It was a double-whammy.
The Red Sox blew an opportunity in the bottom of the seventh inning, first with Jacoby Ellsbury flying out to right field (a run scored) on a hittable pitch in the middle of the zone with two men on and no outs. And then Pedroia hit into an easy double play, 6-4-3.
About [...]
Welcome to Pedroia Island.
The Red Sox second baseman is doing it alone here through five innings.
He has come up three times and doubled, singled and walked. David Ortiz came up after him each time and flew to right, popped up to shortstop and popped to short center field.
Ortiz has some company. The guy in front [...]
Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is here but his alter ego, Big Papi, apparently is still incognito during the playoffs.
Ortiz flew out to right field with one out and Dustin Pedroia on second base in the first inning. Then he popped out to short with Pedroia on first base (one out) in the fourth inning.
Thus [...]
You want to know the play that best exemplifies the Sox-Rays game thus far (The Rays lead 5-0 in the fifth inning)?
After Carlos Pena bunted successfully against the shift — he put it toward third and Kevin Youkilis was basically playing shortstop — and then B.J. Upton was thrown out by Youkilis at second base [...]
After getting through the first inning throwing four pitches, Jon Lester threw 50 pitches over the second and third innings.
Ouch!
Byrd is no longer warming up, which means Lester will be there as long the Sox can make it close. If he were to give up another run or two, you could expect an early exit [...]
Paul Byrd is warming up. The game isn’t even an hour old (still) and Evan Longoria just hit another towering homer off a Jon Lester fastball.
It’s Longoria’s fourth home run, tying a major league record for homers by a rookie in the post-season with Miguel Cabrera when he was with the Florida Marlins in 2003.
The Rays have apparently come to play. After the Sox blew an opportunity to tie the game up in the second inning, they came back with three more runs on a booming three-run homer by B.J. Upton.
So the game isn’t even an hour old and it doesn’t look good.
In case you were wondering, Fenway Park [...]
Jason Varitek’s one-out strikeout in the second inning continued struggles at the plate, striking out looking with men on second and third. Alex Cora flied out to end the rally after him.
Anyway, Varitek is hitting only .136 (3 for 22) with two runs scored and no RBI. What that means is if he comes up [...]
Here are Rays stats vs. Jon Lester over his career:
OPPOSING HITTER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP
B.J. Upton 18 4 0 0 1 2 2 2 .222 .300
Akinori Iwamura 17 4 0 0 1 3 5 3 .235 [...]
Eagle-Tribune Executive Sports Editor Bill Burt has been synonymous with the local and Boston sports scene for the past 24 years.
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