Another bump in the road for Clay. Six earned runs on eight hits is not good but a day when a rookie pitcher seems unable to find the plate is to be expected. It's unfortunate that it followed such a bad game by Wakefield but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. In the process of issuing those eight hits, he also gave up five walks while only striking out four.
The bullpen, seemingly problematic this season, did a decent job last night. Lopez pitched the remaining two outs of the fifth inning (after Clay was pulled) and the sixth inning. He gave up two hits but didn't allow any runs to score. Hansen came out for the seventh inning and got two ground outs and a strike out. Timlin finished it off in the eighth. He gave up a hit but erased it by induceing a nice double play, and got a ground out.
When they took the field to begin the game it looked like they were going to cruise. Coco got a lead-off double. Pedroia had a sacrifice fly to move him over to third. Ortiz got a single that brought Coco home. Then Manny hit number 498 to right to bring them both in. And that was it for offense. They continue to leave men on base at an impressive clip, however; nine in this game.
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