Spox Sweep Braves--Streak At Four

Well, as previously noted, I'd said the recent losing streak would stop at ten and then the Sox would turn things around. Since then they've played their former fellow Bostonians, the Braves, four times and swept them. Tonight's was the best example, in my humble opinion, of how a winning team makes things happen and takes advantage of errors or miscues of their opponents. Sown 2-1 entering the 8th, they gave up another run and things looked like the Braves might get away with one. Not to worry. In their half of the same inning, the Sox added a pair to tie things up, taking full advantage of a pair of errors to go with singles by Holt, Bogaerts, Pedey and Pierzynski.  Papi, held out of the lineup due to a bruised calf then pinch hit, and rather than try to deal with Mr. Clutch, the Braves intentionally passed him. The Hose couldn't get his pinch runner home for the lead at that moment, but the win was just a few minutes away. After Koji tossed a shutout inning on nine pitches, including a brilliant K on a pair of 'up the ladder' fast balls, as opposed to his trademark killer cutter, the Sox took their turn.  Wasting no time, they struck. Bradley and Holt both grabbed freebies, followed by an infield single by Bogaerts. The Braves could have held things there with crisp clean fielding, but their second sacker, La Stella, screwed it up and Bradley never stopped running when he reached third on the hit. He just kept churning those legs and slid head first across the plate a good five feet ahead of the ball for the winning run. It's the type of aggressiveness that winning teams always employ to pressure the opposition into careless mistakes that produce runs. Bradley may not have Jake's legs, but he's not slower by very much, and when he's on the move, if you're not ready to gun him down, get the hell out of the way because he's crossing the dish no matter what.
The Sox pitching was also pretty damn good overall. Peavey threw eight solid innings, giving up eight hits and a free pass, for a game WHIP of 1.125--very respectable, especially when you add in his four K's along the way. Then, Koji came in, threw nine pitches and headed for the shower, freshly minted W firmly in his grasp. He probably didn't even break a sweat--as always.
On the negative, Nap and Vic now have company on the DL, as the team yesterday put Bucky on the DL, his injury very possibly being related to his horrible no control effort the last time out. Hopefully, he'll get better fast and get back to being the Bucky we expect to have out there. Drew is busy on his rehab, and hopefully, will add some oomph to the roster on his return to the parent club.