Mark Kotsay's double gave the Red Sox a 5-4 win.
Mark Kotsay knocked in Jeff Bailey in the bottom of the 8th inning to help the Boston Red Sox to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians in front of 37,719 at Fenway Park.
The win keeps the Red Sox very slim AL East title hopes alive. I say slim because the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles tonight to cut their magic number to 1 for the AL East crown.
With the score tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 8th, Rafael Perez took over for Rich Rundles and struck out Kevin Youkilis for the 1st out. Bailey pinch-hit for Jonathan Van Every and narrowly missed a home run by about 6 inches off the Green Monster and ended up with a triple. Kotsay followed with the double to knock in Bailey to put the Red Sox on top 5-4.
Manny Delcarmen worked around a walk to Grady Sizemore in the top of the 9th to close the door on the Indians to pick up his 2nd save.
Paul Byrd wasn't at his best against his former teammates.
Paul Byrd started or I should say auditioned for a playoff spot tonight and wasn’t at his best although he was the victim of some bad defense in one inning. He went 5 innings, alllowing 4 runs on 11 hits and 1 walk while fanning 4. The bullpen was strong behind him as Mike Timlin, David Aardsma and Delcarmen combined for 4 scoreless innings of work.
Kotsay broke out of his slump with a 2-for-4 showing including 2 RBI, one of which was the game-winner. Dustin Pedroia added two hits to raise his average to .325 while Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 15 games. David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Chris Carter had the other RBI for the local nine.
The Red Sox did most of their damage off of Indians starter Fausto Carmona in the bottom of the 1st inning.
Fausto Carmona's bad luck at Fenway Park continued on Tuesday night.
Ellsbury flew out to start the 1st and then back-to-back doubles by Pedroia and Big Papi made it 1-0 Red Sox. Carmona walked Youk but got J.D. Drew to ground into a fielder’s choice that saw Youk out at second. Kotsay knocked in his 1st run of the night with a single scoring Big Papi as Drew stopped at second. Drew showed no ill effects from his troublesome back as he scored from second on Tek’s single. Carter followed with another single to score Kotsay from second to make it 4-0 Red Sox. Carmona plunked Alex Cora but got Ellsbury to strike out for the final out of the inning.
Victor Martinez started the 2nd with a single off his former teammate. Byrd then struck out Travis Hafner but walked Ben Francisco. Ryan Garko flew out to right for the 2nd out but a Josh Barfield single scored VMart from second to cut the lead to 4-1.
In the 3rd inning, Jamey Carroll led off with a double and went to third on a bad throw in from the outfield. Shin-Soo Choo followed with an infield single to score Carroll and would end up at second as Kotsay’s throw got past Byrd. Jhonny Peralta made it 4-3 Red Sox as his single scored Choo from second.
Three straight singles by Choo, Peralta and VMart tied the game up at 4 for the Indians in Byrd’s final inning of work.
With the division crown most likely out of their sites, Terry Francona will most likely limit the innings by the starters and play some of the reserves to get the guys rested for Anaheim. Jon Lester starts tomorrow and I’d expect him to go about 3-4 innings.
Notes and musings:
Indians @ Red Sox 9.24.08 boxscore
On Tuesday, the Red Sox qualified for postseason play for the 19th time in team history, the 2nd straight season and the 5th in the last 6 years.
The 19 post-season appearances for Boston ranks 3rd most in A.L. history behind the Yankees (45) and Athletics (23).
The Red Sox join the New York Yankees (5 straight from 2003-07) as the only major league teams to qualify for post-season play 5 times in the last 6 years (2003-08). Club was a wild card entry in 2003, 2004, and 2005 before winning A.L. East crown in 2007.
Of the 5 playoff appearances from 2003-08, this marks the 3rd time that the Red Sox have clinched a post-season berth at Fenway Park. Sox earned wild card berths here on September 25, 2003 and October 2, 2005. Boston nailed down playoffs spots at Tampa Bay on September 27, 2004 and September 22, 2007.
In the last 6 years, the Red Sox are the only defending World Series champ to earn a playoff spot in the next season, now doing it in both 2005 and 2008. The other 4 who did not return to the playoffs were the 2003 Angels, 2004 Marlins, 2006 White Sox, and 2007 Cardinals.
With the win over Cleveland’s Cliff Lee (now 22-3) on Tuesday, the Red Sox became the 1st team to clinch an appearance in the post-season by defeating a pitcher with at least 20 wins since September 23, 1973, when Oakland won the A.L. West by defeating Chicago’s Wilbur Wood (24-19). Source: Elias Sports Bureau.
