What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, the Sox went into the late innings down 6-3, after having jumped out ahead three zip in the first. They valiantly tried to come back and almost pulled it off, finally falling 6-5. They fell one good hit short. On the plus side, Oki threw a perfect 8th, keeping the Pale Hose from stretching their lead and giving his teammates a chance if they could get the timely hit.
Today, with Beckett taking the mound, things were rolling along with each team matching the other's zeroes--with one exception. Chicago's starter, Danks, had a set of zeroes that JB, as good as he was pitching, wasn't matching. Danks wasn't allowing any hits--none-zilch!
The result was that after six, the Chisox led 1-0--and the Bosox still were hitless. Not looking good, but baseball is a nine inning game. Opening the 7th, Youk and Lowell got successive hits and after Bay's out, JD Drew drove a ball deep to center for a solid double and plated both runners, 2-1 Boston and the end of the no-no. With that assist from JD, JB kept things rolling from the defensive end. He pitched a very clean eight innings, scattering seven hits and allowing no walks while ringing up 8 K's. Entering the 8th, our heroes got a pair on base with just a single out, Jake on second and a great opportunity to steal third. Never happened. The next two batters couldn't get them home, again the frustration of failing to get that timely hit that, at this stage, likely would have salted the game away--possibly heated up a game breaking rally.
However, when they got another chance in the 9th, they didn't blow the opportunity. With the bases loaded, Jed Lowrie shot the ball into left for a two run double. Not to be outdone, Jake got his second hit of the evening a few moments later to drive in the third run of the inning and close out the scoring.
Enter The Laser. Although not a save opportunity, he performed as he almost always does--twelve pitches, final nail in the coffin, game most definitely over. His perfect inning included a single K, leading to his ERA dropping back under 2.
Big Papi didn't play, getting as much a mental as a physical rest from Tito. Other benefits: the Twinkies, chasing the Sox for wild card rights, stayed just 1.5 games to the stern--by shutting out the Stripes four zip, dropping Mr. Hankie's Yankees five games behind them. Hubhose also cut a half game off the Rays' lead. While I'm on the subject of the Rays, they've avoided for the most part the injury bug all season. Today, that changed. Their rookie of the year candidate, Longoria, went to the DL with a broken wrist. He's only on the 15 day DL, but a busted wrist isn't healing in 15 days. Could be a big hit to the Rays' drive.
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