Mike Lowell hit a solo home run in the 9th inning and Coco Crisp hit a walkoff single scoring Jason Varitek to lead the Red Sox to a much needed 2-1 victory. The runs in the 9th off of Tampa Bay closer Al Reyes overshadowed great pitching performances from both Sox starter Jon Lester and Rays starter Scott Kazmir. The walkoff win was the first for the Sox since the Mother’s Day Massacre.
It was an emotional night as Lester returned to the mound for the first time at Fenway since last season. As he made his way out of the bullpen after warming up, he received a standing ovation all the way back to the dugout. He got another standing ovation as he made his way from the dugout to the mound to make his warmup pitches. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was too much adrenaline but Lester started out the game by walking Akinori Iwamura. After that he settled down and retired the next 9 Devil Rays he faced.
In the first against Kazmir, the Red Sox had probably their best chance to score. After Julio Lugo led off with an out, Dustin Pedroia laced a 1-out double high off the Green Monster. David Ortiz then flew to center but it was deep enough to move Pedroia to third. Manny Ramirez then worked a walk but Kazmir would get Lowell to strikeout.
Kazmir cruised through the 2nd inning, striking out the side with a walk to Varitek mixed in there. In the 3rd inning, Kazmir issued a 2-out walk to Big Papi. Manny followed that with a single to right but committed a baserunning blunder when he was thrown out at second trying to stretch his single into a double. Another costly running miscue by Manny.
Carl Crawford led off the 4th with a double to left for the Rays first hit of the game. Then B.J. Upton singled moving Crawford to third. Crawford would come around to score on a Carlos Peña sacrifice fly. Lester would get out of the inning as he would get Delmon Young to ground into a fielder’s choice and Brendan Harris to fly out.
From the Young out until he would leave the game, Lester retired the final 11 batters he faced. For the game, Lester gave up 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and he struck out 4 on 97 pitches.
With the way Kazmir was pitching, you would’ve figured he’d be back out for the 7th inning but with his pitch count at 95, Joe Maddon elected to go to his bullpen. He summoned Gary Glover and Glover started the inning by walking Varitek. Coco then tried to sacrifice Varitek to second but failed as he pushed his bunt too far and Glover threw out Tek at second. J.D. Drew came in and pinch-hit for Wily Mo Peña. Drew ended up hitting into an inning ending double play and was showered with boos by the fickle Fenway crowd.
Kazmir went 6 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and he struck out 8 Red Sox hitters.
Manny Delcarmen came into start the 8th for the local nine and he made things very interesting. Jonny Gomes greeted Delcarmen with single and went to second on a Josh Wilson walk. Josh Paul then laid down a bunt sacrificing Gomes and Wilson up a base each. Instead of intentionally walking Iwamura to load up the bases, the Sox decided to pitch to him and the move paid off as he hit a short fly ball to Manny in left. The runners weren’t able to advance. The Sox then decided to take their chances with B.J. Upton so Delcarmen issued an intentional walk to Crawford. After the intentional walk, Terry Francona called for Mike Timlin out of the pen to face Upton. Timlin did his job and rescued Delcarmen and the Sox as he got Upton to strikeout swinging.
Unable to do anything in the bottom of the 8th, the Red Sox brought out Eric Gagné to pitch the 9th inning. He was greeted by a chorus of boos but those boos quickly turned to cheers as he got the first two batters (Peña and Young) to strikeout. Then Brendan Harris hit a double and I think I heard the crowd all say at the sametime “oh no, here we go again!” Well this wouldn’t be the case as Gagné would get Gomes to strikeout looking. Gagné would end up being credited with a win. It was by far his best inning with the Sox so far this season.
The win coupled with the Skanks loss puts the lead back at 5 games in the AL East. The Red Sox have a quick turnaround as tomorrow’s game is at 1:05 PM. Daisuke Matsuzka gets the ball and he will be opposed by Andy Sonnanstine.
Notes and musings:
Curt Schilling could be sued by Barry Bonds for comments he made about Bonds during a taping of HBO’s “Costas Now”. You can read more about this over at Steroid Nation.
Coco Crisp returned to the Sox lineup after missing the past two games with a viral infection. Dustin Pedroia also returned to the lineup as well.
Brendan Donnelly underwent his Tommy John surgery and by the reports, it went well. Donnelly will be out for 12-18 months.
With the save last night, Jonathan Papelbon became the first Sox closer to record consecutive 28 save seasons.
Manny Ramirez has the most home runs against the Devil Rays with 40. He also leads with 129 RBIs.
J.D. Drew, who is out of the lineup tonight, because of the lefty Scott Kazmir, hasn’t hit a homer since June 20th.
The combination of Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield has 29 wins. That is the most in the majors. 3 other pairs have 27 wins.
With the shutout last night, the Red Sox tied Seattle with 10, which leads the American League.
Pedroia now has multiple hits in 14 of his last 24 games.
Don’t forget to catch the all new edition of “Sox Appeal” at 4:30 PM tomorrow on NESN.
