Red Sox Live Blog: John Lackey, Red Sox Shut Down Orioles 4-0, Win Fifth Straight

Final, Red Sox 4-0: Jonathan Papelbon had allowed at least one run in his last two appearances, but he looked sharp in the ninth inning against the O's.

Papelbon got ahead of Vladimir Guerrero 0-2 before the free-swinging DH flew out to J.D. Drew in right.

Matt Wieters jumped on a 96-mph fastball from Papelbon, but Reddick was able to track it down on the run just before the warning track in left.

Papelbon fell behind Derrek Lee, who was plunked in his last at-bat, but he battled back and eventually blew Lee away with a high fastball.

It was a solid effort from John Lackey on Saturday. He pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings before handing the ball over to the Red Sox 'pen. He allowed only three hits and struck out seven. Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon preserved the shutout and the win.

The Sox pick up their fifth straight victory and have now taken the first three games of the series with the O's. They will look to complete the sweep on Sunday at 1:35 p.m., when rookie Kyle Weiland takes the mound for his major league debut.

End 8th, Red Sox 4-0: Jim Johnson came in to pitch for the O's in the eighth and he retired the Sox in order.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia was retired via a soft line out to short. J.D. Drew then turned over a fastball to the first baseman Derrek Lee, who tossed it over to Johnson, who was covering the bag, for the out.

Marco Scutaro also lined out to the shortstop Hardy to end the inning.

It will be Jonathan Papelbon in a non-save situation in the ninth.

Mid 8th, Red Sox 4-0: How about that Tony Lee? Truly a jack of all trades.

Daniel Bard's dominance continued in the eighth, as the right-hander even reached triple digits on the radar gun.

He retired the first two batters of the inning before Nick Markakis reached on an infield single. Marco Scutaro made a fantastic diving play in the hole, but Markakis was able to beat the throw in plenty of time. He then proceeded to swipe second base, but he wouldn't get any further than that, as Bard retired Adam Jones by way of the K. He froze Jones with a nasty slider.

Bard hasn't given up a run since May 23, a stretch that has seen his ERA drop from 3.65 to 2.09.

David Ortiz had a few gifts for the Fenway Faithful in the eighth inning as well, throwing gum to the fans sitting around the Red Sox dugout. One night the guy's throwing hands, the next night he's throwing candy. How can you not love Big Papi?

End 7th, Red Sox 4-0: Dustin Pedroia's hitting streak is now at 11 games after a leadoff double in the seventh.

Pedroia got to third on a chopper to first and then scored when Kevin Youkilis dropped a double down the right-field line. A hit by David Ortiz put runners on the corners, but Baltimore avoided any further damage when Josh Reddick hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing.

The unstoppable Ricky Doyle will be finishing the live blog for me tonight. Look for my shiny head on your television real soon. Adjust the tint accordingly.

Mid 7th, Red Sox 3-0: Fire out.

Daniel Bard extends his scoreless streak to 17 1/3 innings after getting a weak pop to short and stranding a pair of runners.

The line on John Lackey: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 WP, 2 HP.

9:20 p.m.: If John Lackey was sticking up for a teammate, he did it at a good time and to the right guy, if you believe in the code and all that.

Derrek Lee was the one Oriole to homer last night. He just got plunked with two outs and nobody on in the seventh. That prompted Jeff Nelson to issue warnings to both sides.

Lackey struck out the next batter, but the ball escaped to the backstop and he reached. Terry Francona doesn't want things to get out of hand, so he calls on Daniel Bard to put out the first.

Nolan Reimold will be the batter, representing the tying run.

Nice applause for Lackey as he departs. Good to see/hear.

End 6th, Red Sox 3-0: The cycle watch will have to wait another inning or so for Jacoby Ellsbury.

He grounded to third to finish a quick inning for Mark Hendrickson.

As John Lackey takes the hill to start the seventh, Alfredo Aceves begins to get loose in the Red Sox bullpen.

Mid 6th, Red Sox 3-0: A 3-3-6-3-4 double play ends the top of the sixth for Baltimore.

John Lackey has thrown 94 pitches. Nobody warming in the pen, but some guys are walking around a bit.

Lackey hit Nick Markakis with a pitch in the sixth. It gives Lackey nine hit batters this year, one behind the ML leader, Jon Lester.

End 5th, Red Sox 3-0: Mark Hendrickson gets Jarrod Saltalamacchia to end the rally, but why wasn't he in a batter or two earlier?

You could've elected to bring him in to face David Ortiz (carefully, of course, with first base open) or certainly to face Josh Reddick. I know both Ortiz and Reddick have been hurting southpaws, but it just seems odd.

Not the best of innings for Buck Showalter.

Anyway, John Lackey has his lead but will have to shake off some rust from a long rest on the bench.

8:52 p.m.: It looked for a moment as if Alfredo Simon might escape another mighty pickle, but the Red Sox finally get that big hit.

After going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, Kevin Youkilis, who had that one RISP hit way back in the first, delivered a run-scoring double to score Dustin Pedroia.

That came after a whole mess of other stuff.

Jacoby Ellsbury led off the inning with a triple into the corner in right. That leaves Ellsbury a home run shy of the team's first cycle since 1996.

Dustin Pedroia then chopped one back to the mound, where Simon fielded and caught Ellsbury well off third. Simon came up a bit lame in the ensuing rundown, which resulted in Ellsbury being tagged out near home.

Pedroia made it to second on the play and Baltimore elected to intentionally walk Adrian Gonzalez before the Youkilis hit made them pay.

With Youkilis on second and Gonzalez on third, the O's chose the same strategy with David Ortiz, but Josh Reddick made them pay again with a two-run double.

That prompted Buck Showalter to turn to Mark Hendrickson. He is in to face Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Mid 5th, 0-0: The Orioles have had the leadoff man in four of five innings so far. Just one has advanced as far as third base.

John Lackey retires three in a row after a leadoff hit by Derrek Lee. Lackey has six strikeouts, two shy of matching his season high.

After Marco Scutaro leads things off in the bottom of the fifth, the Red Sox will be getting their third look at Alfredo Simon. That often leads to something.

End 4th, 0-0: In Alfredo Simon's last start over two years ago, he gave up three home runs in the first seven batters and was promptly removed.

Simon has already given Baltimore about as much as it can ask for in what amounts to a fill-in start.

It's not as if the Red Sox have not had their chances, but Simon has done very well with runners on base. Then again, he is a reliever and used to working out of the stretch…maybe that comes into play.

Simon worked around a one-out error in the fourth. He has thrown 51 pitches. If you're wondering when he'll tire, he has thrown as many as 73 pitches in a game this year. His career high is 96, but that was back in 2008.

Mid 4th, 0-0: After a leadoff walk to Adam Jones, John Lackey and Jarrod Saltalamacchia team up for two strikeouts and a caught stealing.

The tandem is looking strong tonight.

With that very strong throw to nail Jones, Saltalamacchia has now thrown out 25 percent of would-be base stealers this year. That's just a shade under the league average and with the way he's going now he'll be in the upper half soon enough.

Lackey has five strikeouts in the last three innings alone.

End 3rd, 0-0: Jacoby Ellsbury is 17-for-37 (.459) with a boatload of extra-base hits since June 30 after a double to start the third.

Ellsbury entered the night eighth in the American League in hitting and has already raised his average four points to .313.

Of course, all that did was enable the Red Sox to fall to 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez both flew out to left. Kevin Youkilis grounded out to the shortstop.

Mid 3rd, 0-0: John Lackey has strikeouts on three different pitches after using a changeup to fan J.J. Hardy in the third.

The inning is the first 1-2-3 frame for Lackey. He has retired nine of the last 10 he has faced.

End 2nd, 0-0: The Red Sox already have had eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. They have just one hit in those situations, and it did not yield a run.

After Josh Reddick leads off with a single to get back to .400, he advances to second on a balk.

But Jarrod Saltalamacchia and J.D. Drew both loft weak flies to right and left, respectively. Marco Scutaro grounds to second to end it.

Mid 2nd, 0-0: For the second straight inning, John Lackey allows the first man to take him off the Green Monster.

For the second straight inning, that man is held to a single.

And for the second straight inning, Lackey gets the next three in order.

The righty recorded his first two strikeouts in the second. Derrek Lee and Mark Reynolds were his victims.

Pretty good stuff so far from Lackey. His fastball has topped out at 96 and he got Reynolds on one that hit 95. He got Lee swinging on a pretty nice curve.

End 1st, 0-0: Somewhere in the Baltimore bullpen, Kevin Gregg cracks a smile.

After the Red Sox load the bases on an infield hit by Jacoby Ellsbury, a walk to Dustin Pedroia and a one-out single by Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz grounds into an inning-ending double play.

Ortiz was given a huge ovation when he came to the plate. Many of the fans were on their feet.

Perhaps the biggest factor in keeping Boston off the board, aside from Ortiz's slow-footedness, is the fact that Youkilis' single was tough for Ellsbury to read at second base. It was a bit of a bloop and Ellsbury had to make sure it fell. He was only able to make it to third before the Ortiz grounder to second.

Mid 1st, 0-0: There were a few groans when John Lackey's third pitch of the night was smacked off the Green Monster by J.J. Hardy.

Hardy was limited to a wall-ball single and Lackey avoided any further damage. Lackey did uncork one of the uglier pitches we've seen in a little while, tossing a fastball to the screen to allow Hardy to scamper to second.

But all in all, a positive first step for Lackey in a very, very big start. He would love to end the first half on a good note and have some momentum once the break is over.

7:10 p.m.: On an absolutely perfect night at Fenway Park, John Lackey has started things off with a ball to J.J. Hardy.

6:49 p.m.: Yo, dude, John Lackey's totally gonna like drill one of these guys:

J.J. Hardy, SS
Nick Markakis, RF
Adam Jones, CF
Vladimir Guerrero, DH
Matt Wieters, C
Derrek Lee, 1B
Mark Reynolds, 3B
Nolan Reimold, LF
Robert Andino, 2B

Markakis is the one to watch. He is 13-for-37 (.351) with three doubles and five walks against Lackey, who has a 9.17 ERA at home this year. Included in that is a 19.06 mark in his last two starts at Fenway (12 ER/5.2 IP).

5:44 p.m.: We have reaction from David Ortiz on the brawl as well as comments on Derek Jeter's big day going up on the site real soon.

Here are a few teasers, first some words from Ortiz, who was largely apologetic for his actions but still upset with those of Kevin Gregg:

"If you're getting your ass kicked, nothing you can do but play better. You can’t be acting stupid out there just because you’re getting beat up. There's a reason why you're getting beat up. You're not playing the game the way it's supposed to be. Play the game the way it's supposed to be, you're not going to get beat up."

And then Terry Francona on Jeter:

"I don't care how long it takes. That's an unbelievable accomplishment. The numbers speak for themselves. The other side is either as impressive or more, the way he conducts himself. The way he respects the game."

Back in a bit with a little more for you, but please visit the rest of the site for the full stories on Ortiz and Jeter.

3:19 p.m.: David Ortiz figures to get quite the reaction when he steps to the plate in his customary fifth spot in the lineup.

Here is the Boston batting order against Alfredo Simon, a right-hander making his first start since April 14, 2009, when he lasted 1 1/3 innings against Texas:

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
Josh Reddick, LF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
J.D. Drew, RF
Marco Scutaro, SS

2:51 p.m.: Greetings from Fenway Park, where something tells me John Lackey and Alfredo Simon will be relative afterthoughts leading up to this one.

Already, the talk in the press box is focused on two specific items. One, of course, is the brawl from last night and any fallout there might be from that.

Another is Derek Jeter's afternoon.

The Yankees captain reached the 3,000-hit mark in remarkable fashion with a home run off David Price. Jeter has added a double and is now 3-for-3 as of this moment. He gets grief in this town for any number of reasons, most completely unsubstantiated, and nationally for others (he should be batting eighth, he shouldn't be an All-Star, he should never win a Gold Glove…blah, blah, blah). It's all noise. Jeter is one of the finest players you will ever see.

Congrats to Jeter on a remarkable achievement.

Now let's move on. Lineups for the Sox-Orioles should be out in a matter of moments. Also, just a personal note, the blog might be a bit leaner than normal due to some TV duties, but if you have some patience and you actually give a darn as to what I have to say, you will be rewarded.

8 a.m.: There were plenty of fireworks Friday night at Fenway Park, when the Red Sox pounded the Orioles 10-3 in a game marred by a bench-clearing incident in the eighth inning.

Now that the dust has settled, aside from some possible forthcoming suspensions, the two teams will go at it once again Saturday night. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m.

Boston, which has won eight of its last nine games overall, has taken four straight against Baltimore, ripping at least 10 hits in each of those games. The O’s apparent frustration may have been one reason that Baltimore reliever Kevin Gregg threw inside three times on David Ortiz in the eighth inning of Friday’s game, and then urged Ortiz to run to first after he flew out to center field.

The resulting dust-up got Ortiz and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia ejected from the Red Sox side.
When the two teams return to matters at hand Saturday night, it will be John Lackey against Orioles right-hander Alfredo Simon.

Lackey is coming off a painful start against Toronto on Independence Day. He gave up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings in the loss, the only loss Boston has suffered since June 29 in Philadelphia. Lackey also started that game, although he pitched very well.

The righty will be looking to find consistency against a team he has dominated in the past. Lackey is 10-4 with a 3.05 ERA in his career against Baltimore.