In what seems to be a recurrent theme lately, the Red Sox get strong pitching and no hitting as the Rangers managed 2 runs in a 2-1 win. Julian “Yo-Yo” Tavarez was the victim on Maine day today as he pitched 5â…” decent innings and got no support from his teammates at the plate.
Yo-Yo had a rough start to the 1st inning as Kenny Lofton and Ramon Vazquez both reached on singles. Yo-Yo got Michael Young to ground into a double play and Slammin’ Sammy Sosa to ground out to end the inning. His 2nd inning of work was a little easier as he retired the Rangers in order.
The Sox put together a mini-threat in their half of the 1st inning but the bats failed them when needed. Dustin Pedroia grounded back to Rangers starter Kameron Loe for the first out. Kevin Youkilis hit a ground rule double to right field and Big Papi walked. Manny Ramirez flew out to left field and J.D. Drew hit a comebacker to the mound for the final out. Jason Varitek managed a hit in the 2nd but that was it.
After Yo-Yo got the first two outs of the 3rd inning, the hot-hitting duo of Lofton and Vazquez strong together back-to-back singles, with Lofton advancing to third. Yo-Yo got Young to ground out to get out of the mini-jam. Loe put down the Red Sox 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning.
The comedy of errors for the Sox happened in the 4th inning. Slammin Sammy led off the inning with a single. Frank Catalanotto then hit a ball to Alex Cora that Cora booted. Marlon Byrd followed with a gap shot to right field that bounced off the glove of Drew for the second error of the inning for the Sox. It also resulted in the first run of the game for Texas as Sosa came across the plate. Yo-Yo helped his teammates out by striking out Brad Wilkerson and getting Adam Melhuse to ground into a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.
Boston threatened again in their half of the 4th inning as Manny led off the inning with a double and Drew drew a walk. Loe quickly got out of any trouble as he got Hinske to ground into a double play and Varitek to ground out to him.
In the home half of the 5th inning, the local nine managed to scrape together a run. Cora led off with a single. After an Ellsbury fly out, Pedroia smacked a single of his own moving Cora to third base. Youk brought in Cora with a single of his own, with Pedroia only getting to second base. The RBI for Youk tied the game at 1. Big Papi flew out and Manny grounded out ending the inning and the scoring for the Sox.
The Rangers would chase Yo-Yo from the game in the 6th inning. Catalanotto worked a walk. Yo-Yo would Byrd to line out to short. Wilkerson would bring Catalanotto home for the second run of the game for the Rangers with a double. Wilkerson went to third on the throw home. Yo-Yo walked Melhuse and would leave the game after getting Travis Metcalf to line out to short. Javier Lopez came in and got the hot-hitting Lofton to fly out.
Yo-Yo went 5â…” innings, allowing 7 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), and 3 walks. He struck out 2 on 106 pitches.
Loe worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning and turned it over to his bullpen. C.J. Wilson retired the first two batters of the 7th but allowed Pedroia to reach on infield single. Frank Francisco came in and walked Youk but got Big Papi to strikeout.
Manny Delcarmen had come in for Lopez in the 7th inning and gave up a single to Young before retiring Sosa and Catalanotto. In the 8th, Delcarmen gave up a double to Byrd. Byrd went to third on a sacrifice by Wilkerson. The Rangers were unable to bring the Byrd in as Delcarmen got Melhuse and Metcalf out to end the inning.
A strange thing happened in the 8th inning with Rangers pitcher Eric Gagne. Akinori Otsuka had hurt his ankle on a play at first with Varitek and was taken out of the game. Since Gagne hadn’t started warming for the 9th yet, he began to throw in the bullpen while he was being summoned to the field to warmup. After numerous phone calls from the dugout and a visit from one of the umpires, Gagne finally made his way to the mound. After a few minutes of warmups, he got Cora to ground out to end the inning.
Hideki “Darkman” Okajima worked a 1-2-3 9th inning for the Sox. Gagne allowed just a walk to Pedroia in bottom half of the 9th before getting the final two outs of the game for his 10th save.
Kason Gabbard will look to overturn the slide for the Sox as he takes the hill tomorrow. Hopefully he will overcome his troubles from his last start and get this potential shipwreck righted.
Today was Maine Day at Fenway Park. Tom Caron made sure everyone knew it since he’s from Maine.
71 players in MLB history were born in Maine.
The Red Sox had a 49-29 record at this same point last season and only had a 4 game lead. We all know what happened after that.
When Ellsbury reached on his infield single, he ran a 3.9 to first base. That’s pretty impressive folks.
Ellsbury’s first hit ball was black, blue and other colors as the Sox veterans had some fun with it. He did have another ball that marked his first hit and first putout in the outfield.
Terry Francona and the brass met this morning to decide whether or not to put Coco on the DL.
The Red Sox are 19-5 in day games, including 12-0 at Fenway.
Yo-Yo came into the game not allowing a stolen base in 129 innings. It is the third longest streak right now in MLB.
Sammy Sosa has homered in a MLB record 45 ballparks. The only two he hasn’t hit a homerun in is RFK in Washington and the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Manny came into the game 2 for his last 23.
RemDawg and Orsillo were talking about the “Age of Love” with tennis star Mark Philippoussis. They talking about how it is “kittens vs cougars”.
J.D. Drew extended his hitting streak to 9 games.
The Red Sox are 1-27 when trailing after 8 innings.
