Garza v. Masterson (Game 61)

Justin Masterson once again put in a nice performance. He threw ninety-one pitches over six innings (sixty-one of them for strikes.) He allowed four runs on six hits (including two home runs-one to the first batter of the game and a two-run shot to Pena *tilde implied* in the sixth inning.) He walked two batters and struck out five. The other Rays run came off a pair of doubles he let fly in the fourth inning. He remains a well-grounded, unruffled, polite, sweetheart of a kid.

Manny Del was the first out of the bullpen in relief of Masterson. He came out to pitch the seventh inning. He walked the first batter but then got a fly out, a strike out, and a ground out to end the inning without allowing the runner to advance to second.

Lopez came into the game for the eighth inning and had own of his not so good outings. He walked the first batter he saw. He gave up a base hit to the second. He was then replaced by Hansen.

Hansen came into a not easy situation. There were runners on first and second and no outs but the new Craig Hansen? He wasn't disturbed by the situation-though he might not have been paying too close attention based on how long it took Francona to get him out there. The first batter he faced reached on a fielder's choice when Youkilis took the out at second. With runners on first and third, the second batter Hansen faced struck out. The last batter grounded into a fielder's choice for the force out at second.

Papelbon came out for the ninth inning and made a much better go of it than he did the last time out. He struck out the first batter he faced. He got the second to ground out to second. And he got the last batter to strike out to pick up his seventeenth save of the year.

The first two Red Sox runs of the night came in the second inning. Manny started things off with a single to center. And then, Lowell hit a home run to left field to make the score 1-2.

In the top of the fourth inning the Rays would tie things up but JD Drew hit a home run to right in the bottom of the inning to give the Sox the lead again.

The Rays took a one-run lead in top of the sixth inning but the Sox would answer that as well. Youkilis was hit by a pitch to lead-off the inning and then Manny booked it down to first base after he hit into a potential double play. Luckily, the shortstop couldn't get a hold of the ball and by the time he threw to first base both Manny and Youkilis were safe. Lowell fouled out for the first out of the inning. Then, Drew drew a walk to load the bases. Varitek hit a single to center and batted Youkilis in. With the bases still loaded and still only one out, Coco--funny little story about Coco there--hit a double to deep left that brought in Manny and Drew. Then, with runners on second and third and still only one out, Lugo drew a walk to reload the bases. Ellsbury then hit a sacrifice fly center that Varitek came around to score on and then Pedroia struck out to end the inning.

Defensively, both JD Drew and Pedroia made some really nice plays in the game.