Final, Red Sox 5-2: A little bit of drama in the ninth, and you have to wonder how much confidence Terry Francona can have in Bobby Jenks right now, but a win’s a win.
And as far as wins go, there haven’t been many as “needed” as this one for the Red Sox.
The battery of Jon Lester and Jason Varitek does most of the damage. Lester throws seven scoreless and Varitek slugs two solo homers.
Boston now gets a chance to head to lowly Houston with its head held high. Perhaps Kevin Youkilis can return during the series. Perhaps the Mike Cameron situation can help. Perhaps this team can beat up on a bad team and finish the trip on a good note.
Tim Wakefield will try to keep it going when he takes the mound Friday night at Minute Maid Park. First pitch is 8:05 p.m.
4:03 p.m.: Because of Bobby Jenks, the Phillies have some life.
Jenks just served up a two-run homer to Ryan Howard that would’ve reach New Jersey if the stands weren’t in the way. He followed it up with a walk to Shane Victorino.
That’s enough for Terry Francona. He calls on Jonathan Papelbon to avert a complete disaster.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 5-0: The Red Sox load the bases with two outs, but cleanup hitter Dustin Pedroia fails to clean things up. He pops to second and we head to the last half of the ninth.
It’ll be Bobby Jenks on to protect a five-run advantage. Surely, Papelbon will be at the ready if and when trouble arises.
End 8th, Red Sox 5-0: No problems for Daniel Bard in the eighth. This is about as methodical an effort as the Red Sox have had this year, given the opponent.
Jonathan Papelbon may still pitch the ninth, despite the non-save situation. Just hasn’t had much work this month.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 5-0: One of the few positions that was not struggling at the plate during this trip was catcher. Jarrod Saltalamaccahia and Jason Varitek weren’t lighting the world on fire, but they were still getting on base.
Well, Varitek has now rounded the bases twice. He followed a solo shot by Dustin Pedroia in the eighth with one of his own, and the second of the day, to open this thing up a bit.
It is the 11th multi-homer game of Varitek’s career. Josh Reddick followed with a bid for a third straight Red Sox homer, but it died on the track.
I feel like I could spit right now and it would find its way to Philly and blow over the right field wall.
Daniel Bard will take over for Jon Lester, now in great shape to improve to 10-4.
End 7th, Red Sox 3-0: A great moment for Jon Lester. He finds himself in his first jam of the night, the bullpen stirring, his pitch count rising and the one guy in this lineup that has given him fits up at the plate.
After a seven-pitch fight with Raul Ibanez, Lester got him swinging on a cutter that darted over the outside part of the plate. That left two men on and put this one in the hands of the Red Sox bullpen.
Great effort by Lester.
Earlier in the inning, Dustin Pedroia made a backhanded stop on a hard one-hopper for the first out. He makes that play as well as anyone. It’s almost become a vintage image of him scooping a hard shot, spinning to his right, rising to his feet and throwing to first for the out.
Had that play not been made, the Phils might be on the board by now.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 3-0: If the Phillies come back and win this thing, the job Drew Carpenter did pitching out of trouble in the seventh will be discussed.
Carpenter gave up singles to Drew Sutton and Marco Scutaro to start the inning.
With those two on the corners, Jon Lester was unable to get down a bunt. He fouled off an attempt with two strikeouts, recording his 12th strikeout in 20 at-bats in his career.
Carpenter then got Jacoby Ellsbury looking at a questionable strike three and pinch hitter J.D. Drew on a fly to center.
Drew was given his usual Philadelphia treatment. Plenty of boos for the new right fielder.
Lester will face the meat of the order here in the seventh.
End 6th, Red Sox 3-0: With a pitch count at 95, Jon Lester would need some extremely fast innings to get a complete game out of this one.
But if pitch count was thrown out of the equation, he might dominate the Phillies until the sun goes down. They simply haven’t had any notable contact off of him.
Lester has retired eight straight since the one and only hit for the Phils.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 3-0: The Jason Varitek homer in the sixth was a true Citizens Bank Park special.
Not to take anything away from Varitek, but he basically hit a mile-high fly ball that just carried into the first row of that rather short porch.
But a home run is a home run, and a three-run lead is that much better than a two-run advantage.
It’s the fourth of the year for Varitek.
Jon Lester has thrown 83 pitches as he starts the bottom of the sixth.
End 5th, Red Sox 2-0: Jon Lester has now allowed one run in 19 innings against the Phillies in his career after a perfect fifth.
He hasn’t even sniffed trouble yet. The pitcher’s spot is due up to begin the sixth for Philadelphia.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 2-0: We get another glimpse into one of those pesky little National League situations in the top of the fifth.
After Josh Reddick tripled with one out (he is now 16-for-34!), Drew Sutton stepped to the plate in a huge spot. Had Sutton been unable to get the run in, the Phillies could simply walk Marco Scutaro and attack Jon Lester.
It sort of puts all the eggs into that one basket. Fortunately, for Boston, Sutton pulls through. He grounded a single to right to score Reddick with a quick run off David Herndon.
Scutaro, now in a situation where the Phils have to pitch to him, followed with a base hit of his own. Batting with runners on the corners and still just one out, Lester struck out to fall to 0-for-19 with 11 strikeouts for his career.
Still, because of the two singles early on, Jacoby Ellsbury gets a chance to hit. He stroked a single to left to score Sutton. Every run in these games is huge. Two mammoth RBI hits for the Sox right there.
By the way, Reddick is getting plenty of attention, for good reason. But Sutton is 12-for-40 (.300) with six RBIs in his limited chances.
That line drive from Adrian Gonzalez off Cole Hamels will be the biggest play in this game.
End 4th, 0-0: First things first. Not that you want to see anyone get hurt, but the Red Sox may catch a break here. Cole Hamels is unable to go on after taking that line drive off his hand last inning.
David Herndon takes over. We will pass along any Hamels updates when we hear.
In the bottom of the fourth, Chase Utley gets the first hit of the game off of Jon Lester, a single to left. He also swipes second base.
That gives the Phillies a man in scoring position for the second time (the Red Sox have yet to do so). Jon Lester works around it with a fly out off the bat of Ryan Howard and then a hard liner to fairly deep center by Shane Victorino.
The Victorino out may have been the hardest hit ball of the game other than Adrian Gonzalez’s line drive off Hamels’ hand.
Mid 4th, 0-0: The Red Sox’ best strategy right now might be to see if they can hurt Cole Hamels. They tried that in the fourth. Didn’t work.
Adrian Gonzalez ripped a line drive that caught Hamels on his glove hand, perhaps on the wrist, and then caromed up and hit in him the arm/chest.
Hamels, who recovered to get Gonzalez at first, needed a little time to catch his breath, but retired Dustin Pedroia a few pitches later. It’s another perfect inning for Hamels. We will see how he responds after that thing swells up.
In addition to the painful stop, it appears as if Hamels cut himself shaving today.
End 3rd, 0-0: Jon Lester has yet to allow a hit, but he did hit the backstop on the fly on a wayward pitch to Jimmy Rollins.
This is one of those whichever-team-scores-first-wins kind of games.
Iced coffee time.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: Jon Lester struck out on 1-2-3 pitches, part of a 1-2-3 inning for Cole Hamels. Yeah, I caught a little Sesame Street yesterday morning.
Just to update those numbers of futility: the Red Sox have scored one run in 23 innings, that one being the John Lackey RBI double from last night.
End 2nd, 0-0: Put a gold star next to Adrian Gonzalez’s play in the bottom of the second.
With a runner on first and one out, Drew Sutton fielded a ball deep down the line at third and fired high and wide to first.
Gonzalez expertly kept one foot on the bag and reached for Sutton’s throw to make the out, all while Ben Francisco tumbled into the bag with an awkward slide.
Gonzalez said he felt more of an injury risk at first base than right field. Plays like that certainly support his case.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Josh Reddick is now batting .455 and is 5-for-7 against lefties after singling off Cole Hamels in the first.
Reddick may force the second DFA of the year if his play causes Darnell McDonald to be moved. Less likely, given that the team is already down one right-handed bat.
However, with every game that goes by the chances of Reddick riding that express to Pawtucket when Carl Crawford returns are less likely.
End 1st, 0-0: Two easy grounders and a strikeout of Chase Utley and Jon Lester has a very nice beginning.
The first out of the inning was a grounder to Drew Sutton, which brings an issue to mind. Behind Sutton, there is absolutely nobody available to play the infield, unless you include David Ortiz and his first base mitt.
Perhaps Darnell McDonald could serve as an emergency replacement with J.D. Drew entering the outfield.
Much of this is dependent upon when Yamaico Navarro can arrive. He is expected to make it at some point during the game. You can just picture Theo Epstein staring at one of those flight trackers, can’t you?
Mid 1st, 0-0: Jacoby Ellsbury leads off with an infield single and you got the sense that maybe this team, struggling to score runs and reeling from the DFA of one of its clubhouse cornerstones, could try to put something together early and move on.
But Darnell McDonald grounded into a double play (was he slow down the line or is it just me?) and Adrian Gonzalez struck out.
Surely, McDonald’s DP will keep the vultures away from him. At least those that tired of circling Cameron.
1:07 p.m.: The first pitch from Cole Hamels to Jacoby Ellsbury is a strike. The effort to salvage a sweep has begun.
12:20 p.m.: The word out of Philly is that Mike Cameron has been designated for assignment. Theo Epstein has just confirmed the move, with infielder Yamaico Navarro taking his place on the roster.
More on this in a bit.
11:52 a.m.: One last reminder. You can still place up to 25 votes for Jacoby Ellsbury in the race for the third starting outfielder on the American League All-Star roster.
The online/mobile voting ends at 11:59 p.m. tonight. As of the last update, Ellsbury trailed Josh Hamilton of Texas by just over 120,000 votes.
To vote, go here.
10:59 a.m.: We figured the foul ball that Kevin Youkilis took off his left foot last night was one reason for his absence today. We now know, based on reports out of Philadelphia, that he will have precautionary X-rays.
It sounds like the team is optimistic that nothing major will be found. Just something for peace of mind.
Peace of mind is exactly what Jon Lester should have if he is able to take anything away from prior meetings with the Phillies. Lester is 1-0 with a 0.64 ERA in two career starts against Philadelphia, allowing eight hits and striking out 16 in 14 innings.
Here is the lineup against Lester, followed by a few figures:
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Placido Polanco, 3B
Chase Utley, 2B
Ryan Howard, 1B
Shane Victorino, CF
Ben Francisco, RF
Raul Ibanez, LF
Carlos Ruiz, C
Cole Hamels, P
The first four hitters are a combined 1-for-17 with eight strikeouts against Lester. Howard is 0-for-6 with five Ks.
Like last night with John Lackey, the one guy to watch for is Raul Ibanez, whose solo shot in the seventh was the difference Wednesday. Ibanez is 4-for-9 with a pair of doubles vs. Lester.
10:22 a.m.: I just tweeted this, but wanted to add it here since it’s rather interesting. Dustin Pedroia is a .650 hitter (13-for-20) with two home runs, four doubles, seven RBI and six runs scored (also two walks against no strikeouts) in his career as a cleanup hitter.
This will be his fifth career start batting fourth and first since Sept. 3, 2008.
Jason Varitek will be batting fifth to begin a game for the first time since July 8, 2007, at Detroit.
10:02 a.m.: Quite a shakeup in the Red Sox lineup for the series finale. The way people are lining up to analyze things, this one is sure to cause some debate.
Take a look:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Darnell McDonald, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Jason Varitek, C
Josh Reddick, LF
Drew Sutton, 3B
Marco Scutaro, SS
Jon Lester, P
Now, before we break it down too much, you have to know that Kevin Youkilis was probably going to get this day off. It’s the day game after a night game, he took the foul ball off his foot last night and he has been nursing little things for weeks. So you put Drew Sutton in, but you still don’t have a cleanup hitter.
If you are staying away from David Ortiz, there really aren’t many options other than what Francona did here. Everyone will say that batting Darnell McDonald second is crazy, but you have to think about a few things. One, there has to be balance. With this configuration, the Sox swap lefties and righties through the first four hitters, followed by a switch hitter in Varitek.
Also, whether you like it or not, they club is intent on getting McDonald (or Mike Cameron) going. Putting him between Ellsbury and Gonzalez is one way to make that happen. Pedroia’s been one of the best hitters on the team this month, so that’s a serviceable cleanup guy for a day.
And, by putting the hot-hitting Reddick in the No. 6 hole against a lefty (albeit one who is deadly vs. righties), and keeping a guy who can handle the bat in Scutaro at the eight-spot, you achieve that balance.
It’s not a great lineup, but we had an inkling that both Ortiz and Youkilis would be on the bench. This may be the only way to handle things to start it off.
7 a.m.: It’ll be a matchup of star left-handers when the Red Sox and Phillies finish a three-game series Thursday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
Jon Lester, trying for the third time to reach the 10-win mark, opposes Cole Hamels in the must-see encounter. Both hurlers enter 9-4.
Lester has allowed just one run in 14 career innings against Philadelphia. After going 9-1 over a span of 11 starts, he has dropped two straight decisions. Lester will be hoping for some run support from an offense that has produced just one run on seven hits in the first two games of the series.
Hamels enters the day leading the National League with a 0.96 WHIP and ranking third with a 2.49 ERA. He is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA against Boston, including two dominant outings versus the Sox last season.
First pitch is 1:05 p.m.
