Final, Red Sox 4-3: Jonathan Papelbon picks up his first save since Aug. 18, closing the door on the biggest win of the season to date. He struck out the side in the process.
The lead is back to four games over the Rays (deficit behind Yanks is down to 3 1/2, for what it’s worth), and the Sox have seemingly corrected some troubling issues.
Not only do they get a rare win against Tampa Bay, which had won the last six meetings, but they see Josh Beckett and Daniel Bard play a huge role.
There’s a quick turnaround before the two get at it once more. It’s just about must-win territory for the Rays, and they’ll have to do it against Jon Lester. He gets the nod opposite Jeff Niemann in a 4:10 p.m. start Saturday.
End 8th, Red Sox 4-3: I haven’t seen the replay yet so I don’t know if Adrian Gonzalez ran through a stop sign, but there’s no way he should’ve been running home on the final play of the eighth.
Gonzalez was on second when Carl Crawford hit a hot shot to first that Casey Kotchman knocked into foul territory.
Gonzalez was not even at third base when Kotchman got up and began to track the ball down (it didn’t go far). About six people in the press box, myself included, yelled aloud “Why are you running?” when Gonzalez went home, and our concerns were warranted when Gonzalez was an easy out.
That turns things over to Jonathan Papelbon, who has a 21-inning scoreless streak. He’ll face old nemesis Dan Johnson to start things off.
10:26 p.m.: As I was saying, the Rays are not shy about making pitching changes. Here is the third of the inning as J.P. Howell comes on to face Carl Crawford after Marco Scutaro is retired.
Nice pace to things right now. We’re looking at a Tuesday finish.
10:21 p.m.: Joe Maddon plays matchups as much as anyone and will burn through an entire bullpen in an inning if he has to. Bench coach Dave Martinez, now at the helm with Maddon tossed, sticks with the same philosophy.
After Cesar Ramos retires David Ortiz, Terry Francona sends up Conor Jackson to hit for Josh Reddick. Martinez then emerges to call on righty Brandon Gomes.
Jackson is 0-for-27 dating back to his time with Oakland.
10:17 p.m.: James Shields begins the bottom of the eighth, but he doesn’t record an out in it. Shields walks Adrian Gonzalez to start it and then gives way to lefty Cesar Ramos, who will face David Ortiz.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 4-3: Daniel Bard strikes out three in a scoreless inning, but let’s not say he’s out of the woods just yet.
Bard was given a monstrous break when he hit leadoff hitter Johnny Damon in the foot, but third base umpire Bob Davidson ruled that he swung. That was strike three, but replays indicated that Damon had held up.
When Bard walked the next man it made that call even more signficant. The Rays probably should have had two on with no outs.
Instead, Bard got the out under his belt and worked around the walk with no problems, blowing away Matt Joyce and John Jaso.
Jaso is 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Boston pitchers have 12 Ks in this one, two shy of a team season high for a nine-inning game.
End 7th, Red Sox 4-3: We just had one of those potential game-changing plays that you will look back on as a turning point, if and when the Rays rally.
With Mike Aviles on third and one out (Aviles struck out but reached on a wild pitch, moved to second on a throwing error and third on a grounder to first), Dustin Pedroia hit a frozen rope down the line.
Evan Longoria made a marvelous diving catch to rob Pedroia of his third hit of the game, and when he landed his glove was right on the bag, allowing him to double off Aviles.
And now we turn our attention to Daniel Bard.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 4-3: Red Sox pitchers have struck out nine Rays hitters, all in the last six innings.
Perhaps none were any bigger than the one Alfredo Aceves picked up to end the top of the seventh.
Aceves had walked Desmond Jennings with one out and Evan Longoria with two. He was behind Casey Kotchman 2-1 and at that point had thrown just seven of his 20 pitches for strikes.
Kotchman stared at a cutter for strike two and then a 95 mph fastball on the inside corner for strike three.
Great job of escaping by Aceves, but it’s a tad troubling that he has walked nine men and hit four others in just 13 innings this month.
Franklin Morales and Daniel Bard were both up. My guess is Bard comes in, although the Rays have a ton of left-handed hitters coming up.
End 6th, Red Sox 4-3: Here comes Alfredo Aceves to work the seventh. He will pitch to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who hit for Jason Varitek in the sixth.
Before you go thinking it was because Varitek had allowed six steals, just know that Varitek had poor numbers against Shields and that Beckett was coming out of the game anyway.
The question is whether Aceves gets two innings before Jonathan Papelbon, or if Daniel Bard gets his chance in the eighth (provided everything stays the same here).
Beckett’s line: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.
Considering one of the two runs that came in reached on a bunt single and the other earned run came in on a 320-foot homer to left, that’s about as good as it gets for Beckett in his return to the mound.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 4-3: With his 109th pitch of the night, Josh Beckett freezes John Jaso for his seventh strikeout. Surprised Jaso didn’t put up a little stink over the continued large strike zone, but it is what it is what it is.
Actually it just got Joe Maddon ejected. You could see that coming with the way Hunter Wendelstedt has been calling things.
The K strands Johnny Damon at third. He singled to lead things off and stole both second and third, the latter without a throw with just one out. That caused Boston to have to bring in the infield.
The Rays have stolen six bases in this game, the most by a Red Sox opponent this season. Although this has been a very positive step forward by Beckett, the combo of he and Jason Varitek is very easy to run on right now. The Rangers, Angels, Rays and Yankees all run very well. They will be taking note in the event of a postseason matchup.
The Tigers, whom the Sox would play if the season ended today, are dead last in the AL in steals.
End 5th, Red Sox 4-3: Geez, can’t a brother get a bathroom break without the Red Sox going all 1-2-3 on us?
Apparently, from what I’m told, it was an eight-pitch inning for James Shields, who really, really needed it.
In the meantime, I overheard a conversation in the bathroom between two guys planning on coming to work inebriated tomorrow. It’s that time of year, folks.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 4-3: Josh Beckett is up to 87 pitches. No chance in heck he goes beyond six, in my opinion.
The fifth was an interesting one in its own right.
With one out, Desmond Jennings singled to improve to 3-for-3. B.J. Upton then got called out on a pitch that was a foot outside. Upton really got into it with home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, and he had a beef. Actually, a handful of hitters have shown some displeasure for Wendelstedt’s strike zone tonight.
Anyway, after falling behing 2-0 on Evan Longoria, Beckett and the Sox chose to intentionally walk him to face Casey Kotchman. It paid off when Kotchman grounded to Dustin Pedroia for the final out.
There is a lot of stretching going on in the Red Sox bullpen, but that’s it.
End 4th, Red Sox 4-3: Remember last year when the Red Sox were defined by contributions from fill-ins? That theme takes center stage in the fourth when Mike Aviles, your third baseman for the foreseeable future, takes James Shields over the Green Monster.
Aviles added some style, tossing the bat aside as the ball put a hole in the Sports Authority sign atop the Monster seats.
It is his first home run since May 1.
We know Kevin Youkilis will be out for another day, at the very least. But this would’ve been a good time to get Aviles in against Shields. He entered 3-for-8 against the righty, while Youkilis was 4-for-39.
Mid 4th, 3-3: One thing is clear. There are no issues with Josh Beckett’s ankles.
We don’t know yet if the Red Sox will make the playoffs, but if they do the fact that he looks like himself means they have a chance in October.
Beckett hit Johnny Damon to start the fourth, but struck out the last two hitters of the inning. The second one came on pretty curveball and got a massive roar from the crowd here at Fenway. You can tell they’re getting behind Beckett in a big way as he settles in here.
Of course, we don’t know how many pitches the Red Sox will give him. Terry Francona indicated there will not be a pitch count, but you know they won’t press the issue. He’s at 68 pitches through four.
End 3rd, 3-3: I may be forgetting an instance or two, but as far as I can recall Adrian Gonzalez had not attempted to bunt to the vacated portion of a shifted infield yet this year. Until the third.
With Dustin Pedroia on first, Gonzalez tried to drop one toward third. Evan Longoria was about 10 feet from the second base.
However, Gonzalez, who is not a bunter, missed the ball. He later struck out, but Pedroia stole second on the third strike and then came in easily when David Ortiz lined a double to right-center.
Pedroia is 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored. Ortiz is 2-for-2 with two RBIs. As long as the pitching is an abomination, it will take efforts like that for the Red Sox to keep their heads above water.
I know I buried the big hit in the inning, but it was worth noting what Gonzalez tried to do there.
By the way, first base has been open both times Ortiz has had a hit. With Josh Reddick the No. 5 hitter you have to wonder why James Shields is attacking there.
Mid 3rd, Rays 3-2: The Rays strike again with their aggressiveness and speed, getting the lead on an unearned run.
Desmond Jennings led off with a grounder up the middle. Dustin Pedroia made a nifty stop and spun to his right, but Jennings just barely beat the throw. A slower runner would’ve been out.
Jennings later bolted for second and was in when Jason Varitek’s throw went into center field, allowing Jennings to reach third. He came in on Evan Longoria’s base hit to right, although he did get an awful read on it and went back to third until it fell. Thought we were going to have a play at the plate, but Jennings has the legs to make up for the mistake.
End 2nd, 2-2: Joe Maddon talked at length yesterday about how his team defense has made up for his team’s sporadic offense. We saw a great example of this in the second.
James Shields walked the first two men he faced, proving that he is not at his best tonight.
Mike Aviles dropped down a bunt toward third that Evan Longoria fielded to begin a 5-6-4 double play, something you almost never see. It was a bang-bang play at first that prompted a mild argument from Terry Francona.
Shields gets the next man to strand a runner at third.
Mid 2nd, 2-2: That’s the Josh Beckett we’ve seen all year and the one the Rays have hated facing.
Beckett got a weak pop to first and a weak grounder to second. In between, he won a long battle with John Jaso to pick up his first strikeout of the game.
Beckett is five strikeouts shy of recording 1,000 with the Red Sox.
End 1st, 2-2: If the Red Sox are going to survive this swoon, they will have to fight back.
That makes the first inning a microcosm of how they will reach the postseason.
Jacoby Ellsbury ignites another rally with a leadoff double and scores on Dustin Pedroia’s base hit. David Ortiz later drives in Pedroia with a ball off the Monster that missed getting out of here by a foot or so.
James Shields settles down after that, but the Sox have already made him a bit uncomfortable. That’s a huge development.
One thing to watch going forward is how Josh Beckett’s ankle responds to innings in the dugout, especially long ones. I’m sure he’s getting all the stuff he needs to feel good (lollipops, mostly), but you never know how tight it gets until you head back out and start pushing off again.
Mid 1st, Rays 2-0: You can’t draw it up any worse for the Red Sox, or any better for the Rays.
Josh Beckett is forced to throw 22 pitches in the first, giving up a sky-scraping two-run homer by Evan Longoria that was upheld by review.
There was also a single by Red Sox killer Casey Kotchman, who promptly stole his second base of the season (without a throw), which forced Beckett to work even harder because Johnny Damon’s ensuing grounder to second would’ve been an inning-ending double play had Kotchman been on first. The Rays are clearly going to give Beckett everything they can. They’ll run, bunt, hit-and-run…all that stuff. Even more so than usual.
Beckett finally escapes when Adrian Gonzalez makes a pretty play down the line to rob Ben Zobrist of a hit.
James Shields has given up two runs in his last 32 1/3 innings. Chew on that as you think about what the Rays just did.
7:13 p.m.: Desmond Jennings drops down a bunt to test Josh Beckett on the first pitch of the game, and it pays off.
Beckett fields up the line and throws the ball away, an ominous beginning to this one. Remember the uproar in New York when the Yankees didn’t bunt on Curt Schilling and his bloody sock? Joe Maddon doesn’t want to waste that chance.
6:11 p.m.: Just saw Josh Beckett stroll through the clubhouse. Seemed to be very focused, but loose, taking time to comment on the Cubs-Astros game on the TV.
He’s been here before. You don’t need to worry about his mindset. It’s just a matter of shaking off the rust and hoping that the ankle is OK.
Beckett has thrown 17 scoreless innings against the Rays this year. Here is the lineup that will try to end that streak:
Desmond Jennings, LF
B.J. Upton, CF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Casey Kotchman, 1B
Johnny Damon, DH
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Matt Joyce, RF
John Jaso, C
Reid Brignac, SS
Here is Joe Maddon’s take on the matchup with Beckett:
“Beckett’s good against a lot of teams but he’s really been devastating vs. us. We’ll see. I know obviously his ankle is bothering him. I don’t know if it’ll impact his performance but I have a lot of respect for him so we’ll see. We gotta wait and see what he looks like. Nothing’s wrong with his arm, I know that. When it comes down to throwing it always starts with your feet first.”
Maddon added more feedback on that 1995 California Angels collapse, something about which he is asked often as Boston’s lead dwindles.
“You walk in and there’s a weight,” he said of what it is like to see your lead vanish. “That’s the best way to describe it — it’s weighty. You can actually feel it and you’ve gotta get a guy or two to get out there and lift the weight for you. Best way to describe it. I can remember walking into the clubhouse and it just felt heavy.”
I wouldn’t say the Sox clubhouse felt weighty. It’s crowded as poop with all the extra lockers for September call-ups in there, but nothing seems too far out of the ordinary. We’ll see in a moment how it all translates to the field.
4:51 p.m.: OK, we have a few minutes before heading back to the clubhouse to get the pulse of the team in the moments before the big game (1950s high school football fan voice).
The word on some of the injured guys is not great. Kevin Youkilis will not play tonight or tomorrow and you may see him sit out the entire series, or more.
“We’re going to have to let this thing calm down,” Francona said.
When asked to clarify what needs to calm down (hip? back? anything related to the hernia?), Francona was extremely general. It seems as if it is a body-wide issue.
“Just the way he feels physically,” Francona said. “As he gets into the game, and there’s certainly some standing around in the game, which inevitably happens, just getting stiff and sore, but anything rotational or diving.
“Just about anything you would do on the field to try be productive, is getting harder for him.”
That doesn’t sound great. Youkilis did not speak with reporters earlier in the day. We’ll try to grab him once more.
As for the pitching staff, the wheels keep turning. Kyle Weiland will start Tuesday against Baltimore, but one half of the doubleheader Monday remains open (John Lackey starts one of those games). There is nothing new on Erik Bedard but it seems as if they are holding out hope that he can give them four innings that day — Francona said Bedard is not the type to need many extended bullpen sessions (he has yet to have any).
It doesn’t seem as if Alfredo Aceves will get that other start.
“If you’re gonna start him, and I don’t doubt he would do really well, I think he could handle five innings and probably do pretty well, but then you’re losing him for three days beforehand and three days after,” Francona said. “And right now I don’t think that makes us a better team.”
Seems likely that Andrew Miller will be your starter in that game. If so, the rotation in the Orioles series would be Lackey, Miller, Weiland and Beckett. Then it’s on to New York.
Back in a bit with more.
3:16 p.m.: Greetings from Fenway Park, where the glorious weather stands in stark contrast to the life and times of the Red Sox right now. Still, they have a great opportunity with Josh Beckett and Jon Lester in the next couple of days to right the ship, provided both perform the way they have.
As expected, there is no Kevin Youkilis and no Jed Lowrie in the lineup tonight. The microscope may focus rather intensely on Mike Aviles in the coming days.
Here is the Boston batting order against James Shields:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
David Ortiz, DH
Josh Reddick, RF
Marco Scutaro, SS
Carl Crawford, LF
Jason Varitek, C
Mike Aviles, 3B
Even if Youkilis was feeling well enough to play, this might’ve been a night off for him. He’s a career .103 (4-for-39) hitter against Shields. Aviles is 3-for-8 (.375).
8 a.m. ET: It won’t be quite as dramatic as Curt Schilling’s bloody sock, but the eyes of Red Sox Nation will focus on the right ankle of another star right-hander when Josh Beckett returns to the mound Friday night at Fenway Park.
Beckett missed one start after spraining his ankle last Monday in Toronto. He returns to try to rescue a team that has dropped nine of its last 11 games overall and six in a row to Friday’s opponent, the hard-charging Tampa Bay Rays.
The righty has spun 17 scoreless innings in two starts versus the Rays this year.
James Shields will go for Tampa Bay, which is within three games of the Sox after a 9-2 win in the series opener. He is 4-0 with a 0.78 ERA in his last four starts, the last of which was a gem against the Red Sox on Sunday.
First pitch from Beckett is 7:10 p.m.
