Red Sox 07 Game 103 Recap

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Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	4	0		7	7	0
Tampa	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	7	0

W: T. Wakefield (12-9) L: J. Hammel (1-1)
HR ⇛ Bos: K. Youkilis(10)

☼ The Sun - Youkilis - his three run home run ignited the fire
☁ The Cloud - Tampa Bullpen - they poured the gas on the fire

Idle thoughts!

Once again Mr. Wakefield was outstanding in the Trop. That is eight wins at Tropicana Field, seven as a starter against no losses. Six inning of one run pitching will win you a lot of games and last night it won the number twelve (season) and number 163 of his career. Good for Tim!

For a while it looked like the Sox would be in trouble as Hammel retired the first fourteen batters sent to the plate by the Sox. Fortunately, David Ortiz broke up the perfect game by singling with two outs in the fourth. With the perfect game Hammel seemed to settle down and in the fifth retired Drew, Lowell and Crisp on six pitches. Hammel had thrown @75 pitches in the first five innings and was looking to get through the sixth or @90 pitches in his second start of the year.

Meanwhile, Wakefield was matching Hammel pitch for pitch with his only blemish being a single run in the second. After retiring Young and Harris, Ty Wigginton singled to left, a walk to Gomes moved Wiggington to second and Navarro single him home on a 3-1 pitch, but he was able to entice Crawford to ground out to Cora at second to end the inning.

So, the Sox entered the sixth inning down by one run and only one batter had reached base (the afore mentioned Ortiz's single). Mirabelli started the sixth with a three pitch strike out and was quickly followed by Cora drawing a four pitch walk. Lugo worked the count by taking the first two pitches for a one ball, one strike count, fouled off the third, took ball two while Cora stole second, which seemed to distract Hammel who delivered two more balls. This is where Maddon went to the bullpen as he brought in J. Salas to face K. Youkilis.

On the two - one count Kevin deposited the ball into the left field stands. The Rays were lucky that those were the only runs in the inning as Salas struck out Ortiz, allowed a double to Manny, walked Drew and walked Lowell to load the bases, but Casey Fossum came in and got a sharp hit line drive to right field that Delmon Young was able to grab for the third out of the inning.

Wakefield, once given the lead did what good pitchers do, he shut down the offense in the bottom of the sixth only allowing a two out walk on a eight pitch at bat by Wigginton. After 104 pitches his night was done once again giving his team a chance to win the game and in line for his twelfth win of the year.

Neither team was able to generate anything in the seventh as Fossum set down the Sox in order on ten pitches and Delcarmen was able to retire the Rays on seven pitches. Still a tight game, but with Okajima and Papel-bot waiting in the pen, you had to feel like this game was well in hand. The Sox though decided not leave it to the one-two bull pen punch.

Fossum looked like he was going to keep on retiring the Sox as he retired Youkilis on three pitches and was facing Ortiz, but David worked a check swing 3-2 walk and Maddon again went to the bull pen. Bringing in the right handed Camp to face Manny. Manny made them pay by lining the second pitch to right field with Ortiz running hard all the way to third.

With a runner on third with one out, Drew slapped the fourth pitch to right scoring Ortiz. Lowell hit an infield fly to second bringing up Coco Crisp. On the three - zero pitch, Crisp hit a line drive to left that Crawford dove and got his glove on the ball, but upon hitting the ground the ball popped out of the pocket and started rolling towards the foul line. This allowed Manny and Drew to score and Crisp was able to reach second. Mirabelli then finished the scoring in this game by singling in Crisp.

Delcarmen pitched an uneventful eighth, allowing only a lead off single and Snyder pitched a similar ninth. Ball game over and with the Yankees losing in Baltimore the Sox lead in the American League east crept back up to eight.

Lugo watch - 0 for 4 - average at .222
Coco watch - 1 for 4 - average at .282
Drew watch - 1 for 3 - average at .247

Lester will go for the Sox in game two, tonight!

♊ - When all else fails get a bigger hammer!