Torii Hunter had himself quite a day with 3 hits, 3 RBIs and two great catches and the Los Angeles Angels got the win in the 12th inning on a Jeff Mathis single to beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 in 12 innings in front of 35,124 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
The Red Sox fall to 21-14 and the Angels improve to 18-15 on the season.
After the Red Sox left the bases loaded in the top half of the 12th, Manny Delcarmen took over for Jonathan Papelbon in the bottom half.
Juan Rivera greeted him with a single and was taken out of the game for pinch-runner Reggie Willits. Erick Aybar sacrificed him over to second base and Mathis followed with the game winning single to give the Angels the 5-4 win to continue their mastery over the Red Sox in the regular season.
Brad Penny started this one for the Red Sox and I’ll be honest he wasn’t all that bad. He probably shouldn’t have been out there to start the 7th but who am I to question Terry Francona. Penny went 6 1/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4.
Hideki Okajima allowed a hit and had a strikeout in his inning of work. Ramon Ramirez continues to be the steal of the off-season as he need just 16 pitches to get through 2 2/3 innings. Papelbon went an inning, allowing a hit and walk while Delcarmen worked 1/3 of an inning, giving up a hit and the winning run.
I’m not really a big fan of Julio Lugo at all but today he was hitting like his job depended on it. He went 5-for-6 with a RBI and picked up his first stolen base of the season. Dustin Pedroia returned to the Red Sox lineup after missing some time with a pulled groin and had 4 hits and a walk. The Red Sox totaled 15 hits on the day and the only other person with more than 1 was Jacoby Ellsbury who had 2 and added an RBI. Jason Bay had the other RBI for the Sox.
If you really want to know why the Red Sox lost this game today, it might have to do something with the fact that they left 34 runners on base. Yes that’s not a typo, 34 left on base. David Ortiz was the big culprit as he went 0-for-7 with 12 runners left on base. It might be time for a mental health break for Big Papi or maybe he should be hitting down in the order until he gets squared away.
The Red Sox now head up the coast to Seattle for a 3-game set with the Mariners that will mark their final west coast swing of the season. Jon Lester will get to pitch in front of his family and friends for the Red Sox while Chris Jakubauskas will start for the Mariners.
Notes and musings:
Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 5.14.09 box score
Daniel Bard last night became the 2nd player to make his Big League debut with the Red Sox this year, joining fellow reliever Hunter Jones. Bard is one of 7 active players on the club that was drafted by Boston and one of 10 to appear with the team in 2009. here is the list:
PLAYER – YEAR – DRAFTED RD
- Daniel Bard – 2006 – 1st
- Michael Bowden*- 2005 – Comp
- Manny Delcarmen -2000 – 2nd
- Jacoby Ellsbury – 2005 – 1st
- Jon Lester – 2002 – 2nd
- Jed Lowrie+ – 2005 – Comp
- Justin Masterson – 2006 – 2nd
- Jonathan Papelbon – 2003 – 4th
- Dustin Pedroia – 2004 – 2nd
- Kevin Youkilis+ – 2001 – 8th
* Currently with Triple-A Pawtucket
+ Disabled List
