Live Blog: Red Sox at Rangers

by

Aug 15, 2009

Live Blog: Red Sox at Rangers Final, Rangers 7, Red Sox 2: Felix didn't need to throw at anyone, retiring the side in order. Kinsler made a play on a grounder and appeared to be OK.

The Sox and Rangers will meet up in the hottest game of the year Sunday afternoon. First pitch is at 2:05 p.m.

Here is tonight's recap.

11:23 p.m.: Franky V says let 'em throw at each other! Glad to see he's still got the competitive fire.

11:20 p.m.: Kinsler was hot after that one, and with flamethrower Neftali Feliz on the hill, home plate ump Angel Hernandez issued warnings to both teams.

Let's hope we don't see brawl No. 2 of the week right here. The Sox don't need any more suspensions.

End 8th, 7-2 Rangers: That never looks good. Ian Kinsler, in his first game off the DL, gets hit in the head by Cabrera. He appears to be OK.

Earlier in the day, David Wright was hit in the head and suffered a concussion.

Often you hear people say, "The last thing he wanted to do was hit him right there." But with first base open, there's not much of a defense for Cabrera. That's not to say he was headhunting, but the fastball might have been intentionally thrown inside.

Kinsler owns a career .500 batting average against Cabrera.

11:14 p.m.: Yuck. Cabrera nearly worked out of a bases-loaded jam, but Josh Hamilton and his freakish strength muscled a ball into shallow right field to drive in a pair. 7-2 Rangers.

11:04 p.m.: Did Fernando Cabrera not expect the bunt there? Did it catch him off guard? Had he not watched the multiple attempts prior to that one?

Why the giant leg kick? He couldn't have been in a worse position to field the bunt, and the Rangers now have runners on the corners.

Someone needs to send Tom Emanski on a jet to Texas immediately.

As a sign of courtesy, Borbon steals second — the Rangers' eighth of the evening.

11:02 p.m.: The track meet continues as Andrus steals second base. That's No. 7 for Texas on the night.

Middle 8th, 5-2 Rangers: Neftali Feliz brings the heat and retires Bay, Lowell and Ortiz in order to strand Martinez on first. Friday's win was the third of the season for the Sox in which they trailed after eight innings. They'll need No. 4 tonight if they want a 2 1/2-game lead for the wild card.

10:57 p.m.: Want to be uninspired? Read about Paul Byrd's start for the Gulf Coast Red Sox.

10:52: Uh-oh. Do we have an admirer among us?

Victor Martinez takes a long, hard look at his home run to right field. The only problem is that it stayed in the park.

Victor was held to a 380-foot single.

10:45 p.m.: So home plate umpire Angel Hernandez can see a  balk on the mound but he couldn't see Marlon Byrd lean into a pitch?

Apparently, that's the case, as Byrd, who never should have been given first base in the first place, gets to trot home after a Ramon Ramirez balk.

Frank Viola disagrees, but the replay shows that Ramirez might have turned his shoulders before bringing down his left leg. Francona didn't argue too much and the Rangers now lead 5-2.

10:39 p.m.: Keep in mind the importance of keeping this game tight. The Rangers' closer, Frank Francisco, pitched in the last two games and is likely unavailable. Granted, given his performance Friday night, the Red Sox might prefer to face him.

10:33 p.m.: The ump's got to make that call on Marlon Byrd. The outfielder quite blatantly leaned into a Delcarmen changeup but was awarded first base anyway.

Kevin Youkilis was called for intentionally throwing his left arm into a pitch earlier in the year and was ordered back to the batter's box.

10:31 p.m.: That steal by Ellsbury was his 53rd of the year, putting him one behind Carl Crawford for the league lead. He is also one behind Tommy Harper for the Red Sox record of 54.

Middle 7th, 4-2 Rangers: Woof.

Dusty waves at a fastball at his eyes and O'Day gets out of the inning. Running out of time to take a lead.

To make matters worse, the caveman commercial is on. Tough two-minute stretch right there.

10:27 p.m.: Derek Holland exits and Ellsbury promptly steals second on Darren O'Day. Big spot for the reigning AL MVP.

10:23 p.m.: Ellsbury should take a chance and steal second here. If he's safe, they have a big run in scoring position. If he's picked off, having Dustin Pedroia lead off the eighth isn't the worst thing in the world.

10:20 p.m.: I stand corrected. Anderson singles. Will Alex Gonzalez and his .208 average sacrifice him over to second? Of course not. 6-4-3 double play. Excellent.

End 6th, 4-2 Rangers: MDC gets the job done, and the Sox now have nine outs to score some runs.

Will Clay Buchholz come in to pinch hit for Brian Anderson? Couldn't hurt, right?

10:11 p.m.: Penny's night is ended after a Michael Young single to right. In comes Manny Delcarmen to try to keep the score at 4-2.

10:07 p.m.: Either that grounder to Gonzalez took a funny hop, or that is one styling man.

Middle 6th, 4-2 Rangers: Lowell, Ortiz, Varitek. Flyout, groundout, flyout. Holland still dealing away.

Andrus and Borbon are coming up in the bottom of the inning, and Penny will be back out there. If either of the speedsters reach, however, he'll likely get the hook and they won't have the chance to pad their steal totals.

9:59 p.m.: Penny gave up four runs, the first time a starter has surrendered more than three runs in since John Smoltz got smacked around in New York on Aug. 6. In the eight-game stretch, Sox starters hurled seven quality starts, went 2-2 with a 2.29 ERA, struck out 45 batters and walked just 17.

End 5th, 4-2 Rangers: Whoa, Nelly!

Penny ends his outing in style, striking out the side in order.

Can the Sox spot him a few runs in the top of the sixth to give him the chance for a 'W'?

9:55 p.m.: On the verge of a 1-2-3 inning here. Is the walk coming? I'm on the edge of my seat.

Middle 5th, 4-2 Rangers: Victor Martinez is a good hitter. Like Mike Lowell, he knows how to put the good part of the bat on the ball more often than most folks can.

He keeps his hands inside of an inside fastball and deposits it into the seats in left field for his 18th homer of the year.

End 4th, 4-1 Rangers: Good news? No more steals.

Bad news? Another run.

Marlon Byrd hits a sacrifice fly to center, and the Rangers now lead by three runs.

Penny's thrown an impossible 93 pitches through four innings. That's more than 23 per inning.

Holland, by comparison, has thrown 60. He'll face the top of the order and 2-for-2 Jacoby Ellsbury in the fifth.

9:37 p.m.: David Murphy walks. Second base is open. How many pitches before he steals second? One? Two?

How safe will he be? Very, extremely or wicked?

9:32 p.m.: Oh hey, check it out. Borbon steals his third base of the game. At this point, I think Clay Buchholz could swipe a bag on this duo.

9:29 p.m.: I didn't play baseball beyond Babe Ruth league. I was the slowest player on my high school football team. Yet I can see with full confidence that I could steal a base on the Penny-Varitek combination.

Andrus makes them look bad by beating out a throw to second on a pitch out and then quite literally stealing third base.

He scores on a topspin grounder to Penny, of course, and the Rangers' lead is back to two runs.

Baserunning matters. At some point, you've got to catch someone stealing.

9:27 p.m.: Fear not, Red Sox fans. Help is on the way.

Timothy Stephen Wakefield, No. 49 in your program but No. 1 in your hearts, pitched fairly well in Triple-A this evening, going 3 2/3 innings for Pawtucket.

Extra, extra, read all about it.

Middle 4th, 2-0 Rangers: Jason Bay cuts the lead in half with a towering solo shot to left-center, but the Sox fail to capitalize on a two-on, one-out situation.

Brian Anderson is making a firm first impression and a strong case to be the game's least valuable player. He went down on strikes, again, before Gonzalez suffered the same fate.

End 3rd, 2-0 Rangers: Alex Gonzalez makes two assists to help Penny out of the inning.

I referenced this Friday night, but it's worth another mention. Curt Schilling wrote that he "never pitched in front of a player that had a better defensive season than Alex Gonzalez did" in 2006.

Hefty praise from a hefty man.

You can read the rest of it on Schilling's blog.

9:07 p.m.: Factoid About Brad Penny That You May Not Know: He combined with Luis Arroyo to pitch the first no-hitter in Portland Sea Dogs history, back when Portland was the Florida Marlins'  affiliate.

Is Luis available out of the pen tonight?

9:03 p.m.: Derek Holland looks good so far. Not top-of-the-rotation good, but the kind of good you'd hope to get out of a starting pitcher. His low-90s fastball is hardly impressive, but he's hitting his spots and keeping hitters honest with a low-80s changeup.

Perhaps Brad Penny took some notes from the dugout and can get a 1-2-3 inning in the third.

Middle 3rd, 2-0 Rangers: I am with Franky Viola on this one. Watching Jacoby Ellsbury play this year has been a joy. Home runs are nice, but there's just something about watching a guy fly all around the baseball field that's particularly enjoyable.

Of course, his one-out double proves to be meaningless, as Pedroia and Martinez ground out.

End 2nd, 2-0 Rangers: There was a whole bunch of yuck in that inning, but Penny forced Marlon Byrd to leave the bases loaded. 

Penny's now thrown 50 pitches through two innings. I wouldn't be holding my breath on the complete game tonight, folks.

8:52 p.m.: Do they not teach how to play the outfield down in Pawtucket? Brian Anderson looked lost on an Elvis Andrus flyball into right, and the speedy shortstop breezed into third base with the easiest triple of his life.

Maybe it would have been a tough catch, but Anderson was about 20 feet short of where the ball landed in the gap. A substandard right fielder would have at least made it a close play at third.

Penny couldn't work around the blunder, giving up an RBI single to Borbon.

After Reddick looked bad twice in as many games, a shaky Triple-A outfielder is the last thing anyone wants to see on the Red Sox right now.

Borbon, of course, stole second base on demand. Gonzalez put up an argument that Borbon came off the bag, and Francona came out to back him up, but they had no case.

8:40 p.m.: Ian Kinsler is in the order in a spot other than the leadoff position for the first time all year. He did so just once last season.

How does he respond? An opposite field home run to lead off the second, of course.

Middle 2nd: Ouch. Welcome to the club, Mr. Anderson.

The new guy watches, whiffs and watches in a quick three-pitch strikeout.

8:34 p.m.: Mike Lowell is great. The man is a ballplayer's ballplayer. But his nonexistent speed is going to become a problem at some point.

I understand he's coming off hip surgery, but at some point he's going to need to move two bases at a time.

End 1st: Wow, what a brutally entertaining inning from Penny. It's a wonder that guy has yet to go seven innings this season.

In a less-than-tidy 26 pitches, Penny gets out of a mini-jam, with two on and one out.

Julio Borbon stole second. By my count, that's the 6,178th runner to do so against Penny and Varitek this season.

8:26 p..m.: In case you missed it, the Little League team from Peabody won on a walk-off grand slam to advance to Williamsport, Pa. Read all about it.

Middle 1st: Ellsbury leads off the game with a bloop single into short left, but Pedroia, Martinez and Bay are retired in order. If you're looking for Ellsbury to steal some bases tonight, it's going to be hard.

The lefty Holland, who is apparently 22 years old but looks 17, mixed up his moves, using a slide step and a leg kick to keep Ellsbury close to the bag.

The only times Ellsbury's looked bad on the basepaths this year have been when he guesses and goes on first movement with a lefty on the hill. We'll see what happens.

Top 1st: Ready for the first pitch. Game-time temperature is a brisk 98 degrees. Bring your parka.

Derek Holland is coming off a complete-game shutout against the Angels on Sunday. It was by far his best outing of the year.

Mike Lowell homered against him in June in the second inning. Dustin Pedroia and Jason Bay also drove in runs in that game.

7:44 p.m.: Terry Francona said before the game that J.D. Drew will likely sit out until Wednesday. That decision comes because Drew has a sore groin.

Drew, known mostly for his distant demeanor, showed great hustle Friday night, twice beating out throws to avoid double plays.

7:38 p.m.: Heidi Watney spoke to the newly reacquired Alex Gonzalez earlier in the day. He said that he's happy to be back with a team in playoff contention.

"They told me they need me, and I said, 'I'm glad to be back [with] you guys and I want to do the best,'" he told Heidi. "I've come here to do my job."

A clip of the interview can be seen here. The full interview will be posted shortly.

7:09 p.m.: Somewhat lost in the shuffle of last night's comeback was Jon Lester's performance. In striking out 11 batters, he registered at least 10 K's for the sixth time this season.

That puts him in very limited company in Red Sox history. Only Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Jim Lonborg have done so more times in a season.

For old time's sake, check out these 10-strikeout games from Pedro:

1999 — 19 times
2000 — 15 times
2001, 2002 — nine times each
1998 — eight times

Roger's totals weren't bad either, but let's not talk about him.

5:40 p.m.: Some news from Texas:

Red Sox:
Alex Gonzalez will start at shortstop.

Brian Anderson will start in right field.

Josh Reddick was sent down to Pawtucket. In nine games, he batted .188. His defensive struggles likely helped lead to his demotion.

Rangers:
— Ian Kinsler
is back. The second baseman was activated from the disabled list and is in the sixth spot of the starting lineup.

Nelson Cruz was placed on the disabled list.

— Rookie Julio Borbon will get the start in left field and bat leadoff.

The day after a wild victory in Texas, the Red Sox head back to the field looking to extend their lead in the wild-card race. The Sox scored six runs against the Rangers in the ninth inning on Friday night, and they'll look to keep the bats hot Saturday night.

On the mound for Texas will be 22-year-old rookie Derek Holland. The Sox scored four runs against Holland in 4 2/3 innings in early June. That was the game that will be remembered for Jon Lester's brilliant complete game two-hitter.

The Red Sox will send Brad Penny to the mound. In the 98-degree heat in Arlington, Texas, it will be interesting to watch how Penny holds up.

We'll have all the updates all night long here on the live blog.

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