Jason Bay has become Mr. Clutch. His 3-run homer off of Cleveland closer Kerry Wood broke a scoreless tie and allowed the Sox to steal the first game of this series on a night when it looked like they might not score at all.
Bay is now 10-for-20 with 4 homers and 10 RBIs from the 7th inning on this season, and the last two game-changing homers have come off elite closers in the 9th inning. Manny who?
BOX SCORE: Red Sox 3, Indians 1
Tim Wakefield was masterful again, holding the Indians to just a 1st-inning single over seven innings. Unfortunately he didn't get the win in this one, but he lowered his ERA to 1.86.
The Sox need to ride this hot streak he's on because we all know Wake is a streaky pitcher and it's just a matter of time before the knuckler stops cooperating for him.
Manny Delcarmen had another perfect inning of relief and has become very reliable this season. Paps had a shaky save, allowing a run. Hopefully this is just a little bump in the road for him.
As for the offense, the Sox apparently got into Cleveland in the wee hours of the morning and it looked the team was sleepwalking until Bay's bomb in the 9th.
Cliff Lee might have had something to do with the lack of offense too, but it was good to get a win when the bats didn't produce much.
David Ortiz had two more hits to raise his average to .238, but the lack of power is still very concerning. Also, he seems to be hitting a lot of balls to left field. I wonder if teams will stop using the shift against him so much.
It was good that Francona just didn't put Julio "The Pig" Lugo right into the lineup just because he's back on the roster. He should have to earn his job back considering how well Nick Green has played and how bad Lugo was last season.
0 comments:
Post a Comment