It was yet another resilient
effort by the Red Sox again last night as they persevered with a 4-2 victory
over the Blue Jays in 11 innings.
Shane Victorino ripped a two-run
single in the top of the 11th to win the game as Junichi Tazawa
struggled and gave up the tying homer in the bottom of the 8th.
The Sox stretched their AL East
lead to 4 games from the Rays and with 41 games left in the season set them up
very nicely for the home stretch. Of
their 72 victories this year, 19 of them have come in their last at-bat.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked with
one out to start the rally in the 11th. After a Will Middlebrooks single to put 2
runners on base, Jacoby Ellsbury hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners on
1st and 3rd.
Ellsbury then stole 2nd for his 44th steal of the
year and 2nd on the night.
Victorino then slapped a 1-2 pitch up the middle to plate both Salty and
Ellsbury to put the Sox up 2. Koji took
care of the rest with a perfect inning in the bottom half of the inning.
It was another tough night at the
dish with runners in scoring position as the Sox were just 3 for 14 and left 11
men on base. Mike Napoli is in a
terrible funk right now and went 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. His batting average is now down to .246 on the
season and he’s leading the league in strikeouts and is on pace for a team
record.
Stephen Drew also had a tough
night at the plate going 0 for 5 with 2 strikeouts. Salty was 1 for 4 with a run scored and a
walk. He hit his 30th double
of the year and is quietly putting together a good season. Daniel Nava went 1 for 2 and was then taken
out for Jonny Gomes who went 0 for 2 with a walk.
Will Middelbrooks went 2 for 5
with a run scored and a double and has been really good since his recent
promotion back to the big leagues.
Dustin Pedroia was 2 for 6 with an RBI and David Ortiz was 2 for 3 with
2 walks. Ellsbury and Victorino each had
a hit apiece.
Overlooked on Tuesday night was
Ryan Dempster who pitched very nicely. He
went 7 innings giving up 1 run on just 4 hits while striking out 4 and walking
2. It was the first time 4 or 5 games
that he’s looked really good which bodes well for the Sox as they need all
their pitchers to be firing on all cylinders for the stretch run.
Junichi Tazawa struggled again in
his 1 and 2/3 innings giving up a big homer to Arencibia to tie the game in the
8th. Tazawa has been
teetering back and forth between good and bad appearances since right before
the All-Star break. He needs to find his
stuff. Craig Breslow had a brilliant
outing, striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced.
Koji Uehara was great again
retiring all 4 batters he faced getting his 3rd win of the
season. He struck out 1 and lowered his
ERA to 1.32. He’s been a huge piece of
the puzzle this year for the Red Sox.
They’ll go at it again tonight as
the Sox send Jon Lester (10-7, 4.37).
Lester’s coming off a tough outing in his last go around. He’ll have to be better to win on the road in
the band box of Toronto. The Blue Jays
send Esmil Rogers (3-7, 5.12) to the mound.
Rogers has been atrocious in his last 3 starts giving up 20 earned runs
in just 12 and 1/3 innings. He was good
against the Sox though back on June 29th as he allowed no runs in 6
innings of work.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Shane Victorino. The Flying Hawaiian came up huge with a
clutch 2 out 2-run single to win the game for the Sox.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Mike Napoli. Nap is in a huge funk right now and was 0 for
5 with 3 more strikeouts on Tuesday night.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Shane Victorino’s 2-run single in
the top of the 11th.
NEXT
Wednesday, August 14th in Toronto
vs. the Blue Jays.
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