Back on February 12th, the Boston Red Sox pitchers and catchers reported to camp with the position players coming in a few days later. Now on April 4th, the Red Sox are heading back to Boston after finishing their spring schedule with a 9-3 win over the New York Mets in front of 38,895 at Citi Field.
The Red Sox were able to take advantage of the wildness of Oliver Perez in the 1st inning with the big blow coming off the bat of Jed Lowrie, who hit a grand slam. Lowrie finished the game 1-for-2 with a walk, the grand salami and the 4 RBIs.
Kevin Youkilis added 2 hits and a walk to go with 3 RBIs while Rocco Baldelli had 2 hits from the leadoff spot for the Red Sox today. Jason Varitek also added his 5th home run of the spring, all of them coming from the left side of the plate.
Daisuke Matsuzaka made just his second start of the spring after returning from the WBC and was, well himself. He had a little bout of not being able to find the strike zone in his 4 innings of work although each time he got himself in trouble, he got of it out of it. Dice-K allowed just 1 hit and had four walks and 1 strikeout.
Ramon Ramirez had a rough inning of work, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2. Javier Lopez worked a perfect inning and Justin Masterson followed and allowed 1 hit while striking out 2. Daniel Bard ended his spring on a high note with a perfect inning including two strikeouts. Chris Province finished it off by allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk.
The Red Sox will hold a workout tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM at Fenway Park before the home opener on Monday afternoon at 2:05 PM against the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays.
Boston Red Sox @ New York Mets 4.04.09 spring training box score
