Julio Lugo broke a serious slump with a pair of hits and two RBI and Jason Varitek also drove in two runs as the Red Sox behind 8 shut out innings from Daisuke Matsuzaka sunk the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 4-1 at Fenway Park. Matsuzaka was impressive once again picking up his 10th win of the year while only allowing 4 hits, 1 walk and 9 K’s and looks like a serious All-Star game snub. He will go for win #11 on Sunday in Detroit.
In what started like it might be a pitcher’s duel in the Fens between Matsuzaka and Scott Kazmir (5-5 4.28 ERA), turned ugly for the Tampa ace in the second inning.
After a quick 1-2-3 first for Kazmir he got a Kason of the Gabbard’s and walked the bases loaded to start the second. Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell were all issued free passes. Jason Varitek then hit a sure fire double play ball to second baseman Ty Wiggington who booted it and was only able to get the out at first allowing Ramirez to score and give the Sox a 1-0 lead. With runners at 2nd and 3rd Wily Mo Pena would then strike out. This would bring up Julio Lugo starring at a 0 for 33 streak and it looked as if Kazmir might escape with only one run being run allowed. But with the cheers of pink hats raining down upon him Lugo, who hadn’t had a base hit since June 14th, would drive one up the middle and give the Sox a 3-0 lead. Lugo would smile, the pink hats roared their approval and the Hallelujah Choir sang. JUL-IO LUGO, JUL-IO LUGO, HALLELUJAH, JULIO LUGO, HALL-E-LU-JAH!!!!!!!
On the other side Matsuzaka (10-5 3.53 ERA) would cruise through the first three innings allowing only two out singles in the first to Brendan Harris and in the second to Delmon Young. He also had one strike out in each inning and the Rays went 1-2-3 in the third.
In the home half of the third it looked as if the Sox might get Kazmir on the ropes again as Dustin Pedroia led off with a single but was quickly erased when David Ortiz grounded into a double play and then Ramirez ended the inning with a ground out.
Matsuzaka was doing his part after a 1-2-3 4th inning in which he had the last two outs on whiffs of Brendan Harris and Greg Norton he had set down seven Tampa hitters in-a-row and had retired 12 of the first
14 hitters.
Kazmir looked to have settled down after the rough first inning. He got two quick outs in the 4th striking out Youkilis and getting Lowell to fly to right. Varitek followed with an excuse me single to right and Pena would go down hacking for the second time on the night to end the frame.
Daisuke started the fifth with his sixth K of the evening, this time getting Wiggington, he would snap is streak of 8 retired in-a-row when he hit Young with a pitch. Matsuzaka would come back to strike out Jonny Gomes and with Dioner Navarro at the plate Varitek would throw out Young trying to steal second to end the inning.
Kazmir started the fifth at 80 pitches and would strike out Lugo, then give up a double down the left field line to Coco Crisp but the Sox would strand him as Pedroia and Ortiz would each ground out.
Matsuzaka would start and end the sixth would a pair of fine defensive plays. First he made a nice stab on a high bouncer and threw out Navarro. Akinori Iwamura who had struck out his first two times at bat would hit the ball off the wall and was nearly thrown out at second by Crisp but Pedroia couldn’t hold the ball after making a quick sweep tag. Carl Crawford would line out to Youkilis and then Harris would line out softly to Matsuzaka to end the threat.
In the sixth the Sox would add a run to their lead when with one out Youkilis would single to left off of Iwamura’s glove. Lowell would get an infield hit to third and then the runners would move up a base when Iwamura threw the ball into the photographer’s well. Varitek would then hit a sac fly to right to score Youk for his 2nd RBI of the night and Pena would go down swinging for the third time on the night. At this time I could smell a “Golden Sombrero”.
The seventh would see Matsuzaka walk his first batter, issuing a lead off free pass to Carlos Pena. But Norton, who struck out his first two times, would hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing and Wiggington would ground out to Lugo and the Rays were done.
Lugo would greet Jason Hammel with his second hit of the night (quick someone check to see if the space aliens are landing) and then get promptly picked off when he started to steal and then just changed his mind and couldn’t get back to first. Hammel would issue back-to-back walks to Crisp and Pedroia, then get back-to-back strikeouts of Ortiz and Ramirez to end the inning.
Matsuzaka would start the 8th striking out Young, Gomes singled on a two strike pitch and stole second. Navarro would fly out to center moving Gomes to third but the Rays would leave him there when Iwamura would whiff for his third time on the night and Matsuzaka’s 9th K of the game and his final out. He would head off to a standing ovation.
Shawn Camp would pitch the 8th for the Rays. After getting Youkilis to ground out and striking out Lowell, Varitek would walk giving Pena his shot at the Golden Sombrero. After being up in the count Wily Mo would not disappoint as he ended up whiffing for the fourth time in four plate appearances on the night.
After throwing 122 pitches that was the end of Matsuzaka, so Jonathan Papelbon came on in a non-save situation to pitch the ninth. Paps blew threw the first two Tampa batters whiffing Crawford and getting Harris to fly to Crisp. But Boston native Pena would break up the shut out with his 19th HR of the year down the right field line cutting the lead to 4-1. Papelbon came right back and closed out the Rays when he got Norton to pop out to Lowell to end the game.
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Curt Schilling took the 
The bats finally woke up as the Red Sox got some timely hitting from Dustin Pedroia and Eric Hinske in a 7-3 win over Texas. The win gave the Sox a split of this series. They finish up with a 6-4 record against the Rangers. Kason Gabbard, in his third start this season, pitched a lot better than he did against the Mariners and was good enough for the win. The bullpen was excellent again going 3 â…“ scoreless innings.
The local nine got on the board with 3 runs in their half of the 3rd inning. Hinske led off the inning with a single. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a chopper over McCarthy’s head that he easily beat out with his speed. With the struggling Lugo at the plate, Terry Francona decided a sacrifice bunt was in order. Lugo executed this to perfection as he moved Hinske and Ellsbury up a base. Both of them would come around to score when Pedroia hit a high fastball from McCarthy deep into right field, giving the Sox a 2-0 lead. Pedroia moved over to third on a Big Papi ground out and came around to score when Manny hit a double to deep centerfield. Manny’s double just missed being a homerun by about 3 feet. Pedroia’s run made it 3-0 Boys from Beantown. J.D. Drew then worked the first of his three walks on the night but Mike Lowell flew out to right ending the inning.
The home half of the 4th inning was the Ellsbury speed clinic. After Varitek and Hinske made the first two outs of the inning, Ellsbury lined a hard single to right. It was his first hit out of the infield. With the crowd anticipating an Ellsbury steal, the Rangers were careful pitching to Lugo. On a 2-0 count, Ellsbury took off for second and was easily safe at second. McCarthy ended up walking Lugo and that ended his night. Willie Eyre came in for McCarthy and uncorked a wild pitch that got away from Gerald Laird. Ellsbury seeing how far the ball got away, turned on his jets and scored all the way from second base, giving the local nine a 4-0 lead. Lugo also went from first to third on the wild pitch as well. Pedroia lined out to first for the third out of the inning.
Throw Zach Frazer’s name into the QB mix for the 2008 season for the UCONN Huskies. Frazer 
We at Sox and Dawgs decided to start taking a look at some current players to see if they could gain election to Hall of Fame. In this series, we’re going to look at players who are currently active who have reasonable consideration to be a Hall nominee. This isn’t a science and you may have others on your list that we left off. There are some fine young players who are just starting their careers who may have Hall potential but for arguments sake these are for guys who have been around a bit or those few outstanding younger players who just jump off the page at you.
