Another feel good win tonight. Justin Masterson seems like one of the sweetest, kindest people on earth and as a reward for being such a good person, you want him to do well-especially after he performed so well last time only to have the bullpen blow it for him. You hope for only good things for him. But, being unable to leave well enough alone, I worry for him. Much in the same way that I worry about Papelbon being too intense and burning himself out, my fear for Masterson is that the life of a ballplayer might be too rough for his gentle nature. After all, baseball players generally aren't known as the most wholesome of creatures. And while he was dressed as if he was headed out on a Mormon mission after the game, he did give a good post-game presser. Through out, I couldn't help but think: Kid talks a lot. I suppose I should just leave the worrying about him to people who actually know him and will be able to keep him centered. He pitched well today and seemed happy with the result so who am I to spread my mother hen wings and enfold him-he can probably fend for himself.
He went six and one third of an inning, over which he threw ninety-one pitches. He walked three and struck out five. He did give up three hits but they were all to Alex Gordon-the only Royals hitter to figure out what to do against him. He was charged with a run. Before he was done in the seventh inning he walked a batter who would come around to score while Manny Delcarmen was pitching.
The first pitcher to relieve Masterson, though, was Lopez. Perhaps I'm just really easy to impress or maybe I have low expectations of him, but I was impressed with Lopez tonight. He was brought in to face a lefty and got him out. Not only did he get the out without walking a couple of batters first, but it wasn't a fly out, a ground out, or a foul out that erased the hitter but an honest-to-goodness strike out looking.
With two down Delcarmen was brought in to finish off the seventh inning. The first thing that Manny Del did was give up a single that brought in the Royals only run. He did get a swinging strike out to end the inning.Okajima was brought out for the eighth inning and seemed to have a little bit of trouble. He gave up a lead off double but got the second batter to ground out. He walked a batter, got a strike out, and walked another batter to load the bases before they went with Papelbon for the last four outs.
Papelbon finished off the eighth with a swinging strike out. He came back out for the ninth and got the first batter to ground out-it was a very nice play by Youkilis that kept it from going as a hit. He then got the next two batters to strike out swinging to end the game and get Masterson the win.
The Sox only needed two runs to win the game, which was good because that was all they scored. In the second inning, Lowell started things off by striking out. Youkilis and then Drew both hit singles to center. Varitek walked to load the bases. Lugo hit a sacrifice fly that brought in Youkilis. Then, Coco picked up a ground-ruled double and an RBI as Drew scored. The Red Sox just had a really hard time hitting Meche-they managed to collect only five hits while striking out ten times and walking only twice.
No comments:
Post a Comment