In the playoffs, they always say,
pitching will win you ball games, but don’t tell that to the Red Sox as they
are just smacking the ball around the ballpark right now.
They had the most productive
offense in the Majors all regular season long and it doesn’t look like it’s
going to be any different in the postseason.
The Sox beat up Tampa Bay’s ace,
David Price, and notched a 7-4 victory that put them up 2-0 in the best-of-five
American League Division Series.
Even though they have gotten
decent pitching the first 2 games of the series, it’s been the balanced and
relentless offense that has taken center stage.
They banged out 7 runs on 11 hits
and walked twice. They weren’t good
again with runners in scoring position, going 3 for 11, leaving 5 men on base
but they got 2 big 2-out RBI’s from David Ortiz and Stephen Drew.
Speaking of David Ortiz, he went
2 for 4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and 2 homers.
Ortiz continues to be a menace in the middle of the Red Sox order and he
took Price deep twice in the contest.
Jacoby Ellsbury went 3 for 4 with
3 runs, 1 RBI, a double and a stolen base.
Dustin Pedroia went 1 for 3 with 3 RBI, a sacrifice fly and a
double. David Ross went 1 for 4 with an
RBI and a double and Stephen Drew went 1 for 4 with an RBI and triple. Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes and Will
Middlebrooks all pitched in with a single a piece as Mike Napoli walked twice
in the win.
John Lackey wasn’t sharp but
grinding out the win. He was able to get
through 5 and 1/3 innings, letting up 4 runs on 7 hits while walking 3 and
striking out 6. His breaking ball seemed
to be working very effective but he missed routinely with his fastball. While he didn’t have the best command, his
bullpen had his back.
Craig Breslow went 1 and 2/3 of
shut out ball giving up only a walk in his outing. Junichi Tazawa worked around a hit in his
inning of relief and Koji Uehara had a perfect ninth for the save. He struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced and
looked like his normal dominant self.
The Sox will enjoy an off day on
Sunday before traveling to Tampa Bay to face the Rays at Tropicana Field. The game will be at 6:07 on TBS and Clay
Buchholz will step to the mound to see if he can get the sweep.
The Rays will counter with young
Alex Cobb. Cobb faced the Red Sox back
on September 11th at home and went 5 and 2/3 giving up 3 runs on 7
hits. He gets a ton of strikeouts and
doesn’t walk too many so look for the Sox to be aggressive early on against
him.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
David Ortiz. Ortiz went deep twice and it’s the first time
he’s done that in the postseason. He
keeps adding milestones to his storied career.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Shane Victorino. The Flying Hawaiian went 1 for 4 out of the
2-hole for the Sox. Really there wasn’t
a LVP of the game but I’ll give it to the offensive player that did the least.
PLAY OF THE GAME
David Ortiz’s 2nd
homer of the night in the bottom of the 8th. A back breaker that put the Sox up 7-4.
NEXT
Monday, October 7th,
vs. the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa Bay.
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