
In what started as a promising night and toward the end looked like a win for Curt Schilling turned into a bullpen disaster courtesy of Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima. The pair who are usually uber-reliable yielded the tying and go ahead homeruns in consecutive innings in a 6-4 Toronto win over Boston at Fenway Park.
But there were other failures for the Sox along the way as well, most notably leaving the bases loaded in the 7th and only getting one run with the bases loaded in the first and fifth.
The Red Sox jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning and I’ll give you one guess who was in the middle of it. Jacoby Ellsbury. He had a one out double down the line into left field off of Toronto starter Shawn Marcum, David Ortiz followed with a walk. Mike Lowell singled to center but because of how hard the ball was hit 3rd base coach DeMarlo Hale held Ellsbury at third to load the bases. JD Drew then hit the ball on screws but right at Jays second baseman Aaron Hill who had a little bobble on the ball and was only able to force Lowell at second allowing Ellsbury to score.
After that Marcum settled down and matched Boston starter Schilling pretty much over the next few innings. The Sox did have runners on in the second and third innings but a line drive turned into a twin killing in the second and Ortiz running into the third out in the third trying to stretch his single into a double ended any semblance of threats.
Meanwhile Schilling looked good through his first four innings. He gave up back-to-back singles to Frank Thomas and Troy Glaus to start the second but left them stranded. A lead off double by Alex Rios in the fourth looked like trouble but Rios helped Schilling out with a poor base running play and got trapped off of third base and caught in a run down for the second out of the inning. That effectively killed the Jays chances in the fourth.
The fifth though was a different story. A one out walk to Gregg Zaun looked harmless especially after it turned into two out and a runner on first. But Vernon Wells singled to center, Matt Stairs singled to left to score Zaun on a close relay at the plate by Lowell. Rios followed with his second hit a RBI single to right and it was 2-1 Toronto. Thomas’ second single of the night scored Stairs and it was 3-1 Jays, before Glaus flew out to a sliding Ellsbury to end the inning.
Boston got one back in the fifth when Jason Varitek walked for the second time and a bunt single by Coco Crisp put two on with no one out. Alex Cora failed to advance the runners and struck out, Julio Lugo singled to left and that loaded the bases for Ellsbury who hit a pitch off of his shoe tops to center for a sacrifice fly to cut the Toronto lead to 3-2. Ortiz then fouled out to Glaus along side the Blue Jay dugout and the Sox would have to settle for just the one run.
Brian Wolfe came on to pitch for Toronto in the sixth, he got the first two outs rather easily then he hit Youkilis on his right elbow. It was the 14th HBP for Youkilis this year. Varitek followed that up with a two run HR, his 13th, down the right field line inside the foul pole and the Red Sox reclaimed the lead 4-3. Just like that Marcum’s chance for a win was gone. Crisp hit a ball into the gap in left center, he was running all the way out of the box and beat the tag at second for a double. But he would end up being left there.
The Sox threatened in the seventh, facing Brandon League, Lugo led off with a walk. Scott Downs, who got Ellsbury to foul out to Glaus and then gave up a single to Ortiz, replaced League. John Gibbons went back to his bullpen for Casey Janssen who came in and wild pitched the runners to second and third, Lowell walked to fill the bases but Janssen came back to strike out Drew and Youkilis and escape the jam. Leaving the bases loaded with one out would comeback to haunt the Sox fairly quickly.
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