Jason Bay’s 3-run home run in the bottom of the 9th made Tim Wakefield’s seven one-hit innings stand up and gave the Boston Red Sox a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in front of 18,652 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
The win for the Red Sox is their 11th straight and brings their record to 13-6 while the Indians fall to 7-13. The Red Sox are now a 1/2 game behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the AL East who are currently playing the Kansas City Royals.
The Red Sox as a whole may be hot but there is no hotter pitcher on the team right now than Wakefield. After a so-so start in Anaheim, Wakefield has thrown two complete games and then an one-hitter tonight. He did walk four but struck out five.
Manny Delcarmen continues to shine out of the bullpen as he pitched an inning with a strikeout. Jonathan Papelbon made things interesting as he gave up a run on 3 hits but had two strikeouts to record his fifth save of the season.
Bay just continues to get it done for the Red Sox as he was the only one who had success against Indians starter Cliff Lee with two hits. His third hit of the night was the big blow though. David Ortiz had 2 hits and Mike Lowell, Jeff Bailey and Nick Green had the others.
Lee ended up going 8 innings, allowing 5 hits with strikeouts. Kerry Wood gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks with a strikeout. Rafael Betancourt finished the 9th recording a strikeout.
With the pitcher’s locked in a duel, defense and double plays were the norm. There was some great catches by Grady Sizemore and Jacoby Ellsbury. It seemed like every time the Red Sox got a baserunner off of Lee, they’d hit into a double play.
One thing the Red Sox have been doing well this season is beating up the other team’s bullpen. They did it again tonight.
Wood took over for Lee in the 9th and walked Dustin Pedroia. Big Papi followed with a single but Lee retired Kevin Youkilis on a fly ball. Wood then left a 98 mph fastball out over the plate that Bay got all of for a no-doubt 3-run homer. Lowell followed that with a triple that went under a diving Sizemore. Had Lowell been healthy, he probably would have had an inside-the-park home run. J.D. Drew pinch-hit for Bailey and struck out. Wood walked George Kottaras and gave way to Betancourt who struck out Nick Green.
Papelbon made it interesting in the bottom of the 9th as his location wasn’t there at times.
Shin-Soo Choo led off with a single and went to second on a Ryan Garko single. After a questionable called strike three on Jhonny Peralta, Mark DeRosa’s single scored Choo to make it 3-1 Red Sox. Papelbon recovered though as he struck out former Red Sox farm hand Kelly Shoppach and got Ben Francisco to pop out to end the game.
After the rough start, the Red Sox are coming into their own right now. They are getting the job done on a nightly basis with some timely hitting. It also helps that the bullpen has been top notch all season and is showing why it’s one of the best in baseball this year.
At 42-years old, Wakefield continues to get the job done for the Red Sox. When he gets on one of these rolls, it’s hard to hit him especially when his knuckleball is so nasty as it has been his past three starts. His next start will come in a place where he’s had a lot of success (Tropicana Field).
Brad Penny will look to push the win streak to an even dozen tomorrow night and run his record to 3-0 in the process. He’ll be opposed by Anthony Reyes. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 and as always the game will be on NESN.
