A historical win for the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night at Fenway Park. Led by the bat of Mike Lowell and the pitching of Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Boston Red Sox gave manager Terry Francona an awesome 48th birthday present by beating the Yankees 7-6 and sweeping the three game set from them.
Historical you ask? The Boston Red Sox became the first American League team since 1964 and only the 5th team ever to hit back to back to back to back home runs in an inning. Now mind you, all of this came with two outs in the 3rd inning. Manny Ramirez get the home run barrage started with a bomb over the Green Monster. J.D Drew then placed one in the bleachers and Mike Lowell, not to be outdone, also hit one over the Green Monster. Jason Varitek then followed Lowell’s cue and hit one to the top of the Green Monster where they serve the food. These four consecutive home runs erased a 3-0 deficit.
Yankees pitcher Chase Wright was the victim of all four long balls. There was only other pitcher, Paul Foytack, who had allowed the four home runs. A big hat tip to Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe for that tidbit. One other tidbit she points out is that when Foytack gave up the four gopher balls, one of those was to Tito Francona, manager Terry Francona’s father. Another interesting fact that I came up with was that J.D Drew was involved for a second time in a four consecutive home run situation. Last season, he was part of the Dodgers four home run barrage against the San Diego Padres.
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As for Matsuzaka, I wouldn’t say he was spectacular but rather effective. He was able to get the Red Sox 7 plus innings. He gave up 6 runs on 8 hits. He walked one and struck out seven Yankees. He even plunked two of them as well. He hit AROD in the first inning trying to establish the inside part of the plate and then hit Jeter in the third inning.
Lowell’s second home run was the big blow. At the time, the Sox were trailing 5-4. He came to the plate with Manny on third and Drew on second and took a Scott Proctor pitch just over the Green Monster. He actually hit the ledge before the seats start but the umpires were on top of it and signaled it a home run.
I was actually shocked to see Hideki “Darkman” Okajima come in for the third game in a row. He was able to get the Giambino to pop out but he allowed a single to Robinson Cano and then he walked Jorge Posada. Brendan Donnelly then came in and got Melky Cabrera to ground into a fielder’s choice, which allowed a run to score and then got Josh Phelps to line out on a heck of a diving catch by Dustin Pedroia.
Jonathan Papelbon came in and finished the Yankees off in the top of the 9th. Using the “Papelglare”, he got Johnny Damon to line out to Manny in left, then he blew fastballs by Derek Jeter. He proceeded to walk Bobby Abreu but he got AROD to ground into a game ending fielder’s choice.
