On Tuesday night, it was the unlikeliest of heroes in Darnell McDonald for the Boston Red Sox. On Wednesday night, it was time for Kevin Youkilis to take a beating from his teammates.
Youkilis’ two-out double off the Green Monster brought in Marco Scutaro to help the Red Sox to an 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers in 12 innings in front of 37,518 at Fenway Park.
With the win, the Red Sox improve to 6-9 while it’s the sixth straight loss for the Rangers (5-9).
It actually took a key base running play by Marco Scutaro to help set the stage for Youk.
After Dustin Nippert struck out Jeremy Hermida to start the 12th, Scutaro reached on a single. He tagged up on a fly ball out by J.D. Drew that Rangers center fielder Julio Borbon had to back up to catch to put himself into scoring position.
With visit to the mound by Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux, it was decided they would intentionally walk Dustin Pedroia, who was 5-for-9 against Nippert to get to Youk. Nippert fell behind him 3-0 before coming back to get a called strike and foul ball by Youk. On the 3-2 count, Youk drove it to almost the same spot as McDonald to bring in Scutaro and set off another wild celebration at the Fens.
Josh Beckett started this one for the Red Sox and struggled early on. He basically had no command of his pitches as he was torched for four early runs in the first two innings. He settled down after that as his team came back and got him the lead. But in the end with his pitch count over 100 in the 7th, he gave up a 3-run blast to Josh Hamilton that knotted it up at seven.
Beckett went seven innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits with five walks and four strikeouts. The bullpen picked him up though.
Daniel Bard struck out three in two innings while Jonathan Papelbon gave up a hit and had a strikeout in two innings as well. Hideki Okajima worked a 1-2-3 12th inning, including two strikeouts to pick up the win.
Mike Lowell had a good night as the DH for the Red Sox with two hits, including a solo home run off the Sports Authority sign above the Green Monster, and two RBIs. Youk had two hits and Scutaro added two hits while J.D. Drew’s only hit of the night was a grand slam. McDonald’s legend grew a little more as he added a solo home run as well.
After trailing 4-0 after 1 1/2 innings, the Red Sox got back into the game on a solo home run by Lowell in the 2nd, the grand slam by Drew in the 3rd and McDonald’s solo blast in the 4th gave them a 6-4 lead. Lowell’s RBI single in the 5th made it 7-4 before Hamilton’s 3-run homer in the 7th tied it up.
The Red Sox will look for the sweep on the Rangers on Thursday night with Clay Buchholz on the mound. He’ll be opposed by lefty C.J. Wilson. Buchholz could be pitching for his spot in the rotation with Daisuke Matsuzaka set to return to the rotation.
