The Red Sox came out in the rubber match of the three-game series with Toronto ready to jump on the Jays. After the Blue Jays scored a run in the top of the first, the Sox piled on six in the bottom of the inning, helped out by Edwin Encarnacion's error on a bases-loaded ground ball. The Sox put on another in the second and two more in the fourth to answer Jose Bautista's 25th home run of the season for Toronto. Then in the fifth, David Ortiz sent the crowd to their feet with a home run over the Boston bullpen for a 10-3 lead, his 21st of the season and 399th of his career. The rest of the game was mostly uneventful, with Encarnacion atoning for his error with a bomb. Then came the ninth, where Darnell McDonald would atone for his error. McDonald made a fantastic leaping catch at the bullpen fence in right to rob a home run, prompting a cheer from his pitcher, Clayton Mortensen.
But that is when the game really got started. After an RBI single by Ryan Kalish, another single loaded up the bases for David Ortiz. Ortiz crushed his 396th career home run, and 18th of the year, down the right field line for a grand slam and an 11-4 advantage. But that's not all. Two batters later, Jarrod Saltalamacchia drilled a homer to dead center field for a 12-4 lead. Things quieted down after that, with just a Boston run on a wild pitch and a John Buck blast for Miami. That is, until the eighth inning, when Will Middlebrooks, a late-game sub for Kevin Youkilis, jumped on the homer bandwagon with a two-run shot of his own. Final score: Boston 15, Miami 5. Felix Doubront wasn't great, but pitched well enough to earn his eighth win of the season, tying Clay Buchholz for the club lead. And if we're talking about leads, can we please talk about Papi?
The Red Sox came back out last night to face off against the Miami Marlins at Fenway Park, Boston. Logan Morrison started off Clay Buchholz's night with a two-run home run for the Fish, but David Ortiz got it right back in the bottom of the first with a two-run laser of his own. Then in the second Kelly Shoppach lined one over the Green Monster for a 4-2 Boston lead, and after another Morrison RBI, Cody Ross nailed a bomb to the Monster seats in his return from the DL to make it 5-3. But the Marlins weren't finished yet. In the fifth, Morrison came right back with a two-run double to tie it up at five; he had all 5 Miami RBIs. I was happy that the Boston offense had done so much in the game and were starting to heat up. In the bottom of the fifth, Adrian Gonzalez put the Sox up for good with a sacrifice fly, then Will Middlebrooks tacked on another with a long double. Buchholz exited after six innings, giving up 9 hits and five runs. However, Matt Albers, Andrew Miller, Vincente Padilla and Alfredo Aceves were all able to throw shutout ball in relief, and Buchholz earned his ninth win of the season.
Felix Doubront came out to take the mound for the Red Sox last night against Ricky Nolasco. The Sox had just bounced back from a four-game losing skid to win a 2-1 contest, and they were ready for more. This game was Boston all the way. In the third, Scott Posednik drilled an RBI groundout, then David Ortiz tacked on another run with a long home run to left. They added two more in the sixth for a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Felix Doubront did not allow a hit over his first five innings before giving up a home run to Jose Reyes in the sixth, and left after seven innings with a 4-2 lead. Doubront had his strongest outing of the season, giving up just three hits, two runs, and striking out nine men. In fact, he struck out the side twice during the contest. In the eighth, with the score still 4-2, the Boston offense erupted for six runs and the game turned into a 10-2 laugher. That was the final score, with Vincente Padilla, Andrew Miller, and Matt Albers combining to shut out the Marlins over the final two innings. The Sox are now tied with Toronto at the bottom of the AL East, and I think they have a chance at coming back over the next month or so. The top four batters in their order combined to go 9-17 with 7 RBI in the triumph, which I think is a good sign for the future.
Clay Buchholz came out on the mound last night to face the Miami Marlins, with the Red Sox sliding at a 4-game losing streak. In fact, the last time they won was when Buchholz threw a complete-game four-hit shutout. Last night, he escaped the first inning unscathed despite Jose Reyes's second leadoff triple in as many nights, and the game continued scoreless until the seventh, with Marlins starter Mark Buehrle matching Buchholz through six. However, Kelly Shoppach drove an RBI double for a 1-0 Sox lead, then Mike Aviles knocked him in with a single for a 2-0 advantage. I had a feeling that Boston was going to win once they scored those two, as Buchholz had been pitching so well. In the bottom of the seventh, Buchholz gave up a solo home run to Logan Morrison, but finished the inning with a 2-1 lead. Vincente Padilla struck out two in the eighth, then Alfredo Aceves notched his 15th save of the year with a scoreless ninth inning. This game was Buchholz's third straight win and his fourth consecutive strong performance.
The Red Sox continued their losing skid last night in Miami, taking the loss 4-1 against the Marlins. Former Fish Josh Beckett started for Boston, but he gave up four early runs against Miami. Jose Reyes started off the night for the Marlins with a long triple to right-center field, and Miami went on to score three in the inning, as well as another in the second. Meanwhile, Josh Johnson hurled seven impressive innings, giving up just 4 hits and a run while striking out seven, and Heath Bell was able to shut out Boston. I knew that once the Sox had given up the four easy ones, they were not going to come back against JJ, one of the premier pitchers in the National League. And the only bright spot for Boston was a sacrifice fly for Adrian Gonzalez. While it is nice to see A-Gone finally producing for Boston, he needs to start hitting in the clutch, as does the rest of the team. Boston was 0-4 with runners in scoring position, and that contributed to their loss. Boston's fourth straight loss sent them to 6.5 games back of the Yankees and Rays, at 29-32.
After the Boston Red Sox suffered two losses at the hand of the Baltimore Orioles to fall back to .500, Clay Buchholz came out onto the hill for the final game of the series. Buchholz had thrown eight innings of two-run ball in a win his last time out, and seemed strong going into the game. Adrian Gonzalez and Daniel Nava both gave two RBI to Buchholz, and the Sox had a 6-0 lead after three. But Clay wasn't finished. He kept pitching well and by the time the ninth inning was over, he had completed what he started in a four-hit shutout. I couldn't believe that Buchholz had pitched dominantly in two starts in a row after the terrible start to his season. Unfortunately for Boston, the Washington Nationals rolled into town next, and their series began with phenom Stephen Strasburg outdueling Felix Doubront 7-4.
After the Red Sox lost two games out of three to the Tampa Bay Rays in Boston, the Detroit Tigers came to town for a four-game set. The Red Sox won the first three to advance to two games over .500, then lost the final game of the set. David Ortiz continues to hit the living daylights out of the ball for Boston, and the Sox looked like a good team for the first time this season as they rolled into Toronto. Bobby Valentine put Daniel Nava in the 2-spot for last night's match against the Blue Jays, and the youngster made him look like a genius. Nava, Adrian Gonzalez, and Ortiz, the 2-3-4 punch, combined to go 9-13 with 5 RBI and 5 runs in a 7-2 thrashing. Clay Buchholz had the start for Boston, and I thought before the game that he had to have a good game here. After all, his 4-2 record heading into Toronto belied the highest ERA out of starters on the team, his 7.19 mark. But he was able to throw 8 solid innings of 6-hit, 2-run baseball while striking out seven in the contest. Today the Sox go again with the Jays, with Felix Doubront going for Boston.
