In what looked to escalate quickly into a possible disaster in the first inning turned into a 2-1 nail biter in favor of the Home Town Team at PETCO Park in San Diego on Friday night. The Sox behind the grittiness of Daisuke Matsuzaka, a stellar bullpen and a 3 for 4 night from Coco Crisp came away with their 3rd win in four tries on the 9 game road trip.
Crisp lead off the game with a base hit to center and stole second, then went to third on sacrifice by Dustin Pedroia. He would die there and the Sox would squander a great opportunity. Then disaster nearly struck.
The bottom of the first saw some wildness from Matsuzaka as he walked the first two Padres and threw a wild pitch in there as well. That brought out pitching coach John Farrell for a conference. Matsuzaka then walked Adrian Gonzalez to load the bases with no one out. Mike Cameron fouled out to Pedroia but newly acquired Michael Barrett followed with a RBI single to center to score Marcus Giles from third and keep the bases loaded. Khalil Greene took strike three looking on a fastball for the second out and Russell Branyan then hit a towering fly out to Wily Mo Pena in right field to end the threat with only one run coming across. Disaster averted.
Padres starter Greg Maddux, 2nd on the active list in wins with 339, was cruising with a pair of 1-2-3 frames in the second and third. After the lead off single by Crisp to start the game he had retired 9 Sox batters-in-a-row.
On the other side of the bump Matsuzaka seemed to settle in as well.
Since Barrett’s RBI single in the first inning, he retired the next 7-in-a-row including four on strike outs before he issued his 4th walk of the game to Mike Cameron with two outs in the third. Barrett was able to strike again with another single to left, moving Cameron to second. Greene then flew out to Coco in center to end any semblance of another Padre up rising, but with it Matsuzaka was now at 73 pitches through just 3 innings.
The Sox broke out in the fourth inning against Maddux getting a pair of runs on four singles to take a 2-1 lead. Pedroia lead off with a single to right, after a David Ortiz fly out to left Manny Ramirez would single to center. Kevin Youkilis would follow with a single to center to score Pedroia and tie the game at 1-1 but Jason Varitek would send Matsuzaka back out to the mound with a lead with a RBI single to center to score Ramirez. Maddux would then get a fielder’s choice by Pena and a strike out of Julio Lugo to end the inning.
They say it’s important to hold the other team off the scoreboard the at bat after you score. Well the Sox and Daisuke were able to do that getting a 1-2-3 inning that featured Matsuzaka’s 5th and 6th strikeouts of the night against Branyan and Maddux.
Maddux started the fifth by getting Matsuzaka on a ground out to start the inning and Crisp followed with a one single but got caught stealing second by Barrett then Pedroia lined out to end the end the inning.
The Pad’s threatened in the fifth. Giles struck out to start the inning, Cruz Jr. singled and stole second and Gonzalez popped out to Pedroia. Matsuzaka then issued his 5th walk this one to Cameron but Barrett’s ball that was ticketed for center field and a tie game was intercepted by Pedroia with a running, leaping catch behind the bag to douse the flames.
Both teams tried to do some additional damage in the 6th. Boston got a one out double by Ramirez and a two out intentional walk to Varitek but Pena grounded into a fielder’s choice to Kevin Kouzmanoff at third to kill that rally. San Diego had a lead off single by Greene but Matsuzaka whiffed Branyan, got a fielder’s choice out of Kouzmanoff to Youkilis at third for the second out. Chase Headley pinch hit for Maddux and got an infield single but Giles K’d for the third time on the night and that was that.
The Sox tried again in the seventh but all they could muster was the third hit of the game by Coco, who now is officially “EN FUEGO”. The Padres as well could only muster a single to left by Gonzalez off of Javier Lopez. Manny Del Carmen then came in and got the last two outs of the inning against the clean up hitter Cameron and the five hole guy Barrett who seemed to always have a chance to do damage tonight.
In the 8th Hideki Okajima came in and dropped yet another 1-2-3 inning into the book with a pair of strikeouts of Greene and Kouzmanoff.
Lefty Royce Ring, who was recalled Friday from Triple A, pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th striking out the side of Varitek, newly recalled David Murphy and Lugo.
Jonathan Papelbon came on in the ninth and preserved the 2-1 win for Matsuzaka and the Sox allowing only a two out single to Cruz Jr. Paps was able to shut the door on the win when he closed out Gonzalez with his second strike out of the inning for the final out of his 17th save.
Records and streaks are meant to be broken but at some point they have to come to an end. I am pretty sure that this wasn’t the way Miguel Tejada wanted his consecutive games played streak to end.
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Major League Baseball that is. Just a few days after the Yankees announced the signing of two players from China, the Mariners have done the same thing.
Since I am all about press releases right now it seems, Bud Selig has issued a statement about Jason Giambi and the comments he made about his performance enhancing drug usage. Giambi does intend to cooperate and will only speak about his usage.