The Sox continued their complete domination of the Tigers on Wednesday night, winning their sixth game this season in six tries against the AL Central's current leaders. Mike Lowell and Jason Bay brought the offensive firepower — again — while Josh Beckett allowed three hits in seven innings, and Boston won its third straight, 8-2.
One night after going deep twice for the Red Sox, Lowell had another home run on Wednesday. His solo shot in the second inning gave the Red Sox their first lead, and they never looked back from there. Bay followed with a two-run homer, his team-leading 24th, in that same inning.
Beckett carried a perfect game into the fourth before walking Clete Thomas with two outs, and his no-hitter lasted until one inning later, when Carlos Guillen homered to put the Tigers on the board. Ultimately, Beckett struck out six Tigers and walked one in seven innings. Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez each pitched a scoreless inning in relief for the Red Sox.
For the Tigers, righty Zach Miner took the loss. Miner allowed five runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings; he struck out three Red Sox and walked two.
The Yankees and Rangers also emerged victorious today — Boston gains no ground in either the AL East or the wild card race.
Final: Red Sox 8, Tigers 2.
Make it three straight — the Red Sox have beaten the Tigers again. Ramirez
hits Ramon Santiago to put a runner aboard with one out, but he comes
back with a fielder's choice and a swinging strikeout of Marcus Thames
to end it. The Sox win again — the good times are rolling at Fenway.
End 8th, 8-2 Sox: The
Red Sox hit the ball hard against Ryan Perry, but the rookie manages to
escape with no score in the eighth. Nick Green leads off the inning
with a double to left, and Josh Reddick hits one deep to left as well after a long at-bat, but Ryan Raburn
is there for the out. After another flyout and a walk to Jason Bay,
David Ortiz steps to the plate with a chance to pad the Sox' lead, but
he lines one right at Brandon Inge to end the eighth.
Ramon Ramirez will pitch the top of the ninth inning for Boston.
Middle 8th, 8-2 Sox: For
Okajima, it's smooth sailing through the top of the eighth. After Alex
Avila grounds out to first to lead off the inning, Okajima records
back-to-back strikeouts — both swinging — to end the inning without
breaking a sweat. Rookie Ryan Perry will take the mound in the bottom of the eighth for the Tigers.
End 7th, 8-2 Sox: The Taiwanese rookie Fu-Te Ni comes
in to relieve Dolsi, and Ni makes quick work of the Red Sox in the
seventh. Strikeout, flyout, groundout, and we're moving on to the
eighth. For the Red Sox, Beckett is done — Hideki Okajima will take over from here.
Middle 7th, 8-2 Sox: Looks
like Beckett's starting to slip a little bit. The Sox' righty leaves
one out over the plate to Marcus Thames with one out and a 1-2 count,
and Thames gets all of it. A blast over the wall in left is Thames'
13th home run of the year — it's only the second hit of the game for
the Tigers, but both hits have been big ones.
End 6th, 8-1 Sox: The
Sox threaten a one-out rally this time around with a Jason Bay double
and a seven-pitch walk to David Ortiz, but no dice. Mike Lowell grounds
one to third one at-bat later, and a 5-4-3 double play is all Freddy
Dolsi needs to escape the sixth inning. Beckett's coming back out to
pitch the seventh.
Middle 6th, 8-1 Sox: After
a long, long wait, Beckett comes back out and throws another 1-2-3
inning for the Red Sox. Curtis Granderson makes things interesting by
hitting a deep fly ball to the warning track in right, but J.D. Drew is
there to get under it and make the catch. Through six innings, Beckett
has now thrown 87 pitches and faced 20 batters, two over the minimum.
End 5th, 8-1 Sox: Everything
was going smoothly for Zach Miner until a little two-out rally started
to break out. Jason Bay hit one deep to center field for a double to
get things started, and David Ortiz then hit one back up the middle for
a single of his own, moving Bay to third. With two on and two out, Jim
Leyland elected to go to his bullpen, getting Freddy Dolsi to pitch to Mike Lowell.
All Lowell could manage against Dolsi was a blooper over the pitcher's mound in front of second base, but Lowell's little popup ended up going untouched for an infield RBI single. The Sox make the Tigers pay by piling on four more runs — a Kotchman single, a Varitek walk, an Alex Avila passed ball and a Brandon Inge throwing error each tacks on a run. This one has been blown wide open.
Middle 5th, 3-1 Sox: Forget about that no-hitter. Carlos Guillen gets the best of Beckett on his very first pitch of the fifth, hitting one over the head of J.D. Drew
and into the bullpen in right-center. The Tigers are on the board, and
Guillen has his third home run in an injury-plagued 2009.
End 4th, 3-0 Sox: The
Red Sox start off the fourth with back-to-back hits, but Zach Miner
manages to escape the inning without any trouble. Casey Kotchman
grounds into a crippling double play, 6-4-3, and after a Varitek walk, Nick Green ends the threat with a flyout to right. Sigh of relief for Miner.
Middle 4th, 3-0 Sox: Beckett
finally allows his first baserunner, blowing a 1-2 count and eventually
walking Clete Thomas with two outs, but he fights back to end the top
of the fourth with a swinging strikeout of Marcus Thames. Make it five K's in four innings for Beckett, who's still absolutely dominating these Tigers.
End 3rd, 3-0 Sox: Not to be outdone by Lowell, Jason Bay has also decided to go deep again tonight. After a two-out double from Dustin Pedroia,
Bay goes deep to left — that's three in the series and 24 on the year
for him. Given the way Josh Beckett's pitching, three runs looks like
it should be plenty tonight.
Middle 3rd, 1-0 Sox: One run of
support might be all Beckett needs. (It's all he needed on Friday in
the Bronx, too.) It's another perfect inning for the Sox' ace — first
an 11-pitch at-bat ends in a long flyout to right by catcher Alex Avila, and then Beckett gets a groundout and a looking strikeout, his third. Beckett's cruising through this one.
7:44 p.m.: For some historical
context: Josh Beckett has faced the Tigers three times in his major
league career before tonight. His numbers: 20.2 innings and six earned
runs, for an ERA of 2.61. He's struck out 23, walked six and allowed
zero home runs. WHIP of 0.97; opponents' batting average of .182.
…yeah, that's pretty good.
End 2nd, 1-0 Sox: In case he hadn't already made that point
clear, Mike Lowell is loudly petitioning for a little extra playing
time down the stretch. Last night, he homered twice after entering as a
pinch-runner for Kevin Youkilis; tonight, he launches one over the
Monster in his first at-bat. That makes three home runs in this series
and 14 on the season for the Sox' third baseman. It's 1-0 Sox.
Middle 2nd, 0-0: It's hard to focus on the actual game at a time
like this, but it is my job, so here goes. Beckett throws another
perfect inning against the middle of the Tigers' order, sandwiching a
fly to center between two groundouts for an easy 1-2-3. And for more
good news, RemDawg's sticking around for at least another half-inning.
7:28 p.m.: Ladies and gentlemen, a man who needs no introduction but gets one anyway: Jerry Remy. Enjoy it, Sox fans.
End 1st, 0-0: The Red Sox have sent a clear message in the top
of the first: They're going to force Zach Miner to throw strikes. Miner
allows no hits but throws 21 pitches in the first inning, and the Red
Sox swing at just five of them. Jason Bay reaches on a six-pitch walk, never taking the bat off his shoulders, but the Sox strand him when David Ortiz grounds out on a 3-2 pitch. On to the second.
Middle 1st, 0-0: Half an inning is in the books, and so far, nothing's changed: Josh Beckett owns the Tigers. So far, we've seen two strikeouts (Curtis Granderson and Clete Thomas) and nobody reaching base against Beckett. What else could we expect?
6:30 p.m.: This time, it's Victor Martinez's turn to take a night off. Victor takes a seat, Jason Varitek gets the start behind the plate, and Casey Kotchman will play first. With Kevin Youkilis out of the picture (Youk decided today to drop the appeal of his five-game suspension), Mike Lowell gets the start at third base. Fresh off his two-homer performance last night, Lowell is the man of the hour.
For Detroit, the big news is that Miguel Cabrera is still missing in action. After being plunked on the left hand by Junichi Tazawa in the top of the first (in the precursor to the second-inning brawl), the Tigers first baseman is still feeling a little soreness, and manager Jim Leyland has left Cabrera off of tonight's lineup card.
In other news, Adam Everett gets the start at shortstop in place of platoon man Ramón Santiago.
4:22 p.m.: On last week's road trip, the Red Sox just couldn't buy a win. Now, they can't lose.
The Red Sox have earned back-to-back wins over the AL Central-leading Tigers since returning home to Fenway Park — and they haven't even busted out the big guns yet. Josh Beckett goes for the Sox on Wednesday night, and the Sox' ace hasn't lost in nearly a month. As he aims to become the majors' first 14-game winner, he'll take on the Tigers' Zach Miner.
The Sox are fading fast in the race for the AL East title, but the wild card is still very much attainable: The Sox currently wield a 1 1/2-game lead over the Rangers, and they can widen that margin if they keep the winning going this week.
They've got the right guy on the mound.
