The Sox couldn't lose on Jerry Remy Night. As Lenny Clarke implored the hometown nine to get some runs during his visit in the booth with the Sox down 4-1, you had a feeling something special was going to happen. And then it did.
Boston rallied for 4 runs in the 8th inning to pull off one of its most exciting come-from-behind wins of the season.
Julio "The Pig" Lugo actually got the rally started with a base hit. That was followed by back-to-back base hits from Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, who blasted his 7th homer of the season in the 1st, to cut the deficit to 4-2 and set the stage for J.D. Drew or Manny Ramirez to win it.
BOX SCORE: Red Sox 5, Diamondbacks 4
This time, however, Drew and Manny didn't come through and it looked like the rally might fall short, but the mark of this team all season has been that every guy on the squad has contributed and that's exactly what Mike Lowell did.
He smashed a line shot off the Monster for a double to tie it and then Jason Varitek broke out of his 1-for-31 slump ripping a single to right to score Lowell with the game-winning run as Fenway erupted.
Jonathan Papelbon took it from there striking out two in the 9th for his 22nd save.
The Sox got good pitching all night as Justin Masterson didn't have his best stuff again, but he battled through 6 innings to give the Sox a chance. He had trouble with Chad Tracy who touched him for a two-out 3-run bomb in the 3rd and had all 4 of the D-Backs RBIs.
Rookie Chris Smith tossed two outstanding innings to keep the score at 4-1 and earn his first Major League victory.
It was great to see all the love and good-natured ribbing given to the Rem Dawg all night as a parade of stars and former players visited the booth and gave testimonials to the president of Red Sox Nation on his night.
0 comments:
Post a Comment