Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell both returned from the 15-day disabled list tonight for the Boston Red Sox as both of them played a huge role in their 8-1 win over the Texas Rangers in front 30,264 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The win for the Red Sox is their 4th straight and moves them to 2.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays who lost tonight.
Josh Beckett was sharp in his return from the disabled list to pick up his 12th win on the year.
Making his first start since August 17th, Beckett went 5 innings, throwing 80 pitches allowing 4 hits while fanning 7. Lowell went 3-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBI to lead the way for the Red Sox.
Manny Delcarmen was again excellent out of the bullpen as he worked 2 perfect innings, striking out 3. Justin Masterson followed with innning of work where allowed 2 walks and Hideki Okajima gave up a run on 2 hits and a walk while striking out 2 in his inning of work.
Coco Crisp continues to swing a hot stick for the Red Sox as he was 3-for-5 with a triple and 3 RBI. Jason Varitek added 2 hits to winning cause as well. The only two starters without hits tonight were David Ortiz and Mark Kotsay.
The Red Sox got on the board first in the 2nd inning tonight off of Rangers starter Kevin Millwood. He had struck out Jason Bay to start the inning but then Lowell followed with a solo home run to put the Sox out front 1-0.
Big Papi started the 4th inning by flying out and then Kotsay reached on an error by Rangers second baseman Joaquin Arias. Bay followed with a double to left as Kotsay would stop at third base. Both of them came home on a Lowell single to push the lead to 3-0 as Lowell would end up at second on the throw. Millwood walked Jed Lowrie and allowed a single to Varitek to load the bases. Coco hit a single into no man’s land in center field that bounced off the glove of Arias for single scoring Lowell and Lowrie to make it 5-0.
Meanwhile Beckett was just cruising along. He was perfect in the first 3 innings throwing just 40 pitches while picking up 4 of his 7 strikeouts on the night.
The Rangers would get 3 singles in the 4th inning but no one got any further than second base.
In his final inning of work, Beckett got the first two batters of the inning out before a Gerald Laird single. Beckett would end his night with a strikeout of Chris Davis.
Coco Crisp continues to roll at the plate knocking in 3 runs tonight.
Millwood got the first two batters of the 6th inning before a Varitek single. Back-to-back stand up triples by Coco and Jacoby Ellsbury would push the lead to 7-0. Ellsbury was left stranded at third when Dustin Pedroia grounded out to second.
The Red Sox would add a run in the top of the 9th to make it 8-0 when Lowell doubled in Bay who had walked.
The shutout wouldn’t last though as Okajima took over for Masterson in the 9th inning.
After a Josh Hamilton liner to Lowrie at short, Okajima walked pinch-hitter German Duran. Hank Blalock followed with a single and then Okajima struck out Brandon Boggs. Nelson Cruz knocked in the only run of the night for the Rangers with a single to score Duran. Okajima finished up strong as he struck out Laird to give the Red Sox an 8-1 win.
Notes and musings:
Red Sox @ Rangers 9.5.08 boxscore
This marks the 11th straight year that the Red Sox have produced a winning record, 2nd longest such span in team history to 16 consecutive years at .500 or better from 1967-82.
Wednesday’s 5-4 win was Boston’s 5th walk-off victory of the season, the 1st since August 1 against Oakland. It marked the 19th time that the Sox have been victorious in their final at bat, tied with the Angels for the most in the A.L. and tied for 3rd in the majors behind Milwaukee (23) and Florida (20).
Boston had gone 7 games without an error before Coco Crisp’s miscue on Wednesday.
Boston ranks 2nd in the A.L. with 108 steals, the team’s 3rd most since 1919 (116 in 1934; 114 in 1973).
David Ortiz has 20 of his 70 RBI in 7 games versus Texas this season.
Sox on streaks:
Dustin Pedroia has a 9-game hitting streak
Coco Crisp has a 7-game hitting streak
Alex Cora has a 6-game hitting streak
Jeff Bailey has a 5-game hitting streak
Kevin Cash has a 3-game hitting streak
