Well, the Sox took another today, running their latest work to eight of ten games in the 'W' column. It wasn't as large a margin as yesterday's game, nor was there anywhere near as much offense as in the prior game, but what the Sox got was enough.
JD took care of the offense, accounting for both runs, the second coming on his eighth HR of the season and bringing in what proved to be the winning run. His earlier ribbie was probably a bit more painful, but it counted just as much. In this one, the sacks were jammed and JD didn't get out of the way fast enough. He got plinked and a run scored.
The pitching was just fabulous--by everyone. It's another example of top quality pitching from a young Sox hurler fresh from the farm. A couple of years ago it was Lester and Papelbon. Then, last year we get Dice-K (Ok--he's not from the farm, but he's young and fresh to MLB), Okajima and Buchholtz. This year it's Masterson. Throw in Hansen for good measure and you're going to have child labor law supporters screaming bloody murder!
Anyway, Masterson gave an excellent showing. Tossing six innings, he surrendered just a single run, while allowing only three hits, reducing his ERA to 2.59 in the process. His WHIP for the appearance was 1.00. All of this on a skimpy 88 pitches thrown. After his six innings, Hansen took the ball and proceeded to leave everyone with virtually a mirror image of yesterday's game. Throwing an inning of no-hit ball, he allowed just a single free pass, and put two more K's on the board. His opponent's BA, already a sub-Mendozan .197, dropped further to .188.
Passing the rock to Okajima, he was more than copied. Oki also pitched a hitless inning, with the extra embellishment of allowing no-one to reach base--no matter how they tried. Nine pitches--inning over.
Which brings us, as usual in this situation, to Papelbon. The Saver toed the rubber, threw just five, you can count 'em, five pitches--every one a strike--and the game was over. He was so effortless in picking up his 18th save in 20 attempts, there's not much to elaborate on for the sake of this blog. I mean, what else can you say when a guy who's throwing his usual assortment of lasers ends the game in five pitches?
One other item--CELTICS WIN AGAIN AGAINST THE LAKERS! Fourteen down, two to go!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment