craig Breslow, Clayton Mortensen, Koji Uehara and
Franklin Morales. Andrew Miller tossed
2/3 of an inning and let up a homerun and Junichi Tazawa pitched and inning and
a third giving up 2 hits and 1 run.
The worst on the night was Andrew
Bailey who came in for the save in the bottom of the 10th as the Sox
had put 2 on the board in the top half of the inning. He proceeded to blow his 2nd save
of the year with a leadoff homer then 2 straight walks, a single and then
another walk to let in the tying run.
With the bases still loaded he calmed down and got Evan Longoria to
ground into the 5-2-3 double play. With
the winning run still 90 feet away, Sam Fuld pitch hit and tried to drop down a
surprise bunt but Dustin Pedroia made a great play to end the inning. The damage had been done however and Bailey
looked like crap last night.
The game would go to the 14th
where Shane Victorino would start the inning off with a single then move to 2nd
base on a fly out from Dustin Pedroia.
After an intentional walk to David Ortiz, Daniel Nava singled to center
to put the Sox up on top. Jarrod
Saltalamacchia, who caught all 14 innings, then singled in Nava for an
insurance run. It was Salty’s 4th
hit of the game and 3rd RBI, impressive when you consider he caught
the whole game.
Franklin Morales, in his second
inning of relief, then worked around a leadoff single by Desmond Jennings and
closed the door for the extra innings win.
The Sox started hot and had 7 of
their 15 hits in the first inning but then cooled off until the extra
innings. They were good with runners in scoring
position going 7 for 14 but still left a lot of men on base (10). Salty had a great night going 4 for 7 with 3
RBI and his 17th double of the year.
All 3 of his RBI were with 2-outs, now that’s some clutch hitting.
Jacoby Ellsbury was 2 for 6 with
a walk and 2 more stolen bases (26). Shane
Victorino went 2 for 6 with a walk and a double. Dustin Pedroia had 1 hit, 2 walks and 2 RBI
and David Ortiz didn’t have a hit but walked 3 times on the night. Daniel Nava went 2 for 6 with a walk and 2
RBI and Mike Carp went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI.
Carp was lifted for Jonny Gomes who went 0 for 2 with a strikeout the
rest of the game. I don’t know why as
Carp had one of his 2 hits off a lefty.
Let Carp stay in the game, he’s hitting the ball and I believe a better
all around player than Gomes.
Will Middlebrooks was back in the
lineup after his stint on the DL (Pedro Ciriaco was DFA’d as I thought he would
be) and went 1 for 7 with an RBI and 2 strikeouts in his return. He’s now batting under .200 (.199) and
hopefully he’ll come around soon.
Stephen Drew went 1 for 6 and struck out 4 times on the night. Jose Iglesias is waiting in the wings Mr.
Drew. You better start hitting or he’ll
be taking your spot soon.
I was disappointed the Sox couldn’t
hold a huge lead to start the game but I like that they gritted the win
out. It’s nice to get that first victory
of the series out of the way and with Jon Lester (6-2, 3.60) towing the rubber
tonight you have to feel good about your chances. He’ll be opposed by Roberto Hernandez
(formally Fausto Carmona) who is 3-6 with a 5.03 ERA. He’s coming off a start in which he was hit
around pretty well by the Tigers going only 5 and 1/3 giving up 10 hits and 4
runs. Lester has been shaky as of late
so let’s hope he rebounds tonight.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Second consecutive day that Salty is the game
MVP. His 4 hits and 3 RBI were
instrumental in the Sox winning the game as well as catching all 14
innings. He’ll be due for a well
deserved day off tonight.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Andrew Bailey. Bailey hasn’t pitched in a save opportunity
since late May 25th but he was particularity bad last night. He walked 3, including the game tying run,
and gave up 2 hits in his 1 inning of work.
He didn’t strike anyone out and was lucky to get out of the inning
unscathed. The double play by Longoria
was ripped and the sneak bunt by Fuld was sniffed out nicely by Pedroia.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Daniel Nava’s go head RBI single
in the top of the 14th to put the Sox up 9-8. It was the game winner but the Sox would also
add an insurance run later in the inning.
NEXT
Tonight, Tuesday, June 11th
in 
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