After going winless in Seattle, the Red Sox got some strong pitching from Tim Wakefield and the bullpen as the Sox squeezed out a 2-1 victory over the Rangers in front of a packed house at Fenway Park on Roush Fenway Racing Night. Wakefield went 6 â…” innings, and Manny Delcarmen, Hideki “Darkman” Okajima and Jonathan “Ocho Cinco” Papelbon finished off the Rangers.
Wake gave up two hits in the 1st inning. Kenny Lofton, who went 4 for 4 with 4 stolen bases and a walk, led off the game with a single. He was retired when Jerry Hairston grounded into a double play. Michael Young followed with a single but Slammin Sammy Sosa popped out to second to end the inning.
The Sox threatened in the 2nd inning off of Ranger’s starter Jamey Wright, a former New Haven Raven. Manny Ramirez led off with a single and went to third on a J.D. Drew single. Mike Lowell grounded into a fielder’s choice that saw Manny going on contact and being caught in a rundown between home and third for the first out of the inning. Wily Mo Peña followed with a fielder’s choice of his own that got Lowell out a second as Wily Mo beat the throw to first. Alex Cora, in for the uber-slumping Julio Lugo, struck out swinging to end the inning.
Wakefield scattered 3 hits over the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. He allowed two doubles to Marlon Byrd and an infield single to Lofton.
Boston finally got on the scoreboard in the 4th inning. Manny led off the inning but getting hit with a Wright curveball. He went to third on a Drew ground rule double to right. With the infield in on the corners, Lowell grounded out to former Sox utility guy Ramon Vazquez at third for the first out of the inning. Wily Mo brought in Manny with an infield single to Young at deep short, giving the Sox a 1-0 lead. Cora ended the inning by grounding into a 5-4-3 double play.
Texas got the run back in the top half of the 5th inning. The newly acquired Adam Melhuse started the inning off with a double and went to third on a Vazquez sacrifice. Lofton worked a walk off of Wake and stole second with Hairston at the plate. Hairston drove in Melhuse with a sacrifice fly to Wily Mo, making it 1-1. Wake got out of the inning by getting Young to ground out.
Boston would score the winning run in their half of the 5th on a very strange play. Doug Mirabelli flied out to center for the first out. Dustin Pedroia worked a walk off of Wright but was retired at second on a Kevin Youkilis fielder’s choice. Big Papi was walked and both Youk and Papi moved up a base on Wright’s wild pitch with Manny at the plate. Then the strangeness began. Manny hit a shot up the middle that Wright stuck his foot on and kicked over to Vazquez at third. Instead of trying to get Manny at first, Vazquez went to tag Big Papi but not before Youk could score. Since, it was not a force play, the run counted because the hustling Youkilis crossed the plate before the tag on Papi. This run ended up being the winning run as it gave the Sox a 2-1 lead.
Wake got into a little trouble in the 7th inning after getting the first two outs of the inning. After a Melhuse groundout and Vazquez strikeout, Lofton reached on an infield single. He stole second before Hairston was walked by Wake. The walk of Hairston ended Wake’s night. Delcarmen came in and walked Young to load the bases. With a full count on Slammin Sammy, Delcarmen blew a fastball by him to end the inning.
Wakefield’s night was just what the doctor ordered. He went 6 â…” innings, scattering 7 hits. He did walk 4 but also struck out 4 in his 8th win of the season.
Darkman came in the 8th and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning. Meanwhile the Sox tried to add an insurance run in the 8th inning. Lowell led off the inning with a single off of Rangers reliever Frank Francisco. After Wily Mo and Cora made outs, Jason Varitek pinch-hit for Mirabelli and was walked. Pedroia grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Papelbon came in for the 9th inning and had no problems retiring the first two batters he faced. Then the emotions came out. Lofton grounded a ball to Youk, who flipped to Papelbon for what they thought was the third out of the inning. But first base umpire Mike Reilly called Lofton was safe. Papelbon’s emotions then came out as he got into the face of Reilly and was arguing the call. Papelbon was probably an “F-bomb” away from being tossed had Pedroia, who is about 5 foot nothing tall, pushed Papelbon back from the argument. With Lofton being safe, Papelbon had to return to the mound and compose himself. He ended up hitting Hairston in the wrist with a 96 mph fastball in the wrist. He did settle down enough to get Young on a 97 mph fastball that was called for third strike. The save was his 19th in 20 chances and helped Wake even his record at 8-8.
You have to love Papelbon. He wears his heart on his sleeve and that’s what you need in a closer. I was glad to see Pedroia push him away from getting tossed because odds were had he got tossed, he might have been suspended a game or two and thats not what you want. Plus you’d be going into the bullpen after using your best 3 relievers. So it was good to see him settle down and the strikeout of Young.
Josh Beckett takes the hill for the Sox tomorrow night as he looks to get his 12th win of the season. Gametime is 7:05 PM.
Notes and Musings:
Former Red Sox pitcher Ken Ryan made his debut on the Boston Globe Pre-Game show as Tom Caron’s sidekick.
Coco Crisp was out of the lineup due to a jammed thumb suffered in Wednesday’s game. Julio Lugo wasn’t in the lineup either and I am sure we can all guess why that is.
The Red Sox signed two more draft picks on Thursday, 4th round pick, Brock Huntzinger and 9th round pick, Kade Keowen. Huntzinger is headed down to Florida with the Gulf Coast Red Sox and Keowen is off to Lowell to join the Spinners.
Curt Schilling will have his shoulder evaluated again on Monday.
Before the game, Roush/Fenway Racing drivers, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards and owner Jack Roush were introduced to the Fenway crowd.
Edwards, Roush and the president of New Hampshire International Speedway threw out the ceremonial 1st pitches. Edwards threw a heater past Jason Varitek
The Rangers lead the AL in homeruns but don’t have anyone in the top 10 and are 2nd in sacrifices.
Edwards was in the booth in the second inning talking about RemDawg’s ride around Loudon yesterday. RemDawg said he was too scared to drive the car but had fun on the ride. Edwards said the car got up to about 125 MPH.
Jaime McMurray said he was a Cardinals and Royals fan growing up but is now a Red Sox fan for life.
Kevin Youkilis came into the game with 122 consecutive errorless games at 1st base. Orsillo commented that Stuffy McGinnis, who held the record at 119, was a teammate of RemDawgs. Stuffy played during the 1920’s. They both lost it after that.
Dustin Pedroia has only struck out 18 times this season.
Big Papi’s wife Tiffany and D’Angelo “Lil Papi” were seated with Tom Werner in his seats near the Sox dugout.
Tina Cervasio reported that back in spring training that Wakefield said when Mirabelli is done playing that he is as well.
Aflac Trivia Question of the night: How many Dominican players are in the 500 homerun club?
NESN will be airing a “Best of Remy and Orsillo” during their “Summer Vacation” series. That ought to be awfully funny.
Dice-K made 5 June starts and finished with a 2-2 record with a 1.59 ERA. The Sox scored 5 runs in his 5 starts.
RemDawg and Orsillo did their play-by-play of the “Sox Appeal” taping again. RemDawg made the best comment. He wanted to know if the girl was drinking, did the last guy have the best chance since the odds are she might be half-toasted.
Saturday’s edition of “This Week in Baseball” will take a look at the first-place Boston Red Sox “through the eyes of David Ortiz.”
Aflac Trivia Question answer: Just one. Sammy Sosa
Remdawg pointed out that the 1st ball light on the Green Monster wasn’t working.
Jonathan Papelbon wants to be known as “Cinco Ocho” now.
