Group Forums >> Red Sox Fan's >> Sox Update: Thursday
Sox Update: Thursday
|
Posted 7 months ago Too Little, Too Late  The Once Streaking Sox, Now Streaking In Wrong Direction Justin Masterson got the call to start against the Halo's on Thursday and boy did he ever answer the call. In his Major League debut, Masterson pounded the strike zone with his sinker to induce 11 groundball outs while striking out four over six innings of two-hit work. The righty from double-A had just one blemish on the evening when he let up a solo shot to catcher Mike Napoli. Masterson left this one with a chance to win it with the score being 3-1 Boston but the bullpen let this one go. The Red Sox bullpen would hand this one over to the Angels in the seventh inning when Los Angeles put up a four spot that Boston would never recover from. Francona would trot out three relievers in the inning (Lopez, Delcarmen, Okajima) just to escape any further damage but the damage had certainly been done. A combonation of four hits and three walks (one intentional) would prove to be the inning that sealed the Red Sox fate. Okajima would record all three outs on his own in a 32 pitch effort. David Aardsma would come on to relieve Okajima in the eighth and would allow another run to cross home plate in the Halo's favor. Julian Tavarez would come on for the ninth and do exactly the same. So with a four- run cushion in the bottom of the ninth inning, K-Rod would stay put in the bullpen as the game was no longer a save situation...yet. With one out, Jacoby Ellsbury singled for his first hit of the day. Dustin Pedroia would ground out to move Ellsbury over to second for David Ortiz. Big Papi would go on to crank a 2-2 fastball into the rightfield corner for his fourth home run of the season to put the Red Sox within two. Scot Shields would be chased from the game following the home run and on came K-Rod to face his old pal, Manny Ramirez. The last time these two squared off was Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS when Ramirez launched a walk off home run that just may still be going. Rodriguez would get the best of Ramirez this time getting him to fly to center to end the game. Boston has lost two straight games for just the second time this season. Not to worry. I'm not one to make excuses but I think it's safe to say that this series would have a different outcome if there was no such thing as the flu. On a good note, Ramirez continues to swing a hot bat going 3 for 5 today raising his average to .356. Dustin Pedroia went 1 for 5 today and with that one hit he continued his hit streak which now stands at thirteen games. Coco Crisp also had himself a big day going 2 for 4, both of those two hits were near home runs and both doubles helped plate two RBI's for Crisp. Drama... lets leave it in the High schools. |