It's good to win one out right; none of those late inning heroics, just an old-fashioned beat down-with a less than stellar offense no less. Manny and Sean Casey had a vacation day. Varitek wasn't feeling well and so Cash was in the lineup again today. Lugo also didn't play. Some guy showed up in his place-looked just like him but knew how to hit.
Buchholz pitched pretty well. He pitched six shut-out innings with one hundred and three pitches. He walked two, allowed five hits, and struck out six. In the first inning he gave up double sandwiched between a pop up and a strike out; he finished the inning with a fly out to left. In the second inning, he loaded the bases with two outs (a hit, a bunt, and a walk) but got the last out on a pop out. He started the third inning with a lead off walk. He followed that up with a strike out, a fly out, a base hit, and another fly out. He then had 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
David Aardsma started off the seventh inning and had a rough going of it. He gave up a lead off walk and then allowed the runner to advance to second on a wild pitch. The next batter doubled off him and knocked in the first Texas run. He did strike out the next batter but walked the one following him. He got the next batter to strike out swinging but that was it for the day. He was replaced by Lopez. Lopez didn't have much more success than Aardsma. Lopez gave up a double and allowed the second Texas run to score before he struck out Bradley to end the inning.
Lopez also pitched the eighth inning. He got a fly out, a strike out, gave up another double, and finally the ground out to end the inning. Manny Del finished off the game in the ninth. He got two quick ground outs but the third out proved to be a little elusive. He gave up two doubles and allowed the Rangers to score for the third time of the game before getting the last batter to ground back to him to end the game.
The offense, for what it was, was really clicking this game. To be fair though, they essentially played the whole game against the Texas bullpen after Gabbard was out following the second inning due to a back injury. The Sox scored all of their runs in the fourth and the fifth innings.
The fourth inning started off with Drew drawing a walk and then taking second on a balk. Lowrie bunted successfully and Drew moved over to third. Lugo singled and knocked Drew in and Lowrie moved to third. Cash hit a sacrifice fly to get Lowrie in and Lugo moved up to second on an errant throw to keep him at first. Thurston popped out to third for the second out of the inning. Ellsbury hit a single and Lugo moved to third. Ellsbury stole second and then Pedroia hit a double to knock in both Lugo and Ellsbury. Ortiz then hit a double to get Pedroia across the plate for the fifth run of the inning. Youkilis drew a walk and then Drew repeated the way he started off the inning by drawing another walk (this time to load the bases) but Lowrie struck out swinging to end the inning.
Julio Lugo started it off with a first pitch double. Cash hit a single and beat out the throw to have men on first and third. Thurston fouled out to third. Ellsbury got a base hit and Lugo scored. Pedroia flied out for the second out of the inning. Then Ortiz doubled off the wall, knocking in Cash and Ellsbury. Youkilis walked but then Drew flied out to end the inning.
While Joe Thurston was pretty useless at the plate, he did make a very nice play in left that Manny would have never made.
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