After throwing six scoreless innings his last time out, there were a lot of expectations that Junichi Tazawa would pitch well again. That just wasn’t the case on Thursday night at Fenway Park.
The Chicago White Sox rocked Tazawa for nine runs on their way to a 9-5 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 38,003 at the Fens.
The loss drops the Red Sox to 73-54 and their lead in the wild card is down to 1.5 games over the Texas Rangers and 3.5 games over the Tampa Bay Rays. They also still trail the New York Yankees by 6 games. The White Sox got back to .500 at 64-64 and trail the Detroit Tigers by 4 games in the AL Central.
Things were so bad on Thursday night that Terry Francona called on utility infielder Nick Green to pitch the final 2 innings. Green did a great job, hitting as high as 90 MPH on the gun. He walked three and didn’t allow a hit. When the 9th inning ended, he was given a rousing ovation by the Fenway faithful.
Tazawa just didn’t have it. His stuff was flat and he was leaving the ball out over the plate for the White Sox hitters to drive and drive it they did. The White Sox pounded 10 hits in 4 innings off of Tazawa. He walked one and struck out two.
Manny Delcarmen allowed a hit in two innings while Ramon Ramirez gave up three hits and had a strikeout in an inning of work. The reason Green ended up pitching was because Takashi Saito slept wrong on his neck and wasn’t available. Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima weren’t available after pitching two nights in a row plus Daniel Bard threw 1 1/3 innings last night. Newcomer Billy Wagner wasn’t available either as it appears he’ll only pitch every three days.
John Danks allowed two runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts. Two of those hits were home runs by J.D. Drew and Alex Gonzalez who went back-to-back in the 5th.
Octavio Dotel gave up two runs on two hits and two walks with a strikeout while Randy Williams bailed him out by retiring the only batter he faced. Bobby Jenks gave up a run on a hit and had a strikeout in the 9th.
Drew’s two hits of the night were both home runs while Gonzalez’ only hit was the home run. Jacoby Ellsbury added two hits before leaving the game with a high-ankle sprain in the bottom of the 5th. David Ortiz chipped in with two hits and an RBI while Jason Bay knocked in a run as well.
Tough loss for the Red Sox on Thursday night but it was still a good series as they took 3-of-4 from the White Sox.
They’ll be back in action on Friday night as the Toronto Blue Jays come to town for a weekend series. Scott Richmond will start for the Blue Jays and he’ll be opposed by Josh Beckett.
