The Minnesota Twins were able to take advantage of the wildness of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson on their way to a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 28,221 at the Metrodome on Wednesday night.
The loss for the Red Sox (27-20) drops them into a first place tie with the New York Yankees, who beat the Rangers, in the AL East. The Twins get to .500 (24-24) with the win.
Matsuzaka was just a wee bit wild as he uncorked 4 wild pitches. Matsuzaka threw 102 pitches in 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks while recording 6 strikeouts.
Delcarmen also had a wild pitch and allowed a run on 2 hits and walk while adding a strikeout in 2/3 of an inning. Masterson wanted to be part of the crowd so he added a wild pitch in his 2 1/3 innings that saw him give up 2 hits and a walk.
Kevin Slowey went 6 innings for the Twins, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk while striking out 5. Three Twins relievers combined to keep the Red Sox hitless over the final 3 innings.
Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a 2-hit effort and Mike Lowell added 2 hits as well. Dustin Pedroia also ran his hitting streak to 10 games. Jason Bay had the other hit for the Red Sox, a solo home run. The solo home run for Bay ended a streak of 11 home runs with a runner on base. Kevin Youkilis added the other RBI on a sacrifice fly.
After Slowey got Nick Green to fly out to start the 3rd inning, Ellsbury and Pedroia had back-t0-back singles. A walk to J.D. Drew loaded the bases up for Youk, who brought home Ellsbury with a sacrifice flyto put the Red Sox out front 1-0.
The Twins took the lead for good in the bottom half of the inning.
Denard Span singled and stole second with Joe Mauer at the plate. He ended up at third when George Kottaras’ throw ended up in the oufield and he came around to score on Mauer’s sac fly to tie it up at 1. Back-to-back doubles by Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel made it 2-1 Twins. Matsuzaka got the second out when he struck out Michael Cuddyer but Brendan Harris followed with a single to score Kubel, making it 3-1.
Bay got the Red Sox to within a run when he led off the 6th with a solo blast but that was it as far as scoring for the Red Sox.
Delcarmen retired Nick Punto to start the bottom of the 6th and then gave up back-to-back singles to Span and Mauer. He was able to strikeout Morneau but with Kubel at the plate, he uncorked a wild pitch to move the runners up 90 feet. The Red Sox decided to intentionally walk Kubel and Masterson came in to replace Manny D. Masterson had 2 strikes out Cuddyer but ended up hitting him with a pitch to force in the final of the run of the night that gave the Twins a 4-2 lead.
Another tough night on the Red Sox. The starting pitching needs a kick in the butt to get going as it was one bad inning that failed them again.
Josh Beckett will look to help the Red Sox to a split of the 4-game set on Thursday afternoon. He’ll be opposed by rookie Anthony Swarzak in the game that starts at 1:10 PM.
