On a night when you have Daisuke Matsuzaka on the mound, you thought hopefully he doesn’t have that one bad inning. Well he did have that bad inning again. But his teammates picked him up, including Manny Ramirez, whose second home run of the game won it for the Red Sox by a final score of 8-7.
Dice-K really had no command in the first inning and it was evident by walks to the first three batters (Ichiro, Beltre, Vidro). He then got Raul Ibanez to ground into a fielder’s choice that scored Ichiro. He then hit Richie Sexson to load the bases back up. Jose Guillen followed with a two-run double which scored Vidro and Ibanez. The next batter, Kenji Johjima, reached base on a throwing error by Julio Lugo which allowed Sexson to score. Yuniesky Betancourt then reached base on an infield single that scored Guillen, making the score 5-0 before the Red Sox had even been to the plate. All in all, they scored five runs on just two hits and one error.
The Sox mounted their own five run inning in the bottom half of the second inning. Youk started it off for a walk and advanced to third base on a Mike Lowell single. The Captain, Jason Varitek, hit a single that scored Youk. Wily Mo Peña, who was 4 for 4 in the game, hit a single to load the bases up for Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia drew a walk that scored Lowell. Lugo then proceeded to hit a ground rule double that scored Varitek and Peña. Now only trailing by a run, Coco Crisp popped out to shortstop for the first out of the inning. With the chants of Big Papi going in the stands, he came up and hit a single that scored Pedroia tieing the game up at 5. Manny ended the inning by grounding into a double play.
Dice-K settled down a little bit by this point, retiring 9 of 10 batters he faced in the second through fourth innings.
Manny gave the Sox their first lead of the game when he hit a shot through the wind that was blowing in from left to give them a 7-5 lead.
Dice-K then ran into trouble again in the 5th inning. He got Vidro to fly out but then walked Ibanez and allowed a single to Sexson. Guillen then followed up with a run scoring single to make it 7-6 Sox. Dice-K got his fellow countryman, Johjima, to ground out to Youk at first base but it allowed the runners to move up. Betancourt hit an infield single that scored Sexson, knotting the score at 7.
At this point, the game was in the bullpen’s hands for both teams. Both of them responded very well. Unfortunately for the Mariners, their only blemish from the bullpen came when Chris Reitsma served one up to Manny that landed in the right field seats giving the Sox the lead.
Now you would think we would see Jonathan Papelbon come in and close the game out but no. Francona left Brendan Donnelly in and then brought J.C. Romero in to finish the game. After the game, Francona said Papelbon was ready but in his [Francona’s] eyes, Papelbon needed another day off.
You have to wonder if the pressure is getting to Dice-K or if he is just trying to do to much. It’s disappointing from a fan’s standpoint to see him have that one bad inning each night. Hopefully, he can work out the kinks with pitching coach John Farrell and pitch well when he faces Toronto next week.
Notes: Manny’s two home runs now gives him 475 in his illustrious career.
Jon Lester had to leave his start last night in Pawtucket after 3 innings with forearm tightness. He was taken out of the game for precautionary measures. He said after the game that it was merely a cramp in his forearm. He was back in Boston today to get his forearm examined and 
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White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says 
Josh Beckett was solid once again for the Red Sox on Wednesday night as the Red Sox went on to defeat the Oakland A’s 6-4. Beckett went seven innings, allowing six hits and three runs while walking two and striking out seven. Beckett is the first Red Sox pitcher to go 6-0 since Roger Clemens did it in 1991.
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