A nice game for Daisuke. He went six and two-thirds of an inning, allowing two runs on one hundred and three pitches. He struck out six and walked only two batters. For the most part, he was working efficiently and was throwing strikes.
He got himself into a tiny bit of trouble in the fifth inning. After getting two quick outs, he gave up a single, hit a batter, and walked a batter to load the bases but got the last batter to fly out to center with no damage done. In the sixth inning he gave up a single and a double but then got two swinging strike outs and a fly out. He very nearly got himself out of the seventh inning cleanly, as well. He got two quick fly outs but the third batter reached on fielding error by Youkils (who was playing at third), then he gave up a home run and a single before he was pulled.
Lopez was called in to face the lefty Prince Fielder and walked him. They replaced him with Manny Del and he did pretty well. Manny Delcarmen went an inning and a third. He got a force out at second to end the seventh inning. He did give up a hit in the eighth but he got a ground out, a foul out, and a fly out to get himself out of there.
Papelbon came in for the ninth inning and was done in seven pitches. He got a ground out and a foul out before giving up a home run to Ryan Braun. He got the last out thanks to a very nice backwards running catch by Alex Cora.
The scoring got started in the first inning. With two outs, Ortiz walked, Ramirez was hit by a pitch, Youkilis singled to load the bases, and Drew drew a walk to bring in the first run.
They scored again in the second inning. With one out, Lugo got a single and Ellsbury got a bunt single. Pedroia flied out but then Ortiz hit a three run homerun out to left, to give the Sox a four-nothing lead.
They didn't score again until the eighth inning. Varitek started it off by getting a double. But then both Casey and Lugo flied out to left. Ellsbury then doubled to bring in Varitek.
And while they won the game, they continue to leave lots of men on base. In the first inning, the bases were loaded when Varitek popped out to short. Casey had a double to start the fourth inning that they couldn't make anything off. In the fifth inning, both Ortiz and Ramirez had singles before Youkilis flied out and Drew hit into a double play. In the sixth inning, Varitek started off with a ground rule double and Casey hit a single before Lugo hit into a double play and Ellsbury flew out. In the seventh inning, Pedroia reached on an error and Ortiz walked before Ramirez fouled out, Youkilis flied out, and Drew grounded out. It's concerning.
I was a little concerned for Lugo at one point. There were a couple of calls that didn't go his way-he sort of fouled a ball off himself but was out of the batters box when it happened in the fourth inning and had a pretty clear tag-out at second where everyone, including the guy being tagged-out, thought he was out except for the umpire-and he doesn't always do well when things don't go his way and start to weigh on him but he seemed to be alright for the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings (it could just have been that they weren't hitting in his direction) but Francona brought out Cora for the ninth, so maybe I'm wrong about him being able to put it behind him.
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