Jason Varitek hit two solo home runs and Josh Beckett gave the Boston Red Sox seven strong innings as they went on to beat the Minnesota Twins 3-1 in front of 23,958 at the Metrodome to salvage a split of the 4-game series.
The win moves the Red Sox (28-20) back into first place by a half game over the idle New York Yankees while the Twins fall back below .500 at 24-25.
Other than a small blip in the 2nd inning, Beckett was outstanding today. He went 7 innings, giving up 1 run on three hits and 4 walks while striking out 8.
Hideki Okajima allowed a hit and had a strikeout in his inning of work while Jonathan Papelbon worked the 9th allowing a hit and also had a strikeout to pickup his 13th save.
Anthony Swarzak started just his second big league game today and threw the ball well. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks while recording 3 strikeouts. Three Twins relievers combined to give up 1 hit over the final 3 innings.
Varitek led the way with the 2 home runs and 2 RBIs. Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Jeff Bailey and George Kottaras had other hits for the Red Sox.
Both Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia lost their 22-game and 10-game hitting streaks respectively. Pedroia did knock in a run on a sac fly.
After striking out the first four batters he faced, Beckett left a fastball out over the plate to Joe Crede who did what he gets paid to do. He crushed it for a solo home run. Beckett then got a little wild as he walked Brendan Harris and Delmon Young but got Mike Redmond to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Swarzak held the Red Sox at bay until the 5th inning when Varitek led off with a solo home run to tie it up at 1.
In the 7th inning, it was Varitek again with the solo home run to the upper deck to put the Red Sox in the lead at 2-1. Bailey followed with a double to chase Swarzak from the game. Jesse Crain came in and got Julio Lugo to fly out to right as Bailey went to third base. Sean Henn came in and hit Ellsbury with a pitch.
Pedroia then hit a sacrifice fly to score Bailey from third as it looked like he beat the throw from Jason Kubel in right. Replays were inconclusive but it did appear that Redmond got the tag down and that Bailey missed the plate.. Redmond argued the call and was tossed from the game. Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire came out to argue as well and he was thrown out as well.
The ejections didn’t stop there in the bottom half of the inning. With a 1-2 count on Crede, Beckett threw a fastball that appeared to hit the outside corner. It was called a ball and Beckett yelled something out. Varitek hesitated to throw the ball back and then threw it back and turned around and started yelling at the umpire.
He was ejected before Terry Francona could get even get there. Francona argued as well and joined Varitek back in the clubhouse when he was ejected.
Hopefully these last two starts mean Beckett is regaining his 2007 form that saw him win 20 games.
The Red Sox now head north of the border to take on the free falling Toronto Blue Jays who’ve lost 9 straight. Tim Wakefield gets the ball for the Red Sox and he’ll be opposed by Casey Janssen.
Notes and musings:
Boston Red Sox @ Minnesota Twins 5.28.09 box score
ESPN has picked up 2 Wednesday night Red Sox games, June 3 at Detroit and June 10 vs. New York (A.L.). The ESPN telecasts will be shown outside of New England (minus Fairfield County, CT) with NESN carrying the games locally. TBS will carry the Sox game on Sunday, June 7 vs. Texas and MLB Network will televise tthe game on Thursday, June 11 vs. the Yankees. Both network’s telecasts will be shown outside of New England (minus Fairfield County, CT) with NESN broadcasting the games locally.
Mark Kotsay – who has been on the 15-day DL since April 4 (retro to March 27) while recovering from back surgery – will continue his current rehab stint, playing 3 of 4 games during Triple-A Pawtucket’s series at Indianapolis (Pirates) starting tomorrow. Kotsay has played first base, right field and center field on his current rehab stint, going 4-for-13 (.308) over 4 contests.
Jason Bay’s solo home run last night snapped a streak off 11 straight multi-run homers, one shy of the all-time, single-season mark for consecutive multi-run homers, accomplished twice previously by Ken Griffey Jr. (1999) and Hank Aaron (1970). 12 of Bay’s 14 home runs overall have come with runners on base.
Terry Francona’s ejection today was the 25th time he’s been ejected in his managerial career and it was Jason Varitek’s 4th ejection of his career.
