The Boston Red Sox tied the game up in the 8th inning but Rob Johnson’s third double of the game was good enough for two runs to help the Seattle Mariners to a 7-6 win in 11 innings in front of 38,078 at Fenway Park.
Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the 8th, the Red Sox mounted their comeback.
Sean White took over for Mariners starter Felix Hernandez and he retired David Ortiz to start the inning. He then walked Jason Bay and Mark Kotsay singled to chase him from the game. Shawn Kelley came in and got Jacoby Ellsbury to fly out for the second out of the inning.
Nick Green followed the Ellsbury out with a wall ball double that was inches away from being a 3-run homer. Instead it was good enough for two runs to tie the game up at 5. George Kottaras had a chance to help Tim Wakefield get the win but he ended up fouling out to end the inning.
The game went to extra innings and in the 11th inning the Mariners got two runs off of Johnson’s double to go ahead 7-5. Kottaras homered in the bottom half of the inning but that’s all the local nine would get.
The loss for the Red Sox drops their record to 48-31 and their lead shrinks to 2 games in the AL East as the Yankees beat the Blue Jays earlier in the day. The Mariners improve to 41-38.
Wakefield was denied his 11th win of the season as he gave the Red Sox eight innings. He allowed 5 runs on 10 hits with 3 strikeouts in his Red Sox record 383rd career start, passing Roger Clemens.
Other than Ramon Ramirez tonight, the Red Sox bullpen threw the ball well again. Manny Delcarmen was perfect in his inning of work. Jonathan Papelbon allowed a hit and struck out 1 in his inning. Ramirez, on the other hand, took the loss by allowing 2 runs on 2 hits with a strikeout.
King Felix settled down after giving up some early runs. He went 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks while recording 7 strikeouts.
Green had another big game with a 2-hit effort and 2 RBIs while Mark Kotsay also had 2 hits. J.D. Drew and Kottaras also had two hits a piece and each had a solo home run. For Kottaras, the home run was the first of his big league career. Jason Bay broke out of his slump with an RBI double. Jacoby Ellsbury and Big Papi had the other hits.
Tough loss for the Red Sox tonight. They’ll be back at it again tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 PM. Brad Penny gets the start for the Red Sox and he’ll be opposed by Garrett Olson.
Notes and musings:
Sean Casey is filling in over the weekend on NESN for Dennis Eckersley who is in Atlanta for the All-Star Selection Show on TBS on Sunday.
Jeffrey Donovan from the USA Network hit “Burn Notice” threw out the first pitch tonight.
