You can never have too much good pitching, and tonight the Red Sox reaped the benefits of having picked wisely in the pre-season. Bartolo Colon, the 2005 Cy Young winner with the Angels, was thought by many to be done due to injury. However, the Sox, after careful analysis, took a chance in Spring Training and, after another injury delayed the debut, he got his first MLB start in a couple of years. He did just fine. Pitching on a very tight pitch count, he went five innings, giving up a pair of earned runs, both on soft singles, but showed he hasn't forgotten how to pitch. He even topped out at 94, and averaged between 89 and 92, not bad for the first game at MLB level in a couple of years. Throw away that fork--he's far from done!
A hurler shows his skills not when everything's going along without any trouble, lots of K's and so on. No, he demonstrates his knowledge of his craft when he's got men on base and not much margin for error. Both times the Royals scored, they still had men on base and threatened to do more damage. But Colon bore down, made the pitches and limited the damage. That's the mark of a pitcher, as opposed to a thrower. Muy bien, Bartolo!
The Sox bats were somewhat more productive tonight than they had been in the first two games of the series. Tonight the Bosox got an even dozen hits, four of them for extra bases. It began with Jacoby's leadoff homer to start the Sox half of the first inning and, after briefly giving up the lead for the first time in this series, resumed with Tek leading off the 5th with his sixth shot of the season to tie the score. The Hub Hose then added three more runs in that inning and finished their scoring in the seventh. Although the heart of the order was only 1-13, the sole hit from this section of the order was Lowell's ninth two bagger of the year, and Papi got his 38th ribbie on a sac fly. Four of the Sox had multi-hit games with Jacoby and Dusty getting three apiece.
Even something for Jenn--Timlin finished up and, again didn't give away the game, although he did surrender a single run in the ninth.
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