It was a game reminiscent of 2013’s
ALCS; the Tigers were able to hold off the Red Sox on a rainy night at Fenway
Park, winning 1-0 to take Game 1 of the series.
As usual, the Sox bats were the problem
yet again. Offensively they managed only
3 hits on the night but did walk 4 times.
They were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left 5 men on
base.
The Sox let a scoring opportunity
get away from them in the 7th when Mike Carp opened the inning with
a single and the Tigers removed Max Scherzer from the game. Xander Bogaerts was then hit by a pitch to
put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Unfortunately they wouldn’t get any further as
Jackie Bradley Jr. struck out and pinch-hitter A.J. Pierzynski grounded into an
inning ending rally killing double play.
In the 6th, the Sox
had a similar situation as David Ross led off the inning with a single and
Dustin Pedroia followed that up with a walk.
Grady Sizemore then hit into a 4-6-3 double play and with David Ortiz
up, Tiger’s manager Brad Ausmus ordered an intentional walk. With runners at the corners big Mike Napoli
came on to face Max Scherzer but Napoli couldn’t do anything and ended up
striking out looking to end the inning.
Another case of not getting the
big hit when they needed it. well, not really getting any hits when they needed
it.
David Ortiz went 1 for 3 with a
walk, Mike Carp was 1 for 4 and David Ross was 1 for 3. Mike Napoli walked twice and Pedey once. Overall the Sox struck out 9 times as a team.
It wasted another strong Jon
Lester appearance as the big lefty went 5 strong innings giving up only 1 run
on 4 hits while walking 3 and striking out 7.
Had the game not been interrupted by rain, Lester likely would have been
out another inning but with the 47 minute delay, John Farrell did not want to chance
anything and pulled him after only 94 pitches.
Lester got around a shaky first
as he threw 27 pitches in that inning alone and he gave up the lone run of the
game in that inning on a Torii Hunter RBI single. Although he did very well, the bats weren’t
able to pick him up and Lester falls to 4-5 on the season.
The bullpen was strong as Burke
Badenhop went 1 and 2/3 innings giving up just 1 hit and striking out 1. Edward Mujica went 1 and 1/3 innings giving
up just 1 hit and Junichi Tazawa went 1 inning striking out 2 of the 3 batters
he faced.
The Sox will need to get the bats
going as they’ll go up against Rick Porcello on Saturday night. Porcello has been great this year with 6 wins
on the season and an ERA a little over 3.
He’ll face off against John Lackey who has been pretty good this season as
well but has struggled against the better teams as of late.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Jon Lester. No one on the offensive side can be called a
game MVP. I’ll give it to Lester who has
the unfortunate status of not being helped out this year by the bats.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Jackie Bradley Jr. JBJ went 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts and is
struggling mightily right now. He is
batting just .200 on the year but his at-bats look terrible and he’s not taking
very good hacks up there.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Torii Hunter’s RBI single in the
1st which ended up being the only run scored in the entire game.
NEXT
Saturday, May 17th at home vs. the Detroit
Tigers.
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