Things were lined up nicely for the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night. Jon Lester had been looking like an ace in his past three starts while David Ortiz has been looking like the Big Papi of old. Unfortunately for Lester and the Red Sox, the bullpen failed them in last night’s 7-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers in extra innings.
While it won’t go in the books as a quality start for Lester, he was pretty dang good last night. He went seven innings, allowing four runs on four hits and four walks and finished with ten strikeouts. He left with a 6-4 lead but then Hideki Okajima gave it up in the 8th.
He gave up a leadoff homer to Magglio Ordonez, then walked Miguel Cabrera and allowed a single to red-hot Brennan Boesch. Rather than go to the bullpen for Manny Delcarmen who had been warming up alongside Jonathan Papelbon, Terry Francona chose to stick with Okajima and it didn’t work out. Brandon Inge came through with the game-tying double.
Okajima did settle down after that though as he struck out Gerald Laird and got pinch-hitter Ramon Santiago to line out. Francona finally went to the bullpen and brought in Papelbon who got Adam Everett to foul out.
The question remains as to why Tito didn’t yank Okajima earlier. He clearly didn’t have it last night but yet Francona chose to keep him in. I’m definitely not in the position to question Francona’s decision but given how MDC has pitched of late, why wouldn’t you go to him over an ineffective Okajima.
Offensively, the Red Sox were able to take advantage of a wild Dontrelle Willis. The Red Sox took advantage of seven walks by the D-Train to score four runs. All told the Red Sox received 12 walks, five of them by Kevin Youkilis. After a Bill Hall 2-run homer in the 5th inning, four Tigers relievers gave up just two hits the rest of the way.
Ramon Ramirez had pitched well as of late but he had a night to forgot last night. He came in during the 12th inning and had two walks, including a four-pitch walk to Santiago that forced in the winning run.
It was a frustrating loss for the Red Sox last night, one that clearly got away from them. The big thing is that they bounce back today and put last night’s loss behind them and move forward. There’s no reason to dwell on the past anymore.
We’ll be back later with today’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 see what the enemy papers are saying, head over to the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News and MLive.com websites. You can also check out what our Bloguin brother, Detroit4lyfe, has to say.
