Manny Ramirez drove in 3 runs on 2 hits, including his 2nd homer in as many days, as the Red Sox went on to sweep Barry Bonds’ Giants team by the score of 9-5. The Sox bullpen was pretty good not giving up any runs in 3 2/3 innings as they held the lead for Tim Wakefield’s 7th win of the season.
Dave Roberts led off the first inning again for the Giants and received his third hero’s welcome in 3 days. This time he didn’t get on base as he flew out to Manny in left. Wake then got Randy Winn and Ray Durham to ground out to end the inning.
Matt Morris, considered by many to be the ace of the Giants staff, had rough first inning and day overall. J.D. Drew led off the inning with a double to centerfield and Dustin Pedroia reached when he was hit in the lower back by a Morris fastball. Big Papi drew a walk to load up the bases for Manny. Manny got a run home as he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play with Pedroia advancing to third. Kevin Youkilis brought home Pedroia with a single giving the Sox a 2-0 lead. Mike Lowell flew out to close out the inning.
Wake allowed a single to Bonds in the second inning but that’s all the Giants could muster. His counterpart meanwhile struck out the three Sox batters he faced.
The Giants managed to get both runs back in their half of the third inning. Nate Schierholtz led off with a cueball shot that stayed fair down the third base line. He came around to score on a Omar Vizquel double to the gap in center. With Wake not paying much attention to him, Vizquel stole third while Roberts was at the plate. Roberts struck out looking but Winn hit a ball to pretty much the same spot as Vizquel, scoring Vizquel and tying the game at 2. Bonds ended the threat by flying to Wily Mo Peña in center.
Not to be outdone, the Sox broke the game open with 5 runs of their own in their half of the 3rd.
Drew led off the inning with a walk and went to second on a Pedroia infield single. Big Papi brought in the first run of the inning with a ground rule double to right. Pedroia, who had scored as well, had to return to third because of the ground rule double. Manny brought right back to the plate though with a groundout to second. Big Papi moved over to third as well. Youk brought Papi home with a single for his 2nd RBI of the day. Lowell then crushed a double that scored Youk all the way from first to put the Sox up 6-2. Wily Mo lined out but Doug Mirabelli brought Lowell home with a single, making it 7-2 Red Sox. Lugo, mired in a deep slump, ended the inning by grounding out to Vizquel.
With out 2 outs in the 4th, Pedro Feliz crushed a Wakefield offering over the Green Monster to get the Giants back within 4 runs. The Sox got that run back in their half of the 4th inning on back-to-back doubles by Big Papi and Manny.
Morris was pulled after 4 innings and his numbers weren’t all that good. He went 4 innings, giving up 9 hits, 8 runs, walked 2 and struck out 3 on 92 pitches.
Bonds finally went deep against the Red Sox and his former Pirates teammate Wakefield in the 6th inning. His 748th homer cut the Sox lead to 8-4. After Bengie Molina grounded out, Ryan Klesko worked a walk. Klesko was retired at second base when Feliz grounded into a fielder’s choice. Schierholtz chased Wake from the game with a triple that scored Feliz, cutting the lead to 8-5. Manny Delcarmen, just up from Pawtucket for an injured Brendan Donnelly, came in and got Vizquel to ground out.
Delcarmen had a rough 7th inning though as he walked Roberts and Winn to lead off the inning. He did get Durham to ground out to Youk at first but both runners advanced a base. This left Terry Francona with a huge decision to make. To pitch to Bonds or not. He decided to bring Javier Lopez to pitch to him. Lopez ended up walking Bonds on four pitches to load up the bases. Joel Piñero came in for Lopez and needed only one pitch to get Molina to ground into an inning ending double play.
Manny decided a 3 run lead wasn’t safe enough for the Red Sox. After Jonathan Sanchez got Big Papi to strikeout, Manny crushed one into the Monster seats, giving the Sox a 9-5 lead. A lead that would hold up until the end of the game.
Piñero had an easy 8th inning but Vizquel led off the 9th with a single to chase him. Hideki “Darkman” Okajima came in and got all three batters he faced to give the Sox their third victory in a row.
With the win, the Sox will have no worse than an 8 1/2 game lead in the AL East, as the Yanks play the Mets tonight at 8 PM.
The Sox now head out on a 3 city, 9 game, 11 10 day road trip to Atlanta, San Diego and Seattle. Curt Schilling takes the hill for the Sox tomorrow night. Let’s hope this road trip is a good one.
Notes and Musings:
Rem Dawg started out the telecast calling Don Orsillo “Captain Stubing” because Don had his light blue jacket on.
Kathryn “Steve wants to” Tappen pinch-hit for Tina Cervasio today.
Bonds came into the game 0 for 8 against Wakefield.
28th multi-hit game of the season for Youk.
Rem Dawg and Orsillo spent the last part of the 5th inning talking about Remy dying his hair and mustache.
Bonds homerun was the 748th of his career. He is now 7 away from tying Hank Aaron and 8 from passing him.
Bonds now hasn’t hit homeruns against Cleveland and Tampa Bay in his career. He has homered in 36 ballparks and has homeruns off of 441 different pitchers.
Manny is now 268 homeruns behind Barry Bonds at 480. He is now tied with Jim Thome for 25th all-time. He also now has 1,555 RBI, tying him with Wille McCovey for 36th all-time.
Hideki “Darkman” Okajima was supposed to have the day off.
