Tuesday, September 3, 2013

GAME 138 – 9/1/2013 – at Home vs. the Chicago White Sox

RESULT – WIN 7-6

The Red Sox bats pick up the poor pitching performance by Felix Doubront to break out the brooms on the White Sox as they sweep them with a 7-6 victory on Sunday afternoon.

The pitching streak of allowing 3 or fewer runs was ended at 11 as Felix Doubront couldn’t hold the White Sox down.  But the offense scored 7 runs over the first 4 innings and the bullpen did what they usually do in 4 and 1/3 innings after Doubront and they took the sweep.

They banged out 7 runs on 8 hits and walked an incredible 8 times in the game.  With runners in scoring position, they were only 4 for 12 and they stranded 8 men on base but they had some very big clutch hits, scoring 5 of their 7 runs with 2 outs.

Jacoby Ellsbury went 1 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, a walk and his 51st stolen base of the year.  David Ortiz went 2 for 3, drove in 3 runs and walked once as well.  Dustin Pedroia went 2 for 4 with a run scored and a walk.

Mike Carp was on base twice with a hit and a walk and Xander Bogaerts went 1 for 4.  Stephen Drew went 1 for 4 with his 11th homer of the season.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia went hitless but walked twice and stole his 1st base of the season.  Daniel Nava and Shane Victorino both went 0 for 3 but reached base with a walk.

It was a nice offensive showing and the walks show what the Red Sox do best.  They are one of the best at getting on base.

Good thing the offense showed up though because Felix Doubront was terrible.  To be fair, Doubront has been pretty good all year so one bad game doesn’t mean anything but man was he off.  He went only 3 and 2/3 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits while walking 1 and striking out 4.  His command was off and he needed 90 pitches to get through the short outing.

Luckily for him, the bullpen was pretty good as Brandon Workman went 1 and 1/3 innings giving up just 1 run on 2 hits while walking 1 and striking out 1.  Franklin Morales looked the best he has all season going 1 and 1/3 innings of no-run ball allowing only 1 hit and 1 strikeout.  Junichi Tazawa went 2/3 of an inning allowing just a walk and he also struck out a batter.  Craig Breslow gave up a homer in his one inning of work but was able to get out of the inning without any further damage.

Koji Uehara pitched a perfect 9th for his 16th save.  Koji has been absolutely lights out.  It’s like you hand him any lead and the game is over.

The Sox now own a 5 ½ game lead in the AL East and have a tough series coming up against the Detroit Tigers.  John Lackey will take the hill against Doug Fister in what figures to be a playoff matchup down the line.

SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE – GAME MVP
David Ortiz.  Ortiz went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI and a walk.  He had his 29th double of the year.

ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Felix Doubront.  It was Doubront’s worst outing in a month and hopefully he’ll return to form in his next outing.

PLAY OF THE GAME
David Ortiz’s RBI single in the bottom of the 4th to put the Sox up 7-4.  The Sox would need that insurance run later in the game.

NEXT
Monday, September 2nd, at home vs. the Detroit Tigers.

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