Apparently the Boston Red Sox have a flair for the dramatic. For the second night in-a-row, the Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers on a walk-off hit, this time coming off the bat of Kevin Youkilis.
The Red Sox had been down on their luck and also for the second straight, it wasn’t looking good early on. Josh Beckett struggled with his command and the Rangers took advantage of it scoring four early runs. Beckett’s start have been a mixed bag this season as he’s looked the ace we’ve come to known and expect. And other times, he’s looked terrible like he did yesterday.
He did settle down though and the offense picked him up as Mike Lowell hit a solo home run in the 2nd, J.D. Drew had a grand slam in the 3rd and Wednesday night’s hero Darnell McDonald had a solo shot in the 4th.
You have to wonder if Terry Francona left Beckett in too long as his command reverted back to the first two innings. After giving up a 3-run homer to Josh Hamilton, he finished out the inning but the damage had been done. The bullpen did pick him up though as the combination of Daniel Bard, Jonathan Papelbon were simply put, outstanding.
Another thing that we need to ponder is how will Francona use David Ortiz going forward. After seeing Mike Lowell get two hits last night, including the solo home run (his other hit was an RBI single), you really have to think that he’ll be the DH going forward, at least against lefty starters.
Big Papi is hurting the team and he knows it. He’s done so much for this club in his time here in Boston but there comes a time and a place where both parties have to move on. If he doesn’t turn things around soon, that time could come sooner rather than later.
We’ll be back later with tonight’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.
And if you must check out the enemy papers, head over to the Dallas Morning News and Ft. Worth Star-Telegram websites.
