The Boston Red Sox bats woke up a little bit last night as they had nine hits off of Baltimore Orioles starter Brad Bergesen. While the Red Sox only scored three runs fortunately for them it was enough as Brad Penny had one of his better outings in a Sox uniform.
The win couldn’t have come at a better time for the local nine as they were mired in a 5-game losing streak and falling quickly in the AL East. A loss last night would have dropped them to 3.5 games behind the Yankees who have now won eight straight. Instead, they head into tonight’s game still sitting 2.5 games back. They are four games ahead of the Rays in the AL East and 2.5 games ahead of the Rangers in the wild card standings.
Penny had a little extra velocity last night as he was consistently hitting 97 MPH and touched 98 MPH on occasion. He had good control and command of all his pitches. Of course though it was a typical Penny outing with a high pitch count as he threw 108 in 6 1/3 innings. It was the first time he had pitched into the 7th inning since May.
Luckily for Penny, the Red Sox bullpen has seemed to put their pre-All-Star Game doldrums behind them and picked him up last night.
Red Sox steer out of skid [Boston Globe]
Caught in squeeze, Kotsay out [Boston Globe]
Worse things have happened to LaRoche [Boston Globe]
LaRoche excited to join a contender [RedSox.com]
Brad Penny gives Orioles no quarter [Boston Herald]
Adam LaRoche cool with any role [Boston Herald]
Cruel bounce denies excitement [Boston Herald]
Justin Masterson keen to keep focus [Boston Herald]
Tough day for Mark Kotsay [Boston Herald]
Introducing Chris Duncan [Full Count]
Penny shines on at Fenway [Providence Journal]
LaRoche is willing to play less in exchange for a shot at the postseason [Providence Journal]
Red Sox journal: Dice-K, management are communicating [Providence Journal]
Five Things We Learned: Home Is Where the Wins Are For Red Sox [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Providence Journal websites.
And if you want to check out the enemy papers, head over to the Baltimore Sun and Annapolis Capital websites.
