After watching their 2-1 lead evaporate in the 7th inning, the Boston Red Sox rallied to tie the game and eventually win 6-3 over the Chicago White Sox in front of 38,059 at Fenway Park on Tuesday night.
Jon Lester started the 7th by allowing a single to Paul Konerko and then walking Jermaine Dye. A.J. Pierzynski sacrificed the runners over and Alex Rios lined out to J.D. Drew in right. Lester struck out Alexei Ramirez but the ball bounced off the plate and Jason Varitek allowing Konerko to score and Ramirez at first. Jayson Nix followed with line drive that went off the glove of Mike Lowell and allowed Dye to score.
Hideki Okajima came in and allowed an infield single to Scott Podsednik to load up the bases but he recovered to strikeout Gordon Beckham.
After a Lowell ground out to start the bottom half of the inning, Varitek crushed a double to right-center to end Freddy Garcia’s night. Nick Green pinch-ran for Tek and Victor Martinez pinch-hit for Alex Gonzalez. The move paid off nicely for Terry Francona as Martinez delivered with a single scoring Green from second to tie the game up at three.
The Red Sox escaped a first and third with no outs situation in the top half of the 8th and struck for three runs in the bottom half.
Scott Linebrink got the first out in David Ortiz but left a hanging breaking ball out over the plate that Jason Bay crushed onto the Mass Pike to put the Red Sox out in front 4-3. After a Lowell strike out, Green singled and came around to score on a V-Mart double. Randy Williams came in and gave up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury that scored V-Mart for the final margin of 6-3.
With the win, the Red Sox hold their 1.5 game lead over the Rangers and three game lead over the Rays in the wild card standings. They also picked up a game and are now 6 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.
Lester had a good night on the mound and it was unfortunate circumstances (the wild pitch to Ramirez) that led to the no-decision. He threw the ball and had good command on all of his pitches. He went 6 2/3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with six strikeouts.
The bullpen did it’s job as well.
Hideki Okajima gave up 3 hits and had two strikeouts. Manny Delcarmen bailed out Okajima in the 8th by retiring the only batter he faced. Jonathan Papelbon struck out two and allowed a hit to pick up his 30th save of the season.
With that 30th save, Papelbon joins Billy Koch as the only relievers to record 30 saves in their first four seasons.
Garcia allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 1 walk with 5 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Matt Thornton gave up two hits and a walk in a 1/3 of an inning. Linebrink gave up 3 runs on 3 hits with a strikeout in an inning of work. Williams walked one and gave up a hit in a 1/3 of an inning.
Ellsbury had a 3-hit night with an RBI and the 55th stolen base of the season. The stolen base for Ellsbury gives him the Red Sox record, breaking Tommy Harper’s record of 54.
Kevin Youkilis and Bay each had a hit and an RBI with Bay’s coming on the game-winning home run. V-Mart came off the bench with 2 hits and two RBI. Pedroia added an RBI to the cause as well.
Tim Wakefield makes his return from the disabled list on Wednesday night for the Red Sox. He’ll be opposed by Gavin Floyd.
