Final, Red Sox 7-1: Alfredo Aceves gives the Royals a nice parting gift by allowing a single and a walk before he finally escapes.
The Sox have won two straight to start the trip, despite throwing out a pair of pretty jumbled lineups and using Andrew Miller in a fill-in capacity tonight.
Miller was very good in 5 1/3 innings and Aceves took it from there.
With that, we say goodnight. Tomorrow is Tim Wakefield’s fifth attempt at career win No. 200. The game starts at 7:10 p.m. ET. Be sure to follow along.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 7-1:It’ll be Alfredo Aceves to finish this one off. That should make him unusable at least until the team gets to Texas, but everyone else is rather rested.
End 8th, Red Sox 7-1: Eight up, eight down against Alfredo Aceves. This guy may rank in the top eight or so in terms of most valuable players on this team. So very solid.
If anyone is worried about Jacoby Ellsbury, don’t be. The guy has played almost every inning of every game. He took a pitch right in the middle of his upper back in the eighth inning of a six-run game.
No need to push the issue with your star center fielder. Ice, rest up and get back in there tomorrow night.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 7-1: All of my speculation as to how Terry Francona would handle the bullpen in the final two innings may have just gone out the window.
The Red Sox have spread things out a bit here after picking up two more in the eighth.
Jacoby Ellsbury scored the first run after taking a pitch square in the back, moving to third on a Mike Aviles hit and then coming in on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Gonzalez.
Aviles later scored when shortstop Alcides Escobar booted a Dustin Pedroia grounder.
Alfredo Aceves remains in the game. Ellsbury is out, but it’s likely just precautionary after taking that pitch in the back. He moved just fine, but with the six-run margin it makes sense to sit him down.
End 7th, Red Sox 5-1: The one hovering question right now is how Terry Francona will manage the last two innings.
Does he play it like a save situation and go Daniel Bard and then Jonathan Papelbon? Both also threw last night.
Does he give Alfredo Aceves another inning? The might exclude him for tomorrow.
Does he go all Matt Albers on the Royals for an inning, or even two?
We shall see. Aceves has retired all five men he’s faced.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 5-1: Everett Teaford has done his job for the Royals with two strong innings out of the pen. Now he can go meet the fellas at the pub for some Newcastle and a hearty discussion of the royal family.
The Rays have already won and the Yankees are up 6-1 in the eighth.
End 6th, Red Sox 5-1: The final line on Andrew Miller: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
You’ll take that eight days a week, especially when you have a guy like Alfredo Aceves to bridge that small, but critical, gap to to the late innings.
Aceves does just that by getting the only two men he faces to end the sixth.
10:00 p.m.: Andrew Miller ends a very solid outing with a strikeout of Melky Cabrera for the first out of the fifth.
That’s more than enough from Miller, who is promptly removed in favor of Alfredo Aceves.
Miller is still responsible for a man on second, but is in line to improve to 5-1.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 5-1: Everett Teaford, whose name suggests he was plucked by the Royals from a London schoolyard, takes over on the mound. But like his predecessor, Jeff Francis, he also has issues with Adrian Gonzalez and Jed Lowrie.
Gonzalez improves to 3-for-4 when he rips a one-out double. Lowrie, who already has three hits, drew a walk one out later.
That set the stage for Ryan Lavarnway, who struck out to end the inning. Lavarnway has now stranded eight runners in his four at-bats. Boston has left 10 men on base.
End 5th, Red Sox 5-1: I’ve been meaning to get up and grab some iced coffee each time Andrew Miller heads to the mound, but he’s been getting some quick, early outs, so I sit and watch.
Miller did issue his first walk with two down in the fifth, but a lazy fly to right finishes off the Royals. At 70 pitches, one figures Miller will get one more inning, maybe two if they’re quick.
And if they’re quick, then when do I get my coffee?
Mid 5th, Red Sox 5-1: There may come a time in the not-too-distant Red Sox future when Ryan Lavarnway and Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be sharing a position, perhaps someday even battling for playing time.
For now, they are two bottom-of-the-order hitters doing what they can to chip in.
In the fifth, they did just that.
Lavarnway followed a leadoff single for Jed Lowrie with a base hit to right, his first in the majors after starting 0-for-6. One batter later, Saltalamacchia hammered a three-run shot to left.
It is the 12th of the season for Saltalamacchia, a new career high.
Lowrie has three hits already. Boston has 11. Jeff Francis won’t be around much longer.
End 4th, Red Sox 2-1: If we told you that Andrew Miller was going to limit the Royals to one run through four you’d probably take it, call on Alfredo Aceves and breathe a sigh of relief.
The Red Sox aren’t pulling Miller anytime soon, but they have to be equally thrilled with the way this spot start has gone so far.
Miller gave up a single to Eric Hosmer in the fourth, but a 4-6-3 double play erases that hit.
Miller has thrown just 58 pitches. Terry Francona said the other day that 85-90 might be realistic if Miller was effective.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 2-1: Darnell McDonald has been a disaster against right-handers this year, but is beginning to do more regular damage (in his limited chances) against lefties.
With one out and Carl Crawford on second, McDonald drove one just out of the reach of a diving Melky Cabrera in center. Crawford scored easily and McDonald raced all the way around to third with his first triple in nearly a year.
A fly to center by Jacoby Ellsbury was deep enough to score McDonald from third. Go figure. You see the top of the order load the bases twice but come up empty, and your No. 9 hitter drives in a run and then scores another.
It’s also worth noting a rare hit against a left-hander for Crawford to start it off (double down the line in right).
The Sox got two more hits off Jeff Francis in the inning before they bowed out.
End 3rd, Royals 1-0: It’s almost a shame that the Royals scored a run on one of the best defensive plays of the year by a Red Sox player. Still, we should take a moment and marvel at what Jacoby Ellsbury just did.
Andrew Miller gave up a leadoff double to Mike Moustakas, who was moved to third on a bunt. Alex Gordon then tattooed a ball that was a sure double, or more, off the bat, sailing deep into the right-center field gap.
Ellsbury tracked it down in a full sprint and caught the ball high over his head on the warning track. Moustakas could’ve moonwalked home if he wanted to. But that may have been one of Ellsbury’s best catches of the season. He could be picking up a Gold Glove Award, this all one year after being thrust from center field.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: An interesting little pattern going here for Jeff Francis.
He loaded the bases in the first before escaping by getting an out against Ryan Lavarnway.
The same exact scenario presents itself in the third. Lavarnway once again cannot get that first big league hit, flying to right to leave ’em loaded once again.
In the first, the Sox had a two-out hit from Jed Lowrie but Adrian Gonzalez could not score from second. Lowrie, batting this time with Jacoby Ellsbury at second and Dustin Pedroia at first with two outs, had another hit but still failed to get that RBI.
The line drive off Lowrie’s bat was knocked down at shortstop by Alcides Escobar, who nearly came up with the ball. At the very least, he saved a run and the Royals were back in the dugout in a matter of moments.
End 2nd, 0-0: Andrew Miller gives up a one-out double to Jeff Francoeur. That allows Miller to show off one of his strong suits this year.
After the next two hitters grounded softly back to the mound, opponents are now 0-for-10 against Miller with a runner on second base.
Opposing hitters are also just 13-for-53 (.245) against Miller with runners in scoring position. He’s allowed runners to reach in many of his outings, but he has had several innings in which he’s limited the damage.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Since that 2007 World Series start (see 7:49 post), Jeff Francis has gone south.
He was 17-9 in 2007 with Colorado, but is just 12-29 with a 4.91 ERA since. There have also been some injuries in there.
But Francis has had some more effective stretches this year and has been pretty solid at home. After a 1-2-3 second, his ERA at Kauffman Stadium is 3.66.
Boston is 27-14 against left-handed starters this year, but they’ve lost their last two.
End 1st, 0-0: We have made mention many times of Andrew Miller’s first-inning issues, something that has plagued him throughout his career.
He entered this one with a 6.75 ERA in the first inning this year, and with plenty of rust to shake off it did not seem far-fetched to predict he would struggle out of the gate.
Instead, Miller strikes out Alex Gordon to begin a perfect first. Solid opening for the lefty.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Most of the popular sites I’m familiar with do not offer split statistics based on whether you have facial hair or not.
If they did, Adrian Gonzalez’s numbers without a mustache are pretty good. Now clean-shaven, Gonzalez snaps an 0-for-14 slide with a two-out double in the first.
Dustin Pedroia drew a walk before Jed Lowrie lined a single to right, but nothing that could score Gonzalez. Even without the extra weight of upper lip hair, there was no way the slow-footed Gonzalez was going to come in on Jeff Francoeur’s arm.
He was wisely held up, putting Ryan Lavarnway up in a big situation. It would have been a wonderful time for Lavarnway to pick up his first major league hit. But he grounded one to short to end it.
8:10 p.m.: Jeff Francis throws an offering up and in to Jacoby Ellsbury to get this matchup of lefties under way.
7:49 p.m.: If you had not heard the little story about Dustin Pedroia and Jeff Francis before the Sports Illustrated article last week, you probably have now. Just in case, here’s a quick synopsis.
Pedroia homered off Francis to lead off the bottom of the first inning of Game 1 of the 2007 World Series at Fenway Park. It was an 0-1 offering that Pedroia crushed to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead and set the tone for the series sweep (as if Josh Beckett striking out the side in the top of the inning had not).
When the series shifted to Coors Field for Game 3, Pedroia was stopped trying to enter the park by security personnel who took a look at his small frame and never considered him a ballplayer. In true Pedroia-ese, the second baseman snapped back, “I’m the guy who took Jeff Francis onto the Mass Pike. How’s that?”
That one World Series encounter, in which Francis lasted just four innings in an eventual 13-1 loss to the Sox, was the last time Pedroia and many of these players have faced the lefty. He actually had five shutout innings in Fenway Park earlier during the 2007 regular season. Maybe they learned a little something in that game, for it was a beatdown once Pedroia got things going in the Fall Classic.
Side note: The man who took over for Francis in Game 1 was none other than current Red Sox reliever Franklin Morales. You may recall that he gave up seven runs on six hits and a walk in just 2/3 inning. If he and Francis have said hello in Kansas City this weekend, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Game 1 of the 2007 World Series came up in conversation.
7:13 p.m.: After tonight, the Red Sox can begin to get back to “normal” with their rotation. Andrew Miller is just a fill-in due to a bunched group of games, but they can stay in order, barring injury, for the next month.
The next time a sixth starter will be needed is in the second-to-last week of the year. The Sox have a homestand that sees them play 10 games in nine days.
If Miller is still around, he could get a start on or around a doubleheader Sept. 19. With September call-ups in the fold, there may be some other options.
That’s a bit down the road and so much can change between now and then. It just might comfort some people to know that the rotation can settle down with everyone at full strength (Erik Bedard, specifically) and on turn for the next several weeks.
6:11 p.m.: Word out of Kansas City is that Marco Scutaro could be back by Saturday.
That’s a pretty big development because Terry Francona is kind of stretched thin right now and unable to give certain guys a breather, if indeed they needed it.
With Scutaro back, Francona could play Mike Aviles at third for a game and use Jed Lowrie at first. That does not sound like an ideal move, but nothing is ideal right now. If Adrian Gonzalez needs a day off, now is the time to give it to him, and not mid-September when the deficit in the division is two games and the lead in the wild card is five. With the absences of Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz that would create an incredible void in the heart of the lineup, which is something to consider.
That said, Gonzalez told reporters that his neck strain is not an issue. The reason he has been struggling is due to some bad habits that cropped up as a result of the neck pain. Now that the soreness is not there, he feels he can get his mechanics back in line.
Gonzalez is hitless in his last 14 at-bats. He has four extra-base hits this month, all doubles. With the two guys normally behind him in the lineup now out with injury, this would be a good time to get going.
Carl Crawford is another guy that could benefit from Scutaro’s return, in a backwards way. With a lefty on the mound, Francona could put Aviles in right and Darnell McDonald in left. Again, not ideal, but if there is a strong desire to give Crawford a day, then it should come in this stretch of 14 games in 13 days, during which Crawford is 1-for-13 with seven strikeouts so far.
These are not guys that you ever want to sit. However, if Francona is sitting in his office, looking at numbers or talking with his staff or just eating lunch and thinking about the state of affairs, he could use a healthy Scutaro to make things right for other guys.
4:54 p.m.: A few readers were asking why Andrew Miller is making this start.
It all has to do with the doubleheader Tuesday. Because two starters were bunched together on that day, one of them (Lester or Bedard) would’ve had to come back on short rest if not for Miller.
The next man in line in the five-man rotation right now is Tim Wakefield. But if he went tonight it would’ve been Lester, in all likelihood, coming back on Saturday with three days between starts. That’s not in the best interest of the club as it needs to keep its big guns fresh.
And so, they swallow hard and send the uncertain Miller out there for a spot start. He was roughed up in his last start against Kansas City earlier this year at Fenway Park, and has had some rough outings in Kauffman Stadium, although they were in 2006 and 2007.
Here is the Royals lineup against Miller, followed by a few numbers:
Alex Gordon, LF
Melky Cabrera, CF
Billy Butler, DH
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Johnny Giavotella, 2B
Brayan Pena, C
Mike Moustakas, 3B
Alcides Escobar, SS
Gordon and Butler, the usual suspects, are a combined 6-for-13 (.462) against Miller, both with one home run and one double against him. Cabrera and Francoeur are a combined 4-for-20 (.200).
4:29 p.m.: You can expect a different look to the lineup on an almost daily basis for the duration of this trip, or at least until David Ortiz returns.
Such is the case Friday, when Mike Aviles is batting second, Ryan Lavarnway sixth and Darnell McDonald ninth with a lefty on the mound.
It’s worth noting that Marco Scutaro remains sidelined. That’s five straight games and you wonder if a retroactive DL move will be done just to get another body up here.
Here is the lineup against 2007 World Series Game 1 starter Jeff Francis:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Mike Aviles, SS
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Jed Lowrie, 3B
Ryan Lavarnway, DH
Carl Crawford, LF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Darnell McDonald, RF
8 a.m. ET: It’s been nearly three weeks since Andrew Miller started a game for the Red Sox. He’ll try to shake off the rust Friday night with a spot start against the Kansas City Royals.
Miller has pitched just three innings out of the bullpen since he started in Chicago on July 31. In the start prior to that one, he gave up seven runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings against these very same Royals at Fenway Park.
If that’s not enough negative history, it’s worth noting that Miller has been reached for six runs in 1 2/3 innings in two career appearances at Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City turns to fellow lefty Jeff Francis, who is coming off a rocky outing five days ago in Chicago. Francis won his only regular season start against the Red Sox, but he gave up six runs in just four innings of Game 1 of the 2007 World Series in Boston.
Francis is expected to throw his first pitch around 8:10 p.m.
