Julian “Yo-Yo” Tavarez was excellent again in his second straight spot-start and the Red Sox hit 3 homers in an 11-1 rout of the Chicago White Sox. The win gave them a 4-game sweep of the White Sox and increased their lead in the AL East to 7.5 games as the Skanks lost to Detroit. Tavarez went 6 innings while allowing just 2 hits and 1 run. J.D. Drew, David Ortiz, and Bobby Kielty all hit home runs today. This was also the fourth straight game the Red Sox scored at least 10 runs. The last time that happened was way back in 1950.
The Red Sox got on the scoreboard in the 2nd inning off White Sox starter Javier Vazquez. Mike Lowell led off the inning with a fly out to right. J.D. Drew, playing for the first time in 2 games, took a Vazquez offering over the fence in center for a home run. Vazquez finished off the inning by retiring Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek on fly balls to right.
Chicago managed to get the run back in their half of the 2nd. Yo-Yo got A.J. Pierzynski to strikeout swinging leading off. Jermaine Dye took a hanger from Yo-Yo and put it over the fence in right-center to tie the game at 1. Like his counterpart Vazquez, Yo-Yo got out of the inning by getting Juan Uribe and Danny Richar on a line drive out and a fly ball respectively.
Both starting pitchers were cruising at this point. Vazquez got thru the 3rd inning by setting the side down in order and issued two walks in the 4th but got out of the inning unscathed. Yo-Yo went thru the 3rd inning perfectly as well and issued a walk to Pierzynski in the 4th that didn’t do any damage.
The visiting nine from Boston struck gold in the 5th inning. With one out in the inning, Bobby Kielty laid down a bunt and reached as the ball didn’t roll foul. Coco Crisp followed that with a single, putting a runner in scoring position for Lugo. Lugo ended up grounding into a fielder’s choice with Crisp out at second. With Dustin Pedroia at the plate, Lugo stole second and came around to score when Pedroia delivered a 2-run single. Big Papi came up huge as well as he crushed a Vazquez offering into the seats for a 2-run homer and a 5-1 Red Sox lead. Vazquez finished off the inning by getting Lowell to line out.
In the 6th inning, the Red Sox did some more damage. Drew drew a walk to lead off and was stuck there for two outs as Varitek and Youk struck out. Kielty would move Drew as he hit his first Red Sox homer giving the Red Sox a 7-1 lead. Vazquez would strikeout the side in the 6th as he got Coco to strikeout for the third out.
Yo-Yo finally gave up his second and final hit of the day in the White Sox half of the 6th. Josh Fields hit a 1-out single but was left stranded there as Yo-Yo got Jim Thome and Paul Konerko to end his day. Yo-Yo went 6 innings, allowing just the 2 hits, 1 run, 3 walks and he struck out 7. Vazquez also had a good day with the strikeouts as he struck out 10 Red Sox batters.
The game was turned over to the bullpens in the 7th and as usual, the Red Sox bullpen was better. The Sox bullpen pitched 3 innings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 5. The White Sox bullpen on the other hand, threw 3 innings, allowing 3 hits and 4 runs while striking out 1.
The Sox got those 4 runs in the 9th inning off of Ryan Bukvich and Mike Myers. Varitek led off with a single and Kielty reached on a Bukvich error. Myers came in and got Coco to hit into a fielder’s choice with Kielty out at second. Lugo followed that with a single bringing in Varitek from third. Pedroia then lined out to Richar at second for the second out. Had Richar not slipped, they probably would have gotten Lugo creeping off second base. Big Papi then hit a ball to Josh Fields in left that Fields misplayed into a 2-base 2-run error for a 10-1 Red Sox lead. Lowell extended his hitting streak to 9 games he hit a single to left that scored Big Papi for the final run of the day.
Jonathan Papelbon pitched the 9th and made easy work of the White Sox as he struck out the side.
The Red Sox now head to New York for a 3-game set against the Yankees starting on Tuesday. So while the Red Sox are enjoying the off day tomorrow, the Yanks will be finishing up their 4-game series in Detroit. Some strong pitching matchups are forthcoming in the Bronx.
- Tues: Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP (13-10, 3.76) vs Andy Pettitte (LHP) (11-7, 3.69)
- Wed: Josh Beckett, RHP (16-5, 3.21) vs Roger Clemens (RHP) (5-5, 4.34)
- Thu: Curt Schilling, RHP (8-5,4.11) vs Chien-Ming Wang (RHP)(15-6, 3.95)
Notes and musings:
The Red Sox lead can be no worse than 7 games when the Yanks series starts. It could get to 8 games if the Yanks lose tomorrow.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe was in the NESN HD studios for the pregame and postgame shows today.
NESN will be showing it’s final “Futures at Fenway” game tomorrow night. Jon Lester will be pitching for the Portland Sea Dogs as they face the Trenton Thunder, the Skanks Double-A team. Gametime is 7 PM.
J.D. Drew’s homer was his first since July 20th.
Bobby Kielty’s home run was his first since September 19, 2006 when he was with Oakland A’s.
A.J. Pierzynski got in a shouting match with White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker after his at-bat in the 7th inning. Joey Cora stepped in to stop the argument.
You could tell Don and RemDawg got bored in the booth late in the game because they were talking about doing bus tours in various cities. RemDawg had done a bus tour with some members of RSN on Saturday in the Windy City.
Jonathan Papelbon hadn’t worked in a game since August 21st.
In the series, Red Sox scored 21 runs after the 7th while allowing 2.
The win was Yo-Yo’s first in his last 8 starts. Coincidently, his last win came on the same day that Drew hit his last homer.
