On an emotional night at Fenway Park for Trot Nixon, Curt Schilling and the Red Sox got the better of Nixon’s Indians as the Sox defeated them by the score of 5-3. It was Nixon’s first game in Boston since leaving as a free agent in the off-season. The Red Sox decided not to re-sign him when they got J.D. Drew.
Schilling was on fire to start the game. He cruised through the first inning, striking out Grady Sizemore, Casey Blake and Travis Hafner. No matter who is pitching against Hafner, he just scares me when he’s at the plate. He’s a really big dude. Even bigger than Wily Mo Peña (More on this in the notes).
When the Indians took the field in the home half of the first inning, Trot went out to his customary old position in RF and was given a rousing standing ovation by the Fenway faithful. Indians pitcher Cliff Lee set the Sox down in the order.
Victor Martinez led off the 2nd inning with a ground out bringing up the man of the hour, Trot Nixon. He was given a 35 to 45 second standing ovation. Schilling, being the gentleman he is, even stepped off the mound allowing Nixon to have his well deserved moment. Nixon responded with a wave of the cap to Red Sox Nation and also gave one to Schill for his kind gesture. Unfortunately for Schill, Nixon got him in the first at-bat as Nixon lined a single to right. Schill then sandwiched strikeouts of Jhonny Peralta and Ryan Garko around a David Dellucci single to get out of the inning.
The Sox came about a foot or two away from converting a triple-play in the 3rd inning. Josh Barfield led off with a single and then Schill nipped Sizemore with a pitch. Blake then hit a shot to Lowell at third. Lowell stepped on the bag at third for one out, threw to Pedroia at second for the second out but his relay to Youk at first was a tad late. Schill then retired Hafner on a ground out to Youk.
Cliff Lee had only given up two hits through 3 innings but the Red Sox got to him for 2 runs in the 4th.
Youk led off with a double, extending his hitting streak to 20 games. Manny got him over to third on a deep fly ball to Sizemore in center. Drew, who is showing signs of life at the plate, doubled home Youk giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. “Mr. Doubles”, Lowell, brought in Drew with a double of his own, making it 2-0 Sox.
Schill was still cruising at this point, setting down the Indians in order in the 4th and 5th innings.
Manny gave Schilling another run to work with in the 5th inning. Manny hit an absolute laser beam that went into the 2nd row of the Green Monster seats faster than a Roush-Fenway Racing car was at Charlotte on Sunday.
Schill finally showed he was human in the 6th inning. After a Sizemore strikeout, Blake lined a double off the wall in left field. Schill then got Hafner for another strikeout. Martinez followed that with a single to center, scoring Blake, cutting the lead to 3-1. Nixon came up to the plate with a chance to be a hero in his homecoming but he flew out to Coco Crisp in center ending the threat.
Schilling got through the 7th, his final inning of work, with relative ease. After Peralta singled, Schill got Dellucci to strikeout and retired Garko and Barfield to ground out, ending his night.
Curt was absolutely outstanding tonight. He had good command of all his pitches and probably had his best splitter of the season. His velocity was higher than his last start, topping out at around 94. When he throws that hard, it makes his splitter even harder to hit.
His numbers on the night: 117 pitches, 6 hits, 1 run, 0 walks and 10 strikeouts. 77 of those pitches were strikes.
Youk gave the bullpen another run to work with in the 7th inning when he crushed a ball to the triangle in center. The ball went over the head of Sizemore and caromed off the angled wall to left field. By the time, Trot picked the ball up and threw to the cut-off man, Youkilis had himself an inside-the-park homer, giving the Sox a 4-1 lead.
J.C Romero took over for Schill and promptly stunk up the joint. He gave up walks to Sizemore and Blake. That bought him a seat on the bench as Javier Lopez came in to replace him. Lopez got Hafner to strikeout but then allowed a single to Martinez and loading up the bases for Nixon.
Nixon had a chance to be a hero again but could only deliver a sacrifice fly that scored Sizemore. Brendan Donnelly came in for Lopez and got Peralta to ground into a fielder’s choice ending the threat and keeping the score at 4-2.
Mike Koplove was in the game now for the Indians and he made quick work of Jason Varitek and Wily Mo Peña on strikeouts. Pedroia, who in my opinion, is showing signs that he belongs now, capped of his perfect night with a double. Pedroia ended up going 3 for 3 on the night with a walk and 2 doubles. Julio Lugo brought Pedroia in with a double of his own, giving the Sox a 5-2 lead, with Jonathan Papelbon coming in for a save chance.
Papelbon came in and struggled at first, walking Dellucci and then allowing a double to Garko, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Barfield then brought Dellucci home with a double of his own, cutting the lead to 5-3. Papelbon then got Sizemore to pop out to Lowell at third for the first out of the inning. Papelbon then got a strange strikeout of Blake. With two strikes on Blake, he threw a pitch that appeared to hit Blake. It was initially ruled a hit-by-pitch but Terry Francona contested to home plate umpire, Rick Reed, that he (Blake) swung. After consulting with the 1st base umpire, Chuck Meriwether, it was ruled he swung and a called third strike.
Rule 6.05(f) provides that the batter be declared out when “he attempts to hit a third strike and the ball touches him.”
This brought Hafner to the plate. As I said earlier, he scares me. But Papelbon reared back and threw some cheese past Hafner ending the game. Sox win! The Soxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx win!
Josh Beckett returns to the Sox tomorrow from the disabled list and it brings up an interesting question. Who from the bullpen will get sent down? My guess would be Manny Delcarmen since he hasn’t been used in a while. (Update: Delcarmen was optioned to Pawtucket after the game)
Another great game against the AL Central’s best. With the win, Schilling moves to 5-2 on the season. The lead in the AL East remains at 11 games over the Orioles. The Yankees lost again tonight and now trail the Red Sox by 13.5 games. It could be too late for even Roger Clemens to save them. More on Clemens start today in Dunder-Mifflin land, Scranton-Wilkes Barre, later.
Notes and Musings:
The Red Sox and the Jimmy Fund honored Trot and his wife Kathryn before the game, They gave them the 2007 Jimmy Fund Award from the Red Sox for their years of service to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.
Who would win in a fight? Travis Hafner or Wily Mo Peña?
Schilling’s 10 strikeouts were a season high. His previous high was 7.
Last inside the park home run at Fenway was by Trot on July 15, 2005
Big Papi was given another night off, bringing up this question. Is he hurt more than the Sox are leading on? My guess is they are playing it safe, given the size of the lead in the AL East.
Hideki “Darkman” Okajima wasn’t available tonight after closing out yesterday’s game.
Schilling’s son, Gehrig, caught a foul ball up in one of the luxury boxes tonight.
Trot was mic’d up before the game in batting practice. In the 6th inning, they showed Trot talking to the guys in the truck about how Don Orsillo hasn’t shyed away from the donuts and complimented Remdawg on his spill when he fell playing air guitar.
In the fourth inning, whoever was the guest with Don and Remdawg in the booth, gave Remdawg a new air guitar.
Don got a new booblehead to replace the broken one and Remdawg commented that Don’s neck on the new one was longer.
Youk extended his hitting streak to 20 games. Ichiro has the longest current streak at 21 games right now (This includes tonight’s games).
Pedroia has an 8 game hitting streak.
This was the 93rd time Schilling has 10+ strikeouts in a game in his career.
The save was Papelbon’s 13th in 14 chances this season.
I have to wonder if Karen Guregian (Boston Herald) was looking over Amalie Benjamin’s (Boston Globe) shoulder. Amalie’s post went up first.
Technorati: Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, Trot Nixon, Cleveland Indians
