Red Sox 2008 Game 93 Recap

Final

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Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Minnesota	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	1	0		5	11	0
Boston	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	x		6	11	1

W: D. Aardsma (3-2) L: M. Guerrier (4-4) S: J. Papelbon (27)
HR ➢ Bos: M. Ramirez (17)

✫     - M. Ramirez - His home run in the eighth tied the game.
✫✫   - J. D. Drew - two rbi's the second one getting them close in the eighth
✫✫✫ - Moss - A game winning rbi, his second of the night.
Just in case it escaped you, all six runs were knocked in by these three players, thus the star's.

⋔ Fork - Lester - 7 1/3 innings but five earned runs ouch.

Game thoughts!

Another one run game, and another win for the Sox. As bad as this team has been on the road in these close games, they have been spectacular at home in these situations. Overall they are now 13 - 16 in 1 run games. 2-14 on the road, 11-2 at home.

The Sox started off well as they scored in the first thanks to an Ellsbury single and a J.D. Drew double to left field. It especially felt good since the Twins had stranded two runners, thanks to two walks issued by Lester, in the top of the inning. Both pitchers settled down though as they both had 1-2-3 innings until the top of the 4th.

The Twins finally broke through as they got three straight hits off of Lester after two outs. The big blow was triple to right field by Harris which scored two runs and was followed by a single by Punto. All of a sudden the Sox went from being in control to being behind and Blackburn responded by having a 1-2-3 inning for the third time in a row.

Lester continued to struggle though as he allowed two more batters to reach in the sixth inning. Thankfully the Sox were able to retire the side without any runs scoring when Mauer hit into a double play to end the inning.

Blackburn was still dealing. To recap he had a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th innings and only allowed a Youkilis single in the 5th and a Pedroia single in the 6th before finally allowing the Sox to score again in the 7th after a Youkilis triple with one out followed by Moss's sacrifice fly.

The Sox were finally back within two runs only to have Lester and Aardsma give up the Twins fifth run of the night. I was ready to chew bricks and throw them at the television but the best part of the game was still to come.

After Ellsbury doubled down the left field line to start the eighth inning Pedroia then singled to center and Drew got his second rbi of the night on a ball that Morneau barely got some leather on which allowed the second baseman to throw out Drew. One inch to the left and I think that ball goes through to right field but that is why it is a game of inches.

Manny followed up Drew's at bat by crushing a ball to left center field and just like that the game was tied at five. Fenway park went nuts, the vibrations in the park even made the center field camera shake. At this point you had to feel like the game was going to be won by the Sox.

The only question was which inning would see the winning run pushed across for the Sox lead. One out later, Youkilis and Moss answered the question as Youkilis doubled to center and after a wild pitch moved him to third, Moss singled up the middle.

Papelbon was warming up in the pen and even after he allowed a lead off double I was sure that he would get the save. Sure enough, he did by getting a strike out and a ground out for the last two outs. The water was dirty!

Factoid - The Red Sox improved to 33-10 at Fenway this season.

♊ - Then don't strain your brain trying. Might break something.