Red Sox 07 Game 146 Recap

Final

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Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Tampa Bay	0	4	0	4	1	0	0	0	1		10	18	1
Boston	0	0	1	4	3	6	2	0	X		16	20	0

W: B. Corey (1-0) L: J. Switzer (0-1)
HR ➢ Bos: D. Ortiz (29), J. Ellsbury (3), D. Pedroia (7), J.D. Drew (8) TB: B. Harris (11), C. Pena (39)

☼ Sun - The Offense - Down 8-1 the sox came storming back to take the lead in the sixth.
☁ Cloud - Wakefield and Snyder - Tim was battered in his second start going for win #17 and Snyder gave up a three run homer to Pena making the score 8-1.

Game thoughts!

Where to start, should we start with the second consecutive lousy outing by Wakefield? How about the suckiness of Snyder? By the bottom half of the fourth the abysmal pitching had placed the Sox in a deep, deep 8-1 hole. With the spankees beating Toronto handily, this had the earmarks of being one very bad loss.

After the fourth though you quickly got caught up in an offensive explosion as the Sox scored 15, yes that is correct, 15 runs to take the lead. Our heroes were both familiar and unexpected.

The fourth inning started off with a single by Lowell, a check single by Drew and suddenly the Sox were in a position to score. After Youkilis flied out to right, Coco loaded the bases with another single. Lugo then plated one of the runners with a single to left and it was starting to look better for the team. The question was whether Kevin Cash, as in the Kevin Cash who was in a 0 for 12 hitting slump could help the cause.

Ka-ching, he came through by singling to right scoring both Drew and Coco. While that made the score 8 – 4 Rays, it also did something more significant. It caused the Rays to go to their bullpen. Things were really starting to look up. Ellsbury did his thing by drawing a walk and Pedroia finished off the scoring by hitting a sacrifice fly to center. 8 – 5 Rays after four.

Of course Snyder set up things by walking two batters with two outs in the fifth. Lopez though only allowed one of them to score, so the Sox were not as bad off as they could have been. 9 – 5 going to the home half of the inning.

Again the Sox started off with two singles by Lowell and Drew. A Youkilis walk loaded the bases for Coco. A sacrifice fly by Coco, a double by Lugo and a sacrifice fly by Cash brought the team back to a 9 – 8 deficit. That made the third straight inning in which the Sox had scored.

Finally, the Sox bullpen only faced three batters in an inning by getting an inning ending double play in the sixth. In relatively short order the Sox were back in the dugout ready to swing the bats. At this point it was not a matter of how but when would the home team either tie or take the lead.

As for the tie, well Pedroia handled that quickly as he led off the inning with a home run into the monster seats. Papi then did his part by singling to left. Lowell, for the third straight inning singled also bringing up the unexpected help of the night to the plate. In the first inning J.D. had watched a call third strike to end the first inning with runners on first and second base, which of course was nothing new this year from this particular player. Would he be able to keep his hot night going? Could he finally come through in the clutch? Those questions and more were going around in my head as he walked to the plate.

Those questions were answered in what felt like an eternal at bat. Starting with two balls J.D. took a strike, then a ball, then proceeded to foul off six straight pitches before drawing a bases loaded walk on a ball that was way up in the zone. Bases loaded, no outs and the score tied at nine for the only player who had not had a hit in this game, Kevin Youkilis. The second pitch ended that drought as he drove a pitch to deep center by the garage door clearing the bases on his triple. It was twelve to nine Sox and before the inning ended two more runs would score. Ten batters to the plate and a horrific loss now had the possibility of being a tremendous win.

With the outcome no longer in doubt, Drew and Ortiz added home runs in the seventh and Gagne pitched the ninth allowing one who cares run to score. A 16 – 10 win was in the books and the division lead was no longer in danger of becoming smaller. Magic number is now down to thirteen.

Player watch:

Lugo  2/5 .241
Crisp 2/4 .271
Drew 3/4 .259

♊ - Morbid and creepifing I can handle as long as we do it quiet like.