The Boston Red Sox snapped a 6-game losing streak last night at Fenway Park as they beat the Detroit Tigers 6-5 on a Nick Green sacrifice fly in the 7th inning.
They hadn’t put up much offense over the course of the losing streak but after 10 pitches last night found themselves up 2-0 over the Tigers. They increased that lead to 4-0 before the Tigers started creeping back in the game. Fenway Park was definitely what the boys needed as they pounded out three home runs off the bats of Dustin Pedroia, Nick Green and Jason Bay.
Shockingly enough Brad Penny didn’t have a high pitch count last night and pitched well. He did give up 3 runs in 6 innings. Two of those runs came when J.D. Drew misplayed a Magglio Ordonez fly ball into a triple. The Tigers then were able to score two runs off of Manny Delcarment before Green’s sacrifice fly gave them the lead for good.
Jonathan Papelbon picked up the final four outs of the game on just 11 pitches to pick up his 28th save of the season.
It was nice to see the boys bounce back last night after a rough road trip. The win and a Yankees loss allowed them to get back to 5.5 games out of first place and they picked up a 1/2 game in the wild card standings over the Rangers and a loss by the Rays makes it 2.5 games over them as well.
All eyes will be on Junichi Tazawa tonight as he makes his first start in a Red Sox uniform. It will be interesting to see how rebounds from giving up the home run in the 15-inning loss to the Yankees on Friday night.
Links coming up after a 10 second pause for station ID on the Red Sox blogging network.
Tiger tamers [Boston Globe]
Quick to respond [Boston Globe]
Wakefield shows real improvement [Boston Globe]
Finding relief with the heat on [Boston Globe]
Tazawa thrown into fire as races heat up [RedSox.com]
Green comes through with timely hits [Providence Journal]
Bay gets back in the swing [Providence Journal]
Back at home, bats show signs of life [Providence Journal]
After throwing simulated game, Wakefield says he’ll be ready to pitch on road trip [Providence Journal]
Ortiz carries weight of Sox troubles on his shoulders [Providence Journal]
Red Sox journal: Martinez looks forward to playing before Fenway fans [Providence Journal]
They new optimism was around the corner [Lou Merloni – WEEI.com]
Pedroia after win: Everybody calm down [Full Count]
Red Sox Draft Update [Full Count]
Easy being Green [Extra Bases]
Ten Red Sox prospects who can help the big league team in 2010 [Wicked Good Sports]
Red Sox End Six-Game Losing Streak [Hartford Courant]
Francona Has Confidence In Tazawa [Hartford Courant]
Magadan in the middle [Tony Massarotti – Boston Globe]
Red Sox right ship [Boston Herald]
Not easy being Nick Green [Boston Herald]
Ballpark enhances home team’s effort [Boston Herald]
Pressure on David Ortiz [Boston Herald]
Whirlwind journey to Fens for Junichi Tazawa [Boston Herald]
Ramirez won’t be fined or suspended [Clubhouse Insider]
Five Things We Learned: Ortiz, Red Sox Finally Found Some Normalcy [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 the enemy papers are more your flavor, you can check out the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press websites.
