I wonder if the Boston Red Sox can play the Texas Rangers for the rest of the season because their starting pitching is just awful.
Daisuke Matsuzka picked up win number 14 with 7 shutout innings.
The Red Sox put up 9 runs in the 2nd inning and Daisuke Matsuzaka made it stand up as they went on to beat the Texas Rangers 10-0 in front of 37,856 at Fenway Park. The win for the Red Sox was their fourth straight and keeps them 3 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The lead in the wild card for the local nine is 3 games over the Minnesota Twins and 6 games over the Bronx Bombers.
Daisuke Matsuzaka had a typical Dice-K outing, get into a little trouble, work out of it and then settle in. He went 7 innings, scattering 6 hits while walking 5 and striking out 5 on 115 pitches. Manny Delcarmen worked the 8th fanning 2 and Mike Timlin struck out 1 in a perfect 9th.
The three hottest hitters on the Red Sox did their business once again tonight. Dustin Pedroia went 3-for-5 with an RBI, Jed Lowrie was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Kevin Youkilis was 2-for-4. David Ortiz went 1-for-2 with a 3-run homer and 2 walks. The only starters without hits tonight were Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew.
Houdini made an appearance in the top of the 2nd inning.
Milton Bradley led off with a single and then was retired at second on a Marlon Byrd fielder’s choice. Dice-K then walked Brandon Boggs but struck out Chris Davis. He followed that with a walk to Jarrod Saltalamacchia to load up the bases. But as he has done all season, he recovered to strike out former New Haven Raven Ramon Vazquez.
Poor Ron Washington. It must really suck watching your pitchers get beat up like when Mike Tyson was young and knocking the crap out of opponents. The Red Sox did that to Tommy Hunter in the 2nd inning tonight.
Big Papi's 3-run homer made it 7-0 Red Sox in the 2nd.
Youk led off with a single and after a Jason Bay fly out, he went to third on a Lowrie single. Hunter walked Varitek to load the bases for Coco Crisp. Coco ended up getting one off the end of the bat that fell in short left to drive in the first Red Sox run of the night. Hunter then got a little wild as he plunked Alex Cora to force in a run. Drew drove in a run on a fielder’s choice as Cora was retired at second to make it 3-0 Red Sox with 2 outs.
A Pedroia double scored Coco and moved Drew over to third for a 4-0 lead. Big Papi then cleared the bases with his third 3-run homer of the series to push the lead to 7-0. The hits kept coming as Youkilis smoked a double for his second hit of the inning. Bay singled to drive in Youk for a 8-0 lead and that was the night for Hunter. Warner Madrigal came in and was greeted by a Lowrie double that scored Bay from first to make it 9-0. The carnage ended when Madrigal struck out Varitek for the third out.
Because he can, Dice-K decide to make everyone’s blood pressure rise a little in the 3rd.
Ian Kinsler led off with a single and after a Frank Cattalanotto fly out, Michael Young moved Kinsler to third with a single. Houdini then got Milton Bradley to ground into a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.
After that Dice-K was outstanding per his norm. He scattered 3 hits and a walk for the next four innings to keep the Rangers off the scoreboard.
Dustin Pedroia gets some love after scoring the 10th run of the night
The Rangers bullpen did their job as well keeping the Red Sox off the scoreboard until the bottom of the 8th when Jeff Bailey singled off the glove of “Everyday” Eddie Guardado to score Pedroia for the 10th run of the night.
The Red Sox will go from facing the worst pitching staff in the American League to facing the best one in the Toronto Blue Jays. Paul Byrd will make his Red Sox debut tomorrow night while the Blue Jays trot out Roy Halladay.
Notes and musings:
Rangers @ Red Sox 8.14.08 boxscore
Bill Cosby threw out the first pitch along with two cancer patients as part of the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Telethon activities that are going on at Fenway Park until tommorrow night.
Jo-Jo sang the National Anthem before the game.
Clay Buchholz celebrated his 24th birthday today.
Theo Epstein will participate in an online chat with NESN.com on Friday, August 15 at 3 p.m.
from LC at 38 Cliches…during the pregame show, unsure if it was on NESN or WEEI, the Coz kept calling it the “Jimmy V Fund” and how he had the done stuff with or for the coach. I guess Bill had too many pudding pops before the interview.
Also I was out listening to the game on WEEI and Obie said that Ortiz now has 62 RBI this year and 20 of them are against Texas.
Oh and Sean McAdam says dont expect Julio Lugo to get his job back because it’s Lowrie’s. he adds that they will either trade Lugo in the off season or barring no suitors will convert him to super sub who can play the infield and outfield.