I had already thought out the first paragraph of the post here before the sixth inning happened.
Jon Lester pitching well on his rehab assignment has turned out to be a good thing for the Red Sox and Julian Tavarez. The better Lester throws, the better Tavarez pitches.
J.D. Drew’s hit in the 8th inning brought home the tying run and Mike Lowell singled in the go ahead run at the time, as the Red Sox came back to win 6-5 over the Texas Rangers. It was the first sweep of the Rangers by the Red Sox in Arlington since August of 1973.
Julian Tavarez pitched well for 5 innings but he struggled through the sixth inning when he gave up four runs.
He started off the inning by walking Kenny Lofton and then gave up a single to Michael Young. Mark Teixiera came up and blasted a 3 run homer to right field tying the game at 3. Tavarez then got Sammy Sosa to ground out to Lowell at third. Noted Red Sox killer, Frank Catalanotto came to the plate and laced a single to right and advanced to second on a Marlon Byrd single. Catalanotto came around to score on an Ian Kinsler single, putting the Rangers up 4-3. Tavarez got Gerald Laird to fly out and was then replaced by J.C. Romero, who got Ramon Vazquez to ground out to end the inning.
Tavarez went 5 2/3 innings, gave up 6 hits, 4 runs, walked 1 and struck out 6.
The Sox had gotten their 3 runs in the 4th inning.
Drew broke an 0 for 17 hitless streak with a single to lead off the inning. Lowell followed him with a single, advancing Drew to second. Jason Varitek then cleared the bases with a home run to right field giving the Sox a 3-0 lead.
The 7th inning brought a pitching change for the Rangers as Kameron Loe was replaced by Joaquin Benoit. Loe didn’t pitch all that bad. The only real damage was the Varitek home run. Loe went 6 innings, gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, walked 1 and struck out 2. He only threw 85 pitches. Surprisingly, Benoit pitched well, retiring the side in order.
Defense and Joel Piñero’s effort out of the bullpen was the key to the home half of the 7th inning. Lofton led off with a double and then Young grounded out to shortstop. Romero walked Teixiera and was greeted with a seat on the bench, replaced by Piñero. He got Sosa to strike out. Catalanotto then laced a shot to the gap in right-center that was caught by a diving Coco Crisp.
Shockingly, Benoit didn’t come out to pitch the 8th inning after a successful inning before. He was replaced by Rangers setup man, Akinori Otsuka, who struggled mightily.
Kevin Youkilis led off the inning with an infield single. Otsuka got Manny to strikeout but Youk got to second on the strikeout with a stolen base. This set the stage for the struggling Drew. He didn’t disappoint the Fenway Faithful in Arlington as lined a single to right field, scoring Youk and tying the game at 4. Drew advanced to second on throw home by Sosa. Lowell followed him with a single to left field that scored the go-ahead run (Drew) at the time, making it 5-4 Sox. Otsuka got Varitek and Hinske to end the inning but not before the damage was done.
Piñero was brillant in the 8th inning as well. He sandwiched strikeouts of Byrd and Laird around a Kinsler ground out.
Rangers manager, Ron Washington, brought his closer, Eric Gagne in to keep the game close. He got into quite a battle with Dustin Pedroia. Gagne got two quick strikes on Pedroia, then threw him two balls. Pedroia then fouled off 7 pitches before taking a Gagne fastball and planting it in the left field seats. As it turned out, the Sox would need this run.
Terry Francona brought Hideki “Darkman” Okajima in to close the game out because Jonathan Papelbon wasn’t available today.
Victor Diaz, pinch-hitting for Vazquez, led off with a single. Darkman then got Nelson Cruz, who had pinch-hit for Lofton, to fly out to Coco in center. Young then hit a shot up the middle that Darkman knocked down but his only play was to first. This allowed Diaz to get to second. Teixiera continued his hot streak with a single to left that scored Diaz, getting the Rangers within a run at 6-5. Darkman then settled down and got Sosa to fly out ending the game.
The save was his third of the year and gave Piñero his first win in a Red Sox uniform.
Notes and Musings:
The Red Sox lead is now 11.5 games over Baltimore. With the Yankees losing today, they fell to 12.5 games behind the Sox. Heads will probably be rolling in NY tonight or tomorrow.
David Ortiz was given the day off to rest his “barking” hamstrings.
Papelbon was given the day off after pitching two days in a row.
Teixiera was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school but he opted to go Georgia Tech instead.
Julio Lugo was 2 for 26 entering the game and went 0 for 5.
Drew who was 0 for 16 entering the game, went 2 for 4 with an RBI. He scored twice.
The Red Sox have an 12-1 record in final games of a series this season. Only loss so far was against the Yankees on Wednesday.
The Red Sox are 26-0 when scoring 5+ runs.
31 of Youk’s 64 hits have been with two strikes.
NESN announcer Don Orsillo’s bobblehead suffered an accident at Yankee Stadium and as a result it’s head keeps falling off. Jerry Remy had said he heard a loud noise in the booth and then realized Orsillo’s head fell off again.
Trot Nixon will hold a press conference at Fenway Park tomorrow at 5 PM. This is his first visit to Fenway as a member of the Cleveland Indians.
Youk extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a single in the 3rd inning
Crisp has 4 of the 6 bunt hits for the Sox this season.
Lowell committed his 9th error of the season. He had only 6 last season. The most in his career is 9 back when in 2003 with the Marlins. He has also hit safely in 15 of his last 17 games played.
I guess Tavarez doesn’t like to throw the ball to first on comebackers because he rolled, yes rolled, the ball to Youk at first base in the 4th inning
Friday night Orsillo had said the Rangers mascot was the worst in all of baseball. Well when him and Remdawg were heading to their car on Friday night, they found out the guy who does the mascot, was a big dude, about 6’5″ tall. Needless to say, Orsillo walked really fast to the car.
In that conversation, Remdawg pointed out that he wanted to get into a mascot’s uniform one day but not on a hot day. Pray for some cool weather soon in Boston so we can see Remdawg as his hero, Wally the Green Monster.
Technorati: Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, J.D. Drew
