Talk About Crushing!

Talk about crushing--look at these numbers! As those of you who regularly follow this blog are aware, just two games ago, I talked about our heroes, the SOX, crushing the Stripes. It was 11-1, and it was a total shellacking by the Hose, including 18 hits. Well, after a rain shortened followup win against Mr. Hankie's Yankees, three zip, the Sox came to the friendly confines of the Fens to host the always troublesome Rangers. When the shouting stopped and the smoke cleared, the numbers on the board read: Sox 17, Texas 5. Not a typo--those are the numbers. And, if that's not enough, the supporting digits are even more awesome! The Sox got their season high hits for a game, 19, of which 13 were for extra bases and four of those were last seen on the other side of the wall or in the cheaps. It began in the 1st, exploded in the 2d, when the Hose upped their lead to eight zip, and continued through the 7th. The 8th inning was the only inning they didn't score, when an outfielder took the hill for the besieged Rangers and avoided any moire carnage after Nava's leadoff double. The Sox were so on tonight, in fact, that they hit for the cycle AS A TEAM in the second inning alone!
Nap was the only starter who failed to get a hit, and even he managed to drive in another run in spite of that.  Four players had at least three hits, with Drew getting four, and three of the Sox each drove in three ribs. The latter trio was Carp, Papi and Bradley, who, in the last few games is starting to show signs of his hitting prowess that initially got attention at Spring Training. Tonight his first pair of ribbies came in the 2d on his first MLB homer. Papi got his three on a double and triple.
Defensively, Dempster had a good outing, allowing just three runs on five hits while K'ing a half dozen. The rest of the Rangers' runs came in the 8th off of Mortenson. The bloodletting stopped as soon as Miller took over from him and turned off the switch.
If there was a negative in the evening, it was not at Fenway. It was only that the Stripes and O's kept pace with the Hose, each winning their own game. The Rays lost to the Bengals and dropped a game further off the pace.