Toronto Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay is one of baseball’s best. Well except when he faces the Red Sox, his career record is just 9-9 against Boston. After a rough start in which he gave up five runs and threw 71 pitches in the first two frames he was able to keep Toronto in the game even as his pitch count soared with uneven innings. The Jays would rally to within one run in the sixth but the Red Sox would answer and pull away with a 7-4 win at Fenway Park.
After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first the Sox came roaring back against Halladay getting him to throw 41 pitches in the first inning. J.D. Drew, back in the lead off spot, singled to right, Dustin Pedroia walked, David Ortiz singled to right to score Drew, then Manny Ramirez broke the 1-1 tie with a RBI double down the left field line. Kevin Youkilis had a RBI ground out to second to make it 3-1 and Mike Lowell drove home Manny with the Sox 4th run. Julio Lugo would add a two out infield hit but Crisp was thrown out at third when he rounded the bag to far to end the inning.
The Jays got a quick start of their own off of Tim Wakefield when Vernon Wells started the game with a single to center. After former Red Sox Matt Stairs lined out to Youkilis, Alex Rios singled to left to send Wells to third. He would then come home on Frank Thomas’
sacrifice fly.
Wakefield then worked a pair of easy innings in the second and third only allowing a second inning single to Aaron Hill and a third inning base hit to Wells.
Boston would add a run in the second when Drew led off with a walk and after a one out single by Ortiz, Ramirez would get a sacrifice fly to right to score J.D. and up the score to 5-1.
The Sox put another runner on against Halladay in the 3rd when Lugo singled for the second time on the evening with two out. But He would get left on when Drew flew out to Stairs.
Toronto would manage a fourth inning single by Thomas, but he was thrown out by Ramirez while trying for a double. In the home half of the fourth Halladay would finally set the Sox down in order. It was the first time in the game either starter had a 1-2-3 inning.
The Jays would get their second run of the night off of Wakefield in the fifth. Hill got his second hit of the night a single to center, he would advance to second on a Wakefield wild pitch. Gregg Zaun would move him to third when he grounded out to Lugo and Hill would come around to score on John McDonald’s sacrifice fly to make it 5-2.
Toronto would jump on Wakefield in the 6th when Stairs hit his second career HR off of his former teammate into the Red Sox bullpen in right field to make it 5-3. Rios would then go yard with a solo HR into the Monster Seats. It was the fourth time on the season the Jays have hit back-to-back homers and it cut the lead to 5-4. With two out Lyle Overbay would single and put the tying run on but Hill hit into an inning ending fielder’s choice to Lowell at third.
With two out in the 6th the Sox would get to Jays reliever Brian Tallet when Pedroia would get an infield hit and come around to score the 6th Boston run on an Ortiz RBI double to center over Wells head. It was Ortiz’ third hit of the night and his second RBI. He has started the second half raking. Casey Janssen would come in to relieve Tallet and Manny would smoke a ball up the middle off of Hill’s glove to score Ortiz to make 7-4. It was Ramirez’ second hit and third RBI of the evening. Youkilis would walk but Janssen would get Lowell to pop out to short to end the threat of anymore runs.
Manny Delcarmen would throw a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th, it was the first inning a Sox pitcher had put down the Jays in order. The Sox threatened in their half of the seventh with two out. Lugo would reach for the third time, this time on a throwing error by McDonald that pulled Overbay from the bag as he tried to get Lugo on a close tag play at first base. This would chase Janssen and bring in Scott Downs to face Drew who grounded out to end the inning.
In the top of the 8th an announcement was made that Toronto manager John Gibbons was ejected for arguing the tag play at first although we never saw an ejection and neither did the NESN crew. Hideki Okajima came on to pitch the 8th and he got pinch hitter Reed Johnson to ground out for the first out, Rios then got his third hit, a line drive double off the wall in left. Okajima would get a huge out when he whiffed Thomas on a change up for the second out of the inning. Troy Glaus would single to left sending Rios to third and this would bring up Overbay as the tying run. The Jays first baseman would strand a pair of runners as he flew out to Ramirez and Okajima was able to avoid any damage and kept the game at 7-4.
The bottom of the eighth had an odd start to it. Pedroia would send the ball off of Downs’s leg to Overbay for an out. Downs would be forced the game with an injury and Brian Wolf would come in to pitch. Ortiz then would foul a ball off his right knee while hitting against Wolf but would stay in the game and strike out. Manny would ground out to Providence College alum McDonald to end the inning and bring on Jonathan Papelbon for a save chance in the 9th.
Paps would strikeout Hill, Zaun would short hop the wall in left for a one out double. Papelbon would then come back and whiff pinch hitter Howie Clark for the second out and Wells would then line out to Drew in right to end the game and give Wakefield his 10th win and Papelbon his 21st save. The loss drops Toronto from its second place tie with New York and into third place 11 games behind Boston.
Notes and Musings:
Someone over at Cox Cable’s control room in CT flipped out and started the commercials for the bottom of the 6th inning after the Pedroia single. WTF!!!!! After showing four ads they got back to the game with a 1-2 count on Ortiz just in time for his RBI double. Cox….YOU SUCK!!!!! We should have Dinn Trophy send you a special award in the mail.
Reports of any type of medical procedures that may be done to David Ortiz and his knee won’t be done until after the season according to Terry Francona.
Manny threw out the Big Hurt at second in the fourth inning for his 5th assist of the season.
Dustin Pedroia is still hitless in his career against Halladay. He is 0 for 11.
Curt Schilling, currently on the DL, will have a side session on Friday.
Joel Piniero pitched a rehab appearance in Lowell on Wednesday and will be activated on Friday. Jeff Bailey will be sent back to Pawtucket. Brandon Donnelly will pitch a rehab assignment on Friday. Clay Buchholz will make his Paw Sox debut on Monday night. Buchholtz was the Sox compensation pick for losing Pedro Martinez.
Tonight was the start of an 11-game homestand for the Red Sox. They face the Blue Jays for 4, the Royals for 3 and the White Sox for 4.
Before tonight’s win the Sox had lost the last four games at Fenway to the Jays. The Sox lead the season series 6-3 and the all-time series 236-186. They are 116-93 at Fenway vs. Toronto.
The Red Sox are 14-12 in one run games this season having lost the three.
Josh Beckett became the third Boston pitcher to win an all-star game. Roger Clemens (1986) and Pedro Martinez (1999) were the others.
The Sox have led the AL East by 10 games or more for the last ten days. They have been in first place for 88 consecutive days.
Boston is 20-9 vs. the AL East. It is the most wins against one division by any AL team.
Tim Wakefield will need two more appearances for 500 in his career. He is 3 wins shy of 150 in his Red Sox career and he is one of eleven
active pitchers who have thrown 2500+ innings in his career. He is 3-1 vs. Toronto in 2007.
Wakefield is one of 4 pitchers to have been with the same team since at least 1995. The other three are John Smoltz (Atlanta –1988), Trevor Hoffman (San Diego – 1993) and Mariano Rivera (New York –1995).
Tonight’s game was the 350th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park.
