Red Sox Live Blog: Red Sox Crush Mets 8-2 Behind John Lackey

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Mar 11, 2010

Red Sox Live Blog: Red Sox Crush Mets 8-2 Behind John LackeyFinal, Red Sox 8, Mets 2: John Lackey pitched well in this one, registering three shutout innings and then shutting down the bullpen catcher for 12 more pitches.

Tazawa also closed the game in strong fashion, tossing a pair of scoreless frames.

Offensively, the top of the order looked great for the Red Sox in the top of the first, with Scutaro, Pedroia and Martinez loading the bases with nobody out. The Red Sox would score three runs that inning, and it proved to be enough for the win.

Middle 9th, 8-2 Red Sox: Do the Mets have what it takes to pull off the improbable? Probably not. Let's find out.

End 8th, 8-2 Red Sox: Junichi Tazawa looked good in that inning, as did Hazelbaker making a nice sprinting catch out in left.

Spring training: Where you can get credit for making a "nice sprinting catch."

Bottom 8th, 8-2 Red Sox: The Red Sox have eights RBIs today, all coming from seven different players. Gil Velazquez drove in two.

Middle 8th, 8-2 Red Sox: The Mets get their double play to end the inning.

Top 8th, 8-2 Red Sox: The wheels are coming off a bit for the Mets, as Angel Hernandez can't grab a popup before Luis Hernandez boots a surefire double play ball.

Top 8th, 6-2 Red Sox: Navarro can hit the baseball hard. I'm no major league scout or anything, but I bet that's something those guys look for. Just a hunch.

End 7th, 6-2 Red Sox: Castro gets back his bearings, getting the next three batters in order.

Bottom 7th, 6-2 Red Sox: Jason Pridie shows up Jacobs with another blast, this one traveling about 450 feet the other way. Yikes.

Bottom 7th, 6-1 Red Sox: Mike Jacobs greets Castro with a 410-foot bomb to straightaway center field. With that, the Mets are on the board.

Bottom 7th, 6-0 Red Sox: Fabio Castro is in the game, pitching for the Red Sox.

Middle 7th, 6-0 Red Sox: The Red Sox take advantage of the pair of Mets errors and score a run.

On the mound, Felix Doubrount turned in two solid innings, giving up just two hits.

Top 7th, 5-0 Red Sox: It's good to see that the young guys in the Mets system have already embraced the culture of late-inning follies. Two batters, two errors so far in the seventh.

Mid 6th, 5-0 Red Sox: David Wright's out of the game, but if you were only watching with half of your attention span, you might not have noticed.

Shawn Bowman just dove to his right, made a stab and threw across the diamond to retire Gil Velazquez and end the inning. A beautiful play by Bowman.

Top 6th, 5-0 Red Sox:  Anderson skies out to left, but Navarro shows some wheels by tagging up and taking third base.

Top 6th, 5-0 Red Sox: There's another double, this one from Yamaico Navarro, who's in at third base for the Red Sox.

In steps Lars Anderson, who needs a hit.

Top 6th, 4-0 Red Sox: Che-Hsuan Lin just doubled home McDonald. Off the bat, it looked like the ball might travel 600 feet, but it turned out to come off the end of the bat.

Either way, Lin drove home McDonald to bring up Jeremy Hazelbaker, who looks like he's 16 years old.

Top 6th, 3-0 Red Sox: Darnell McDonald is a pretty nice guy. The right fielder just lined one down the first-base line for an easy double, but the ball got stuck in the mud, and it could have just as easily been turned into a triple.

Not wanting to anger the baseball gods, apparently, McDonald pulled up at second.

End 5th, 3-0 Red Sox: The Red Sox are out of the fifth inning, thanks largely to a nifty double play turned by Lars Anderson.

The first baseman scooped a grounder, tagged first base to force out Luis Hernandez and then threw a one-hopped throw to second base. Shortstop Gil Velazquez made the scoop and the tag to end the inning.

Bottom 5th, 3-0 Red Sox: Felix Doubrount is now pitching for the Red Sox. He was scheduled to get work in today.

Middle 5th, 3-0 Red Sox: Lars Anderson goes down by way of the K again, as does Ortiz.

Big Papi had two runners on base for him, but Pedro Feliciano got him with something offspeed.

Top 5th, 3-0 Red Sox: Game on.

It looks like an entirely different Mets team on the field here for the top of the fifth, as the starters are probably wrapped in their Snuggies in the dugout.

2:48 p.m.: The word on the field is that the game will resume around 3 p.m.

2:41 p.m.: The tarp is being taken off the field.

End 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: Bay skies one into the air, and Pedroia camps out in short right field. After battling the crazy wind and some raindrops in his eyes, Pedroia squeezes the final out of the inning.

The grounds crew is out to cover the field, so it may have been the final out of the game. Stay tuned.

Bottom 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: Jason Bay could very well be the last batter of this game, as the rain is coming down heavily.

Bottom 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: Wow. Marco Scutaro shows his ups on a David Wright line drive. Scutaro robbed Wright of extra bases there.

In other news, it's borderline pouring out.

Bottom 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: Joe Nelson is on the mound for the Red Sox, while Lackey is still tossing in the bullpen (with a bullpen catcher standing in the imaginary batter's box).

Mid 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: An uneventful inning, save for a rope hit for a single by Mike Cameron. Lowrie ended the inning striking out looking on a full count. There's no Amica Pitch Zone in spring training, but I think it's safe to say that one might not have made it in the box.

Top 4th, 3-0 Red Sox: Tobi Stoner steps in for the Mets. Pelfrey's final line: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO.

End 3rd, 3-0 Red Sox: Lackey escapes trouble by getting Castillo to chop out to second to end the inning. Lackey had surrendered two singles earlier in the inning, and his outing is likely over.

Three innings, three hits, no runs for Lackey.

Bottom 3rd, 3-0 Red Sox: Red Sox fans just cringed a little, as Angel Pagan easily stole second base on the Lackey-Martinez battery.

End 3rd, 3-0 Red Sox: Alex Cora, the former backup infielder, singles into right field. Cora will take over starting shortstop duties, with Jose Reyes out indefinitely with thyroid problems.

Mid 3rd, 3-0 Red Sox: Pelfrey settled into a little groove after the rough first inning, this time retiring Pedroia, Martinez and Ortiz in order.

End 2nd, 3-0 Red Sox: Frank Catalanotto grounds into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Lackey is getting everybody to ground out this afternoon, and he's doing so with ease.

Bottom 2nd, 3-0 Red Sox: Bay grounded into what should have been a 5-4-3 double play, but Lowrie bobbles the ball a bit and just gets the force out at second.

Bottom 2nd, 3-0 Red Sox: Is everybody ready for the highly anticipated Jason Bay at-bat? A spring training homer would really stick it to his former team!

Mid 2nd, 3-0 Red Sox: Pelfrey comes back with a strong inning, striking out Lars Anderson and Scutaro to shut the Red Sox down in order.

End 1st, 3-0 Red Sox: Pedroia made a nifty play on a Luis Castillo slow roller, charging the ball and making a quick throw over to first in time to get Castillo.

Wright got into a Lackey pitch, hammering it to right field, but Drew (after struggling to get under the ball because of the wind) made the out.

Mid 1st, 3-0 Red Sox: Lackey's already been spotted three runs, thanks to RBIs from J.D. Drew, Mike Cameron and Jeremy Hermida.

Drew hit a bases-loaded bloop after Ortiz struck out swinging, scoring Scutaro from first. Cameron then hit a shallow fly, but Pedroia was able to tag up and score on the play (Angel Pagan's throw to the plate was well off line).

Hermida then smoked a grounder between shortstop and third base, scoring Martinez from second.

The inning ended on the play though, as Drew was caught trying to snag an extra base at third.

Top 1st: This is the kind of inning that will get Red Sox fans excited for the season.

Scutaro's double was followed with a lengthy Pedroia at-bat, one that started with an 0-2 count and ended with Pedroia taking first base on a walk.

Victor Martinez followed that up with an absolute rope up the middle. He hit it so hard that Scutaro couldn't score from second.

Bases are loaded for David Ortiz.

Top 1st: Marco Scutaro gets things started with a chopped double down the third-base line off starter Mike Pelfrey.

David Wright was playing off the line and couldn't get to the high chopper, and Scutaro breezed into second to start the game.

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