It's time for everyone to jump back on the Boston Red Sox' bandwagon.
They're still seven games behind the Yankees and five behind the Rays for the wild card but at least now, it looks like August and September will be competitive as they went 6-4 on their West Coast trip and wrapped it up with a nice 7-3 win and a sweep of the Angels yesterday afternoon in Anaheim.
Josh Beckett (2-1) was solid in his second start back from the DL. Beckett went seven innings, allowing three runs (all earned) on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
In a game that both Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon were promised a day off, Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings respectively.
Just before the series finale began, the Angels (52-52) found out starter Joel Pineiro was scratched with an oblique injury (which will keep him out 6-8 weeks). The Red Sox (58-44) caught a big break by facing five Angels relievers but for most of the contest, it didn't seem like they'd fully take advantage of that.
Adrian Beltre and Bill Hall hit solo homers in the second for the early 2-0 lead.
Bobby Wilson and Reggie Willits were both credited with RBI singles in the bottom of the second but they didn't deserve them since Boston fielders made mistakes on both plays. Jeremy Hermida, who is brutal in the field, hesitated on Wilson's liner to left and Hall lost Willits' pop-up in the sun.
Maicer Izturis hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to give Los Angeles a momentary 3-2 lead but Kevin Youkilis tied it up with a solo homer in the seventh.
Finally, Marco Scutaro (3 hits, 2 walks, career-high five times on base) came through with one of the biggest plays of the season: he hit a grand slam off Fernando Rodney with no outs in the top of the eighth.
Eric Patterson (3 hits, run) also had a good game hitting out of the ninth spot.
Boston comes home and gets a three-game set beginning tomorrow against the sinking Tigers.
No comments:
Post a Comment