Swamigp’s Weblog

The Red Sox continued to get stellar starting pitching, this time 8 strong innings by ace Josh Beckett. As poorly as Boston’s offense has been recently I would have had to finish that sentence by saying “but the offense got shut down again”. Not this time, this time it was quite the opposite input from the Sox. They crushed the Tampa Rays starter James Shields over his 3 2/3 innings of work en route to a 12-4 win. They tagged the Rays ace for 7 runs on 10 hits during his outing to break the game wide open. Every Boston player who had a plate appearance had a hit and either drove in a run or scored in the shellacking. David Ortiz continued to get his batting average up by getting 3 hits, including two doubles in the contest while scoring twice and driving in two runs, raising his average to .216. Boston got the scoring started early, tagging Shields in the first inning for 3 runs. They started off the bottom of the first with 4 straight hits by Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz (a two run double by Big Papi) and Manny Ramirez (rbi single). They kept it in the next three innings, scoring a run in each, eventually knocking Shields out of the game.

Shields wasn’t the only starting pitcher to get knocked around a bit as Beckett allowed two runs on a homer by Gabe Gross in the top of the second inning. As the Red Sox kept pouring it on, Beckett got into a groove, retiring 11 of 12 batters at one point. Beckett had a bad 4th inning as well, allowing three straight hits to start the frame to Eric Hinske, a double, Carlos Pena, single, and Evan Longoria, rbi single. After getting Dioner Navarro to fly out, Gross walked. Nathan Haynes then flied out to Manny in left field, Pena, who was on third at the time, decided he would test Ramirez’s arm and tag up. Bad idea. He was gunned out at home, ending the inning and stopping the rally in it’s tracks. Beckett controlled the damage over the next 4 innings, allowing just two hits over that span, both by Akinori Iwamura, including a lead-off homer in the 8th. David Aardsma pitched the ninth inning for Boston to complete the win.

Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew combined for 5 hits, 4 runs scored and 2 rbi’s behind Ortiz’s efforts at the plate. Ellsbury continued to get on base, reaching three times, two hits and a walk, while scoring twice. Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez also contributed to the cause offensively, combining for 5 walks, 3 runs scored and 3 rbi’s.