In a game that looked like it was on pace for a two hour game, the Red Sox erupted for 14 runs in the final 4 innings as they smacked around the White Sox for a 14-2 win. Tim Wakefield was absolutely dominating for 7 innings and for the first 5 innings, Chi-Sox starter Mark Buehrle was pretty good too. The win for Wakefield was his 16th and tied him with Josh Beckett for the MLB lead. It was also his 26th straight decision this year.
In the first 5 innings, both teams had a few base runners. As I told Steve in an email, “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”. That story changed in the 6th inning for the Red Sox as they finally got to Buehrle.
Dustin Pedroia started off the inning with an infield single. Coco Crisp then lined back to Buehrle. David Ortiz followed that with a double to deep left with Pedroia moving to third. Instead of pitching to Manny Ramirez, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen decided to intentionally walk him to face Mike Lowell. That move did not pay off for him as Lowell brought in the first run of the game with a single. Kevin Youkilis followed that with a single of his own, scoring Big Papi for a 2-run lead. Bobby Kielty, starting for the second straight game with a lefty on the mound, delivered a 2-run single making it 4-0 Red Sox. With only one out in the inning, Alex Cora grounded out, moving the runners to second and third. Kevin Cash drew a walk to load up the bases for Pedroia’s second at-bat of the inning. Unfortunately, Pedroia grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The visiting nine from Boston added another run in the 7th inning off of the combination of Boone Logan and Ehren Wassermann. Coco led off the inning with a single but was removed from the basepath when Big Papi grounded into a double play. Manny then worked a walk to chase Logan from the game. The sidearming Wassermann gave up a single to Lowell. Manny would come around to score when Youk crushed a double to left for a 5-0 Red Sox lead. Wasserman got out of the inning as he got Kielty to ground out.
Wakefield had been cruising right along but got himself into a jam in the 7th inning. Darin Erstad popped out to start the inning. Jermaine Dye then doubled over the head of Manny in left for only the second White Sox hit of the afternoon. Wake got Juan Uribe to fly out for the second out. Danny Richar then singled to Manny in left but Dye held up at third. Wakefield finished up his afternoon by striking out Andy Gonzalez.
Wakefield went 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits and 3 walks. He did strikeout 6 White Sox batters along the way.
Things got really ugly for the White Sox in the 8th inning. Ryan Bukvich started out the inning by hitting Cora and Cash with pitches. Pedroia brought in the 6th run for the Red Sox as he laced a double that scored Cora. Bukvich then walked Coco to load up the bases for 
Big Papi. Big Papi chased Bukvich from the game as he hit a 2-run single scoring Cash and Pedroia for a 8-0 (Red) Sox lead. Guillen went to his bullpen for Mike MacDougal. With Manny at the plate, MacDougal uncorked a wild pitch but only Big Papi was able to move up a base as the ball didn’t get that far from A.J. Pierzynski. MacDougal finally got the first out of the inning as he struck out Manny. MacDougal unleashed another wild pitch that Coco was able to score on. Lowell then hit a single that scored Big Papi making it 10-0. Youk then worked walk and Kielty followed that with a double that easily scored Lowell. MacDougal finally got the second out of the inning as he struck out Cora. MacDougal then got a little wild as he walked Pedroia to load up the bases for Coco and get himself taken out of the game. Matt Thornton came in and walked Coco making it 13-0 Red Sox. J.D. Drew pinch-hit for Big Papi and was struck out by Thornton. Oddly enough, the Chi-Sox bullpen struck out the side while allowing 8 runs in the inning.
The White Sox finally got on the scoreboard in the 8th inning with 2 outs. After Kyle Synder hit Pierzynski with a pitch, Paul Konerko took a hanging breaking ball from Synder and planted it in the seats for a 2-run homer. Synder got out of the inning as he got Darin Erstad to line out to Lowell at third.
The Red Sox added another run in the 9th and Javy Lopez pitched an uneventful inning to finish off the game. For the first 3 games, the Red Sox have scored 35 runs while allowing 6.
Julian Tavarez will make a spot-start for Jon Lester tomorrow as the Red Sox go for a sweep of the Southsiders. The White Sox will hope for a good outing from Javier Vazquez. Gametime is 2:05 PM.
Boxscore of today’s debacle.
