Kevin Youkilis hit the third home run of the night for the Boston Red Sox, a 2-run shot in the 7th, to put the Boston Red Sox in the lead for good as they went on to beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 in front of 44,091 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Friday night.
Aubrey Huff had put the O’s out front 5-4 in the 6th with a 2-run homer off Smoltz before Youk’s heroics.
After Nick Green grounded out to start the 7th against Jeremy Guthrie, Jacoby Ellsbury singled. Guthrie then struck out Dustin Pedroia before leaving a pitch out over the plate. Youk took advantage of it and put it into left field seats.
The bullpen made the lead hold up over the final 3 innings to give the Red Sox their 60th win of the season. The win coupled with a loss by the New York Yankees puts the local nine 1.5 games out of first in the AL East. Their lead in the wild card standings stays at 1.5 games over the Texas Rangers.
John Smoltz may have gotten the win Friday night but he was far from perfect as he gave up at least 5 runs in his third straight outing. Three of the runs can be attributed to a Green throwing error but he’s still making mistakes out over the plate. He did give the Red Sox 6 innings, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 2.
Ramon Ramirez allowed a hit in an inning while Hideki Okajima walked 2 and struck out 1 in his inning of work. Jonathan Papelbon skipped the dramatics by striking out 2 in a perfect 9th for his 27th save of the season.
Jeremy Guthrie started for the Orioles and went 6 2/3 innings. He allowed 6 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4. Matt Albers and Cla Meredith kept the Red Sox off the scoreboard. Albers did give up 2 hits.
Ellsbury continues to swing a hot stick as he had 3 hits, including a solo home run. He also added his 47th stolen base of the season and robbed Luke Scott of a home run. Youk also had 3 hits on the evening which included the 2-run homer. David Ortiz homered for the second straight night as he also had a 2-run homer and added a single to the cause. Nick Green drove in the other run on a sacrifice fly.
These two teams are back at it again on Saturday night as Josh Beckett and David Hernandez will square off on the bump. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.
