With all the talk focusing on the
Tigers pitching, I think it’s time to start talking about the Red Sox
pitching. Behind an absolute gem by John
Lackey and a solid bullpen, the Red Sox win Game 3, 1-0 and take a 2-1 series
lead.
Game 3 on Tuesday night was, just
like the last 2 games, a big time nail biter.
All the focus and talk was on
Justin Verlander as John Lackey was an afterthought. Perceived as the underdog, Lackey went out
there and pitched the game of his life.
The big righty fired 6 and 2/3 innings of no run ball. He gave up only 4 hits, walked none and
struck out 8.
This season it seems that Lackey
has been using mostly a fastball and slider combo but yesterday he showed a
great 12-6 curveball that had the Tiger hitters completely baffled. He consistently threw it as an out pitch last
night and had a ton of swing and misses.
It also made his fastball that much better as he blew his heater past
hitters even though he was only touching 92-93 miles per hour all night.
Lackey had his share of close
calls. In the bottom of the 1st
with runners on 1st and 3rd and 2 outs, the dangerous
Victor Martinez came to the plate, but Lackey got him to fly out to end the
inning and the threat. In the bottom of
the 5th, Jhonny Peralta opened the inning with a leadoff double but
Lackey shrugged it off and induced a groundout that moved Peralta the 3rd. He would strike out Infante for the 2nd
out and then get Andy Dirks to groundout to end the inning.
After a very clutch homerun by Mike
Napoli (we’ll get to that later), to give the Sox a 1-0 lead, Lackey started
the bottom of the 7th with a lineout by Prince Fielder. Victor Martinez then singled but Lackey got
Peralta on a flyball. With the lefty
Alex Avila coming to the plate, manager John Farrell opted to remove Lackey for
Craig Breslow. Lackey was only at 97
pitches and you could tell that he wanted to stay in the game. He was animated when Farrell came out to take
the ball from him and you could see the competitor in him. I agree with the move though he had been
pitching so well at that moment I would have had no problem sticking with him
as well.
The plan almost back-fired as
Breslow walked the lefty Avila on 5 pitches.
Breslow would settled down however and get Infante to bounce into a
fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The bullpen took over from there
as Breslow started the 8th by striking out Jose Iglesias. He then issued a walk to Austin Jackson and then
things got very interesting. After the
walk, Farrell removed Breslow and replaced him with Junichi Tazawa. I was shaking my head because all year,
Tazawa has had trouble with inherited runners.
Tazawa promptly gave up a single to Torii Hunter that moved Jackson to
third and my heart began pounding as up stepped the league’s best hitter,
Miguel Cabrera, with only 1 out and the tying run 90 feet away and the go ahead
runner on 1st.
Tazawa did the unthinkable. He blew the best right handed hitter I’ve
ever seen away on 4 pitches. I was
impressed as we’ve seen Tazawa implode in these types of situations all year
but he came up huge.
They still weren’t out of the
inning though and the danger level was still high as big Prince Fielder stepped
into the box again with that tying run only 90 feet away. John Farrell opted to bring in his closer, Koji
Uehara, for the 4-out save. Uehara did
what he’s been doing all year long and struck out Fielder on 3 pitches.
With the Sox not able to get
anything going, again, more on that later, Uehara came on for the start of the
9th. He gave up a leadoff
single to Martinez but quickly erased the threat as he got Peralta to ground
into the 6-4-3 double play. Uehara then
struck out Avila to end the game and give the Sox a nail biting 1-0 win.
What an amazing pitching performance
by Lackey and the bullpen. The bullpen
has been great all year long and in the playoffs they have been even more
brilliant. They’ve allowed only 2 earned
runs in the entire playoffs.
Offensively the Sox threw up
another stinker on Tuesday. The only
offense came on a solo homer by Mike Napoli in the top of the 7th. It was Justin Verlander’s 100th
pitch of the game and came on a 3-2 96-mph heater. It was Napoli’s first homer of the postseason
and the first homer by a Red Sox player that isn’t named David Ortiz. Before that homer, Napoli was 2-19 this
postseason with an awful 10 strikeouts.
The Sox could muster only 3 more
hits on the afternoon. Ellsbury, Gomes
and Drew all his singles and David Ortiz walked once. They were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring
position and left 4 men on base. They
struck out 11 times on the day, 3 of them coming from Salty.
It’s a good thing the pitching
has been lights out because the bats have been absolutely miserable this
series. They need to wake up soon
because you can’t win every game 1-0 or by 1 run. Let’s wake up.
They’ll be back at it tonight as
the Sox send Jake Peavy to the mound.
Peavy pitched in the Division Series but had no decision. He went 5 and 2/3 innings giving up only 1
run on 5 hits while striking out 3. He’s
a gamer and I’m sure can’t wait to get the ball and continue the pitching
dominance by the Sox this series.
The Tigers will counter with Doug
Fister who also only pitched one game in the Division Series. He went 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 7
hits while walking 1 and striking out 1.
He’s a ground ball pitcher and the Sox will have to be careful not to
ground into a lot of double plays.
I think we’ll see some offense
tonight but with the playoffs, you never can tell.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
John Lackey. Lackey’s performance was something I truly didn’t
expect. Outdueling the great Justin
Verlander, who’s been dominant this postseason?
It was the best game I’ve seen Lackey pitch in a Red Sox uniform and I think
the fans have all come full circle on Lackey.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
This is tough because the offense
has been so putrid this series. I have
to give it to Jarrod Saltalamacchia. He
whiffed in all 3 plate appearances last night.
PLAY OF THE GAME
You would think I’d put Napoli’s
solo homer here but the strikeout of Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the 8th
with the tying run on 3rd by Junichi Tazawa was the turning point.
NEXT
Wednesday, October 16th. In Detroit vs. the Tigers.
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