The Red Sox take advantage of the
O’s miscues to cap a comeback from 5-0 down to steal one at Fenway Park 6-5.
What an ending in the bottom of
the ninth inning Sunday night. Facing a
dreaded situation of extra innings, the day before a very early start on Monday
morning, the Sox loaded the bases with only 1 out. With 1-out, Pedroia hit a deep-fly to left
that looked like a game winning Monster homer but after review, it was
confirmed to be a ground-rule double as a fan reached over and touched the
ball. A wild pitch moved Pedey to 3rd
and the O’s elected to just intentionally walk David Ortiz. Mike Napoli was then drilled by a 1-0 pitch
in the knee to load the bases.
Mike Carp stepped to the plate to
pinch hit for Jonny Gomes and smoked a line drive to left field that didn’t
look deep enough for Pedroia to score.
Pedroia tagged up and took a few hard steps toward home to bait David
Lough into throwing. It worked as Lough
made an errant throw to home that went all the way to the backstop to plate
Pedroia and complete the comeback for the 6-5 victory.
It was the first walk-off win of
the 2014 season. They had 11 last year,
including the first that came on Marathon Monday.
The bats didn’t start until the 6th
inning as the Sox were staring a 5-0 lead in the face. As usual, they couldn’t get that one big hit
as they were stranding runners each inning.
However, in the sixth with one out, David Ortiz singled to center and
Mike Napoli drew a walk to put 2 runners on for Jonny Gomes. Gomes then unloaded the 2-2 pitch into the
Monster Seats to put the Sox on the board 5-3.
Then in the 7th, a
little bit of good luck finally came Boston’s way as Grady Sizemore hit a ball
back to pitcher Zach Britton. Britton
fired to 2nd base for the force but Ryan Flaherty dropped the ball
on the transfer trying to throw to first.
Brock Holt was ruled safe and the O’s didn’t challenge it because of the
new way that Major League Baseball is interpreting the rule. You must have full control of the ball when transferring
and it’s been a hot button issue for the league early on this year. I thought it was clear he caught it and
dropped it on the exchange so it should have been an out but the way the rule
reads now, it’s not. It’s a stupid rule
that I hope MLB fixes soon before it costs the Sox. Luckily it went in their favor this time and
the Sox were able to tie up the game 3 batters later.
Overall, the Sox scored 6 runs
(only 3 earned as the O’s made 3 errors) on 8 hits and walked 4 times. They were only 3 for 12 with runners in
scoring position and left 9 men on base.
Dustin Pedroia seems to be
heating up as he went 2 for 5 with a double.
David Ortiz went 2 for 4 with a run scored, RBI and a walk. Jonny Gomes went 2 for 4 with a run scored, 3
RBI, a double and his 2nd homer of the season. Xander Bogaerts went 1 for 4 and Brock Holt
went 1 for 3 with a walk and stolen base.
Mike Napoli was on base twice with a walk and hit by pitch and Grady
Sizemore also walked and scored a run.
Starter Jake Peavy wasn’t good on
Sunday night. He went only 5 and 2/3
innings allowing 10 hits and 5 earned runs.
He walked 4 and struck out 5 while allowing one homer run. His pitches seemed to have too much movement
on them as they danced around out of the strikeout and he couldn’t get any of
the patient O’s hitters to chase. It was
his first bad outing of the season as he’s been stellar up to this point. Let’s hope it’s just one bad game and he can rebound
in his next outing.
The bullpen picked Peavy up in a
huge way. Chris Capuano went 1 and 2/3
inning allowing only 1 hit and striking out 2.
Junichi Tazawa retired the only batter he faced and Andrew Miller went
one inning allowing only 1 hit and struck out 1.
Edward Mujica had the biggest out
of the game in the top of the ninth as John Farrell went to Mujica when he
through Delmon Young, who came out on the on-deck circle was going to bat for
lefty David Lough. Unfornately Young was
never announced so Showalter pulled him back and had Lough hit instead. Lough is a lefty, so the matchup favored the
O’s in a big way. Mujica beared down and
struck Lough out on 4 pitches including a nasty splitter for a swinging 3rd
strike. He earned his first win in a Sox
uniform as the Sox would walk-off next inning.
It was a great momentum building
game for the Red Sox and hopefully they can continue it today with the annual
Patriot’s Day game Monday morning at 11:05.
Clay Buchholz (0-1, 5.51) will
take the hill and he’s been very good as of late. He’ll be looking for his first win of the
season against Wei-Yin Chen (2-1, 4.76).
Chen pitched effectively last outing and has had success against the Sox
in the past. Emotions will be running
high today as the Boston Marathon will be going on simuntaesly. With last year’s tragic events, it should be
a very nice day in Boston and hopefully the Sox can send everyone home happy
like last year.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Jonny Gomes. Gomes went 2 for 4 and hit his 2nd
homer of the season to bring the Sox back to striking distance Sunday
night. Gomes got the rare start against
a righty and took full advantage of it.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
A.J. Pierzynski. Pierzynski went 0 for 4 with a strikeout and
is in the middle of a crazy bad slump where he’s 0 for his last 15 or so. Let’s hope he can find his stroke soon.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Edward Mujica’s big 4 pitch
strikeout of David Lough in the top of the ninth to keep the game tied at 5.
NEXT
Monday, April 21st at Home vs. the Baltimore Orioles.
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