On a night where Chase Field seemed more like Fenway Park, it was the bat of Jason Varitek and a strong performance by the Red Sox bullpen that did in the Diamondbacks, as the Sox won 4-3 in 10 innings.
Julian Tavarez pitched well for the Red Sox but it was 4 strong innings by the bullpen that allowed the Red Sox to battle back. Brendan Donnelly, Hideki “Darkman” Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon combined to give up 1 hit in the 4 innings they pitched. Darkman got the win and Papelbon got his 14th save in 15 tries.
Arizona got on the board first with a run in the second inning. Stephen Drew reached on an infield single and was then retired on a Carlos Quentin fielder’s choice. Miguel Montero lined a double off of Tavarez that drove in Quentin, giving the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead. Tavarez then got his counterpart Micah Owings to ground out and he retired Eric Byrnes on a strikeout.
The Diamondbacks put up another 2 runs in the 4th inning when Drew took Tavarez deep. Mark Reynolds led off the inning with a double and he came around to score on the Drew 2 run blast. Friday night it was his brother, J.D., who did the damage and this game it was him. Tavarez then settled in and retired the next three batters.
The Sox finally got to Owings in the 6th inning. After Owings retired Big Papi and Kevin Youkilis, J.D. got on base with a single. Vartiek then took a Owings offering out of the ballpark, cutting the deficit to 3-2 Diamondbacks.
Vartiek drove in his third run of the game against former Sox closer Brandon Lyon. Youk drew a walk to lead off the inning and was retired on a J.D. fielder’s choice. Varitek crushed a Lyon offering to deep center for a double, driving in J.D. with the game-tying run. Lyon got out of the inning by striking out Cora and Hinske.
The Red Sox got the winning run off of Juan Cruz in the 10th inning. Big Papi led off with a walk and advanced 90 feet on a Youk single. J.D. lined a single to center loading up the bases for the hero of the game for the Sox, Varitek. Unfortunately, ‘Tek struck out. With two strikes on him, Mike Lowell, pinch-hitting for Darkman, drove a ball to right field that brought in Big Papi to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. The Diamondbacks appealed that Papi left early but TV replays clearly showed he didn’t. Cora had a chance to give the Sox some more insurance but he struck out to end the threat.
Jonathan Papelbon, pitching for the first time since Sunday, came in for the 10th. He struck out Byrnes and then hit Chris Young with a 2 strike fastball. Papelboner then blew a fastball by Orlando Hudson. Young hit an infield single to Lugo at short but Papelbon got Reynolds to line out to end the game.
The Sox now turn to Daisuke Matsuzaka on Sunday afternoon to hopefully put the finishing touches on a sweep in Arizona. He will be opposed by Randy Johnson.
