The Sox still aren’t hitting the
ball but on Wednesday nigh and into Thursday morning, they did what they did a
lot last year and grinded out a win in extra innings.
They amassed only 6 hits on the
entire night with 3 coming in the 1st inning, the Chicago White Sox
helped them out by issuing 15 walks. With
those walks and 3 sacrifice flies, the Red Sox were able to pull out a 6-4 win
in 14 innings over the White Sox in cold Chicago early this morning.
Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a 2-run
double into the right-field corner that proved to be the difference in the top
of the 14th. It was the 1st
extra base hit since the 1st inning of the game and the only hit
that left the infield in the final 13 innings.
It ended a marathon of a game that clocked in a 5 hours and 17 minutes.
It started out so well for the
Sox as Dustin Pedroia led off the game with a double then Xander Bogaerts
singled him in for a quick 1-0 lead.
Ortiz would then single for the Sox 3rd straight hit and it
looked like the offense was going to break though. NOPE!
The Sox wouldn’t get another hit until the top of the 9th
when Jonny Gomes dribbled a weak infield single to third.
Pedroia went 2 for 6 on the night
with 3 runs scored and 2 walks. Xander
Bogaerts went 1 for 3 with an RBI and 2 walks.
Ortiz went 1 for 5 with a run scored and 2 walks as Jonny Gomes went 1
for 4 with an RBI and 2 walks. Jackie
Bradley Jr. went 1 for 6 with 2 RBI and a walk.
Joining the walk party was Grady
Sizemore with 1 and also a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the top of the 9th. Pierzynski also had an RBI sacrifice fly and
Daniel Nava walked twice. Ryan Roberts,
Mike Carp and Jonathan Herrera all drew walks in the win.
I’ve never seen a team give a
game away like the White Sox did last night.
15 walks and only lose by 2 in extra innings shows you just how terrible
the Red Sox offense is right now. If you
receive 15 free passes, you should win by a lot more than 2 and the game definitely
shouldn’t be going into extra innings.
The defense again wasn’t great as
the Sox made 2 errors with one leading to a run in the bottom of the 1st
inning. Ryan Roberts had a bad throwing
error on a groundball by Jose Abreu in the inning that allowed Adam Eaton to
score the White Sox’s first run. Daniel
Nava would add another error that luckily wouldn’t lead to a run but when the
offense is sputtering like this, all other facets of the game need to be
excellent and so far this young season, the defense has been very iffy.
Clay Buchholz was solid for the 2nd
straight start. He went 6 innings giving
up 3 runs, only 2 earned, on 6 hits while walking 2 and striking out 6. The blemish was the 2-run homer he gave up to
Alexei Ramirez in the 6th to give the White Sox a 2-run lead that
looked like it would hold up. Other than
that, though, Buchholz kept the White Sox bats off balance with a good array of
fastballs countered with his off speed stuff.
The first couple innings saw him throw a lot of pitches, but he settled
in and did nicely in the middle of the game.
It was the 11th quality start for a Red Sox starter in 15
games this year.
The bullpen was excellent again
as Craig Breslow started it off going 1 and 1/3 giving up no runs on 1 hit and
striking out 2. Junichi Tazawa went 2/3
of an inning and retired both batters he faced.
Andrew Miller looked great in his 2 innings of work, allowing only 1 hit
and striking out 3.
The only blemish from the bullpen
was Edward Mujica, who came on with a 1-run lead in the bottom of the 11th
but could not nail down his 2nd save of the year. He allowed 1 run on 1 hit and also walked 1
and struck out 1. It’s his first blown
save of the year.
Chris Capuano was great as he
pitched the next 2 and 2/3 innings giving up just 1 hit and striking out 3 for
his first win of the season. When the Sox
signed Capuano late in Spring Training, I didn’t think much of the move
thinking that Capuano was just rotation depth but he’s really become an asset
in the bullpen early on.
Burke Badenhop pitched the final
out of the ballgame for his 1st save of the year.
It was a nice grind-it-out win
and hopefully this will jump start the Sox.
A win like this has that potential to be a momentum swing that the Sox
really need right now.
They’ll go for the series win
tonight in Chicago as ace Jon Lester (1-2, 2.57) will take the hill. Lester has been stellar to start the season
and he’ll have to be sharp again tonight facing the White Sox’s ace Chris Sale
(3-0, 2.66). The lefty is off to a fast
start getting a victory in each of his first 3 games. He lasted only 5 innings last time out
against the Indians and let’s hope the Sox can get to him early and get to that
mess of a bullpen.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Chris Capuano. As I stated earlier, I had zero expectations
for Cap but he’s been one hell of a weapon out of the bullpen. He got his first win of the season by
pitching 2 and 2/3 inning of no-run ball allowing only 1 hit and striking out
3.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Edward Mujica. With Koji Uehara having some shoulder
stiffness and likely to be used less and less this year, the Sox need Mujica to
step up and become that closer that he was last year with the Cardinals. In his 2nd attempt at a save,
Mujica walked the first batter he faced.
He then retired the next 2 but allowed a single by Tyler Flowers to blow
the save and allow the White Sox to tie the game.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Jackie Bradley’s 2-run double in
the top of the 14th.
NEXT
Thursday, April 17th in Chicago,
vs. the White Sox.
No comments:
Post a Comment