Jon Lester gave the Boston Red Sox 7 strong innings and Jason Bay’s 2-run home run in the 6th inning got them on the scoreboard as they went on to a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in front of 44,996 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The win tonight was the 10th straight postseason win for the Red Sox over the Angels, a streak that dates back to 1986.
Jon Lester had another great outing in the playoffs for the Red Sox with 7 strong innings.
Lester was outstanding for the Red Sox tonight. He started out a little slow but per his norm, he got stronger as the night went on. He went 7 innings, allowing 1 unearned run on 6 hits while walking just 1 and fanning 7 on 117 pitches. Justin Masterson worked an inning allowing 2 hits. Jonathan Papelbon allowed a hit in the 9th but struck out the side.
Jacoby Ellsbury was on base all 5 times he was at the plate as he went 3-for-5 with an RBI and 2 stolen bases. Bay was 2-for-4 with the 2-run homer and a double. Big Papi had a hit and a RBI and Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis had the other hits for the visiting nine in the win.
Ellsbury led off the game with a double off of Halos starter John Lackey. He would get as far as third as Dustin Pedroia grounded out to Lackey, Big Papi grounded out to second and Kevin Youkilis grounded out to third.
Lester had a rough go of things in the bottom half of the inning but escaped unscathed.
After Chone Figgins grounded out, Garrett Anderson and Mark Teixeira had back-to-back singles. Lester got Vlad Guerrero to fly out to short right for the second out but walked Torii Hunter to load up the bases. He escaped any damage when Howie Kendrick grounded into a fielder’s choice for the final out.
Both pitchers went 1-2-3 in the 3rd inning to keep the score tied at 0.
Lackey started the 3rd inning by hitting Jed Lowrie on a 0-2 breaking ball. He then got back-to-back fielder’s choices by Jason Varitek and Ellsbury with the runner out at second each time. Pedroia worked a walk but Big Papi popped out to short to end the inning.
Lester struck out Figgins to start the bottom half of the inning and Anderson followed with his second hit of the game. After Teixeira struck out, Vlad reached on Lowrie’s error. The error would prove costly as Hunter drove in Anderson on a jam shot to left field to put the Angels up 1-0. Lester recovered though as he got Kendrick to ground out.
Youk singled to left to start the 4th inning but was left there as J.D. Drew fouled out and Mike Lowell and Bay both struck out.
Lackey got the first two batters of the 5th before Ellsbury reached on a bunt single. With Pedroia at the plate, Ellsbury stole second but Lackey got Pedroia to fly out to right to end the inning.
Lester had sent the Angels down in order in the 4th inning and worked around 2 out singles by Teixeira and Vlad in the 5th by getting Hunter to ground back to him for the third out.
Jason Bay connects on a 2-run homer to put the Red Sox out front.
Big Papi started the 6th inning with a first pitch pop out and then Lackey walked Youk. After a strikeout of Drew, Lackey missed his location and Bay knocked it out of the ballpark for a 2-run homer and a 2-1 Red Sox lead. Lowell grounded out to first on a nice diving stop by Teixeira at first to end the inning.
Staked to a lead, Lester was downright nasty in the 6th inning as he struck out Kendrick swinging, Mike Napoli swinging and got Gary Matthews to look at strike 3.
Lackey got the first two outs of the 7th inning and seemed to have the third out when Ellsbury lined one in the direction of Matthews in right. The problem was Matthews appeared to lose it in the lights and Ellsbury was safe at third on the 3-base error. Lackey then walked Pedroia and that ended his night as Angels skipper Mike Scioscia went to the bullpen for Darren Oliver to face Big Papi. Oliver ended up winning the battle at he struck out Big Papi on a 3-2 breaking ball out of the zone.
With Lester’s pitch count at 106 after 6 innings, Red Sox skipper Terry Francona showed faith in his young lefty by letting him go back out. And Lester didn’t disappoint his skipper as he got Aybar to line out, a strikeout of Figgins and got Anderson to weakly line out to Pedroia at second to end his night.
Oliver was back on the mound in the 8th and got the first two outs of the inning before giving way to Scot Shields. He was greeted by a Bay double but got Lowell to ground out to finish the inning.
Masterson took over for Lester in the bottom half of the 8th inning and got Teixeira to fly out on a great diving catch by Ellsbury for the first out. Vlad followed with a single and then Hunter blooped one behind Youk but a great throw by Youk to Lowell easily nailed Vlad at third for the 2nd out of the inning. Masterson ended up surviving a good battle with Kendrick as he got him to ground into a fielder’s choice.
With Shields back out for the 9th, Lowrie led off with a single and the Captain sacrificed him over to second with a perfectly placed bunt down the first base line. Ellsbury knocked in Lowrie with a single to make it 3-1 Red Sox. With Pedroia at the plate, Ellsbury stole second and went to third when Pedroia grounded back to Shields. Big Papi extended his ALDS hitting streak to 12 games as he knocked in Ellsbury from third with a single to push the lead to 4-1. Jose Arredondo came in for Shields to face Youk and got him to ground out for the final out.
Papelbon came in for the Red Sox in the 9th and struck out Napoli for the first out. Kendry Morales pinch-hit for Matthews and singled. With Aybar at the plate, Morales went to second on defensive indifference. Papelbon ended up striking out Aybar for the second out and got Figgins for the final out to pick up the save.
Thursday is a day off for the two teams and they will be back at it on Friday night at 9:37 PM EDT. Daisuke Matsuzaka starts for the Red Sox and the Angels counter with Ervin Santana.
Notes and musings:
Red Sox @ Angels 2008 ALDS Game 1 Boxscore
The Red Sox and Angels meet for the 4th time in the post-season with Boston winning the 1986 ALCS in 7 games and earning a 3-0 victories in the 2004 and 2007 ALDS. The Sox have won their last 9 playoff games vs. the Angels (3 each in 1986, 2004, and 2007) since losing Game 4 of the 1986 ALCS in Anaheim.
The Red Sox are 3-4 in the opener of the ALDS, 2-4 on the road, with the victories coming in 1998 at Cleveland; 2004 in Anaheim; and 2007 vs. the Angels at Fenway Park.
This is the 6th time that the Red Sox are the A.L.’s Wild Card Team, the most Wild Card appearances since the current playoff format began in 1995, 3 more than the Yankees.
Since the start of 2003, the Red Sox have the 2nd best overall regular season record in the majors and join the Yankees (5) as the only MLB team to advance to post-season play as many as 5 times.
Coming into tonight, Terry Francona has a 22-9 (.710) career record in post-season play, the best
percentage ever for an individual with 20 or more playoff games managed.
In Theo Epstein’s 6 years as Red Sox General Manager, Boston has made 4 postseason appearances, most of any Sox G.M. Lou Gorman and Dan Duquette reach presided over 3 playoff teams.
Terry Francona is the 1st Sox manager to take a team to post-season in more than 2 different years (2004-05-07). Bill Carrigan (1915-16), Joe Morgan (1988; 90) and Jimy Williams (1998-99) each had a pair of playoff appearances with Boston.
Jed Lowrie played 49 games at shortstop during the regular season without making an error on 155 chances. Both of his errors came while playing third base.
