Dustin Pedroia carried his hot hitting into the month of September as he had another multi-hit game to go along with 2 RBI to lead the Boston Red Sox past the Baltimore Orioles 7-4 in front of 37,565 at Fenway Park on another beautiful night for baseball in Beantown.
With the first place Tampa Bay Rays idle, the Red Sox pick up a ½ game in the AL East to sit 5 games out. The Minnesota Twins were idle tonight as well and the Chicago White Sox lost so the Red Sox are 3 games ahead of both teams in the wild card race.
Paul Byrd picked up his third win in 4 tries in a Red Sox uniform.
Paul Byrd had a decent night on the hill despite giving up another 3 long balls. He gave up 4 runs on 7 hits and a walk while fanning 4. Javier Lopez worked a perfect inning and Jonathan Papelbon made things interesting in the 9th by allowing 2 hits.
Pedroia went 2-for-4 in the game to improve his average to .327. Jed Lowrie went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and 2 RBI while Jason Varitek and Jeff Bailey both hit solo home runs.
Byrd started out the game by striking out Brian Roberts then gave up a solo blast to Adam Jones.
Garrett Olson’s string of bad outings against the Red Sox continued tonight.
He struck out Jacoby Ellsbury and then issued a walk to Pedroia and got David Oritz to foul out. Walks to Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay loaded the bases but Olson recovered to strikeout Jed Lowrie.
More troubles for Olson in the 2nd as Bailey and Varitek hit back-to-back home runs to start the inning to put the Red Sox up 2-1.
The Orioles got the run back though in the 3rd inning when Byrd served up another gopher ball, this time to Juan Castro to tie the game at 2.
After both pitchers had settled down and kept the game moving at a brisk pace, Castro led off the 6th with a single and went to second on a Roberts sacrifice bunt. Jones fouled out but Nick Markakis followed with an RBI single to give the O’s a 3-2 lead. Huff then hit a double to move Markakis to third and Byrd walked Ramon Hernandez to load up the bases. He got out of the jam by getting Luke Scott to fly out to right field.
With 1 out in the bottom of the 6th, Bay got things going by reaching on a ground-rule double and he came around to score on a Lowrie double to tie the game at 3. Olson got Varitek to ground out but then issued a walk to Bailey. The walk would prove costly as Coco Crisp drove in Lowrie to put the Sox up 4-3. Ellsbury loaded up the bases when he reached on an infield single to chase Olson from the game.
Dustin Pedroia sticks out his tongue to someone after driving in 2 runs in the 6th inning.
Dennis Sarafate came in and was greeted by a Pedroia single that scored Bailey and Crisp to make it 6-4. Ellsbury got to third and Pedroia to second when Markakis bobbled the ball for an error. Rather than face Big Papi, the O’s decided to intentionally walk him and the move worked as Youk grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Kevin Millar brought the Orioles to within 2 runs when he led off the 7th with a solo home run. Byrd retired the next three batters before handing the ball to Lopez in the 8th who set the O’s down 1-2-3.
Jim Miller came in for Sarfate and got Ellsbury to ground out to start the 8th. Pedroia followed with a single and then stole second. With Pedroia at second, the O’s decided to intentionally walk Big Papi again. Youk reached on an error by Miller to load up the bases. Miller got Bay to strikeout but issued a walk to Lowrie to force in a run to make it 7-4.
Papelbon struck out Hernandez and Scott to start the 9th and then Millar and Jay Payton followed with singles and moved up a base on a passed ball by Varitek. Not to worry though as Papelbon got Oscar Salazar to ground out to pick up his 35th save.
Jon Lester makes the start for the Red Sox tomorrow night as they look to continue a great homestand.
Notes and musings:
Orioles @ Red Sox 9.1.08 boxscore
The Red Sox honored all of the New England Olympians before the game.
Mike Lowell took batting practice before the game and hopes to come back on Friday when the team is in Texas.
Dustin Pedroia now owns the Red Sox record for hits by a second baseman in a season with 184.
He also leads the league with 54 multi-hit games.
