Once Curt Schilling and Steve Trachsel left the game, it became a battle of whose bullpen would pitch better. Obviously by the final score of 13-4, you can tell which bullpen was the best on Saturday.

Even though Javier Lopez allowed one of the inherited runs to score, the Sox bullpen pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings while the Baltimore ‘pen gave up 9 runs in their 3 2/3 innings. This helped the Red Sox to their victory Saturday as they continue their domination of the O’s at Fenway Park.

The Sox got on the board first in the 4th inning after Trachsel walked both Big Papi and Manny Ramirez. J.D. Drew then flew out to deep right field that advanced Manny and Papi up one base. Mike Lowell drove in Big Papi on a sacrifice fly to center field.

Unfortunately after a 20 minute wait, Curt Schilling gave the run back in the 5th when Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts sandwiched two doubles around two outs tieing it up at 1.

The Sox got the lead back in the 5th inning when Dustin Pedroia reached on Aubrey Huff error and advanced to second on a Trachsel balk. Julio Lugo, who had 4 hits on the afternoon, sacrificed Pedroia over to third. After a Kevin Youkilis walk, Big Papi hit a double that scored Pedroia making it 2-1. So far this season, Big Papi and Manny haven’t had big hits in the same inning but today was different as Manny laced a double down the left field line scoring Youk and Papi, making the score 4-1 and knocking Trachsel out of the game.

Again the Sox made Schilling wait 25 minutes and this time Schill lost command of his pitches. He gave up 3 straight singles to Miguel Tejada, Ramon Hernandez and Huff. After falling behind to Melvin Mora 3-0, Schill came back to strike him out. Gibbons then singled which scored Tejada. Schill then walked Jay Payton to force in a run, only the second time this season Schilling has walked in a run with the bases juiced. This ended Schilling’s day but he was still responsible for the runners on base. Schilling went 5 1/3 innings, gave up 9 hits, 4 runs, walked 2 and struck out 4.

Lopez came in and got Corey Patterson to ground out but that scored Huff and tied the score at 4. He did however get all 3 batters out he faced.

Youk gave the Sox the lead for good in the bottom of the 6th when his single scored Jason Varitek, who had reached base when he was hit a by a pitch. After that, things got ugly for the $42 million bullpen.

The Sox loaded up the bases in the 7th when Jon Leicester walked Manny, Drew and Lowell. After throwing ball 4 to Lowell, Leicester immediately called for the trainer and left the game with an apparent shoulder injury. Baltimore sacrificial lamb reliever Todd Williams came in and struck out Varitek. Coco Crisp grounded out to Tejada at shortstop but it allowed Manny to score, making it 6-4. Alex Cora was summoned to pinch hit for Pedroia and didn’t disappoint the Fenway faithful. He hit a single that scored both Drew and Lowell putting the Sox up by 4 runs.

Things got even uglier in the 8th inning as the Sox scored 5 more times. After a Youkilis out, Big Papi hit a single and Manny got on when he was hit by a pitch. Drew hit a single that scored Papi from second. Lowell followed with a single that scored Manny. Varitek then singled scoring Manny. Williams got Crisp to strikeout and Cora got on with an infield single loading the bases up for Lugo. Lugo singled in one run and then Youkilis singled in the final run making it 13-4.

Notes: The Sox are now 18-0 when scoring 5 runs or more. The only starters who didn’t have hits for the Sox were Crisp and Pedroia. Lugo had 4 hits, raising his average up to .261. Hopefully this gets him out of his slump. Manny extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

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