For the most part, Wakefield pitched well tonight. He got though the first four innings relatively easily. He faced sixteen batters and got them back to the dugout without crossing homeplate with a series of four strike outs, three ground outs, and four fly outs. He did walk two of them and allow four base hits. But he did have a nice pick-off of one of the batters he walked-Remy, empathetic soul that he is was very embarrassed for the runner to be knocked off the field so unceremoniously.
Wakefield did get himself into a jam in the fifth inning. With one out he loaded the bases by walking Travis Hafner (the other two runners had reached on a base hit and a walk.) The next batter got a base hit and drove in two runs. Luckily for Wakefield, the next batter grounded into a double play and the inning was over. In the sixth inning, Wakefield started out looking like he was going to be in trouble again. He got the first batter to ground out to first but gave up a base hit to the next batter, Cabrera. Cabrera tried to run on Wake but was caught at second by a good throw from Kevin Cash. The next batter also got a base hit and tried to run on Wake. He was successful in his attempt but the last batter flew out to Coco to end the inning.
He was relieved by Javier Lopez for the start of the seventh inning. It may be too early to re-evaluate my opinion of Lopez but he didn't suck tonight. The first batter he faced was put out at first and he struck out the second batter. A pitch he threw to Hafner got away from him and it looked as if it smacked into Hafner's knee. After a long series of pitches that the batter kept fouling off, he did give up a base hit before he was replaced by Manny Del.
Perhaps it's the fate of relief pitchers in general or maybe Manny Delcarmen has just been unlucky lately but it seems like it always comes down to that one bad pitch he threw-whether it's the breaking ball that didn't break or, as in this case, an attempt to go inside on Ryan Garko that ends up hitting him in the hands. Unfortunately, for Manny Del when he hit Garko he'd already loaded the bases by walking Peralta, which drove in the tying run. Luckily for Manny Del (and Lopez), the next batter grounded into a fielder's choice and they took the out at second to end the inning.
Delcarmen came back out for the start of the eighth inning. He got a fly out to left, walked a batter, and got the put out at first before being replaced by Aardsma. Aardsma contributed a fly out to center to end the inning. The ninth inning was pitched by Okajima and involved two strike outs and a foul ball that was caught by Jacoby Ellsbury in a rather spectacular fashion. Ellsbury leaped/dove into the stands and seemed to wrestle the ball away from a fan before emerging triumphantly ball-in-glove.
The game was scoreless heading into the fifth inning when with one out Ellsbury hit a single and took second on a throwing error, barely beating out the eventual throw. Lugo followed that up with a base hit. Then came Lowrie, who grounded into a fielder's choice (forcing out Lugo) but with his first major league hit of his career drove in his buddy Ellsbury. The Red Sox didn't score again until the seventh inning, when a combination of two Indian relief pitchers (Julio and Perez) walked both Youkilis and Ellsbury, and then gave up a base hit to Lugo to load the bases. Up to the plate swaggers Jed Lowrie and he hits another base hit, this time knocking in two runs.
The game stood at three all going into the ninth inning. Lowrie had struck out when Jason Varitek came up to hit for Kevin Cash. He ran the count to 1-2 and I'd already started to feel badly for Coco, knowing that when he made the third out it wouldn't reflect well on him with the Ellsbury-as-everyday-centerfielder crowd. And then the captain lofted one to left-center, his third of the year, and the score was 4-3. Coco followed that up with a single and Pedroia hit a double. Ortiz flew out to shallow right but nobody advanced. With runners on first and third, Eric Wedge did the smart thing (are you listening, Joe Girardi?) and walked Manny, taking his chance on Youkilis. It was a gamble that didn't pay off. Youkilis hit a base hit, Coco scored easily and Pedroia was tagged out at home.
In addition to all that offensive good-ness, Lugo had three base hits, and Oritz and Pedroia had one. In the eighth, Manny was hit by a pitch, Youkilis doubled, and they intentionally walked Ellsbury (that must have been a good moment for Ellsbury-the opposing team's manager either thinks so highly of your ability to hit or so lowly of his own pitcher, that he'd rather not take the chance of pitching to you.)
Jed Lowrie had a nice major league debut. He seemed relatively composed and at ease out there. He did attempt to make a diving catch of the first ball that was put into play in his general direction that was rather Jeter-esque in both it's unwarranted-ness and it's inefficacy but that could easily be chalked up to nerves. He helped turn a double play in the fifth. He did strike out swinging at his first and his last at bats (at pitches he probably should have just watched) but in the middle he had a hit and drove in three runs. Not too shabby.
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