That’s fine. Savor the moment all you want, but if you haven’t had a chance to turn your attention to the Red Sox just yet, you might be missing out, not only on a very good baseball team but on one that seems to be surrounded by daily drama right now.
In an effort to get each of you lollygaggers caught up, and to recap what each of you diehards have just witnessed, consider if you will the homestand that the Red Sox just completed. It had a little something for everyone.
Here is a look at the week that was at Fenway Park.
Monday: 9-7 loss to Toronto
Daily drama: It was Independence Day at the park, but the only fireworks were on the Toronto side of things. The Blue Jays bats hammered John Lackey for seven runs on nine hits in just 2 1/3 innings. The right-hander has had just two shorter starts in his career. In one of those he was ejected and in another he was just performing a playoff tune-up. This was, for all intents and purposes, the worst start of Lackey’s career and cast further doubt on his ability to give the Red Sox consistent quality outings.
Telling quote: “I gave up some soft hits on some good pitches and made some bad pitches that were hit hard. All added up to…that,” Lackey postgame.
Telling statistic: The effort bumped Lackey’s ERA in day games as a member of the Red Sox to 6.85, and his ERA at home this year to 9.17.
Tuesday: 3-2 win over Toronto
Daily drama: With the Lackey struggles still fresh in the minds of many, and Clay Buchholz printing up his boarding pass for a flight to North Carolina to see a back specialist, Jon Lester was pulled after four hitless innings due to a lat strain on his left side. A dark cloud suddenly hung over the rotation.
Amazingly, such a scary situation for the staff was overshadowed by the game’s remarkable, and controversial, finish. Because of Lester’s solid four innings and continued quality work by the bullpen, the Red Sox took a 3-0 lead into the ninth before Jonathan Papelbon gave up a two-run homer to Jose Bautista and then allowed two more men to reach with two outs.
Toronto’s John McDonald then looped a single to left, where Darnell McDonald fielded and threw home to record the out at the plate on Edwin Encarnacion. However, replays showed that Encarnacion was safe, touching off a tale of two clubhouses.
Telling quote: “We should still be playing,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell after the game when asked about the call.
Telling statistic: Lester’s injury came just as he was beginning to thrive. With the four hitless innings, he has a 2.08 ERA over six starts since the beginning of June.
Wednesday: 6-4 win over Toronto
Daily drama: This was the first game that Adrian Gonzalez missed as a member of the Red Sox, ending a string of 166 consecutive starts that lasted over a year. The Gonzalez-less lineup showed few issues as Jacoby Ellsbury homered in the first, Kevin Youkilis did so in the second and then Ellsbury doubled in two runs to cap the decisive rally in the fourth, helping Tim Wakefield earn career win No. 198.
Telling quote: “I’m very proud of the job I’ve done so far,” said Wakefield, who allowed three runs in seven innings.
Telling statistic: Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero fell to 2-6 with an 8.08 ERA against the Red Sox.
Thursday: 10-4 win over Baltimore
Daily drama: The fireworks took place over the Charles River a few nights earlier, but if you were in the vicinity of Fenway Park on Thursday you heard some booming noises from the Boston bats. A team season-high six home runs set the stage for a one-sided series. Three of the blasts took place in succession in the seventh inning, and the pattern was perfect — David Ortiz hammered one to center, Josh Reddick to right and Jarrod Saltalamacchia to left.
Dustin Pedroia, Gonzalez and Ellsbury had homered earlier in the game.
Telling quote: “There was a lot of good pitches to hit tonight, and we didn’t miss them,” Pedroia said.
Telling statistic: With six homers and two doubles, the Red Sox recorded eight extra-base hits in consecutive games (they had six doubles and two homers the night before) for the first time in more than eight years.
Friday: 10-3 win over Baltimore
Daily drama: It was fight night at Fenway Park as Ortiz and Orioles reliever Kevin Gregg went at it in the eighth inning. Ortiz had slugged a three-run homer in an eight-run first that seemed to send the frustrations on the Baltimore side to a new level. Four players, including Ortiz and Gregg, were ejected in the resulting bench-clearing incident.
The incident served to overshadow another injury to a Red Sox starter. Josh Beckett left after five innings with a hyperextended left knee after slipping on a wet mound. He has since been cleared to throw in the All-Star game.
Telling quote: “They’re going to whine and complain about it because they think they’re better than everybody else, but no, we have just as much right to pitch inside as they do. This is a team sport. I take offense to every run scored off every one of our pitchers. I take offense to every one of our hitters that’s hit every time I’m out there. You get tired of getting your butt kicked every night when you come in here and I’m going to stick up for what’s ours and try to get the plate back,” Gregg in a memorable postgame session with reporters.
Telling statistic: Boston sent 13 men to the plate in the eight-run first.
Saturday: 4-0 win over Baltimore
Daily drama: The night after the brawl, John Lackey hit two Orioles with pitches, surpassing his teammate Lester and grabbing the Major League lead. If you read about Lackey’s last start or about the fight on Friday, you might think that either he was roughed up again or initiated another fight. Neither was the case. Lackey was rather dominant, with the two hit batters just about his only blemish. He limited the Orioles to just three hits and a walk in 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven, one shy of his season high.
Lackey has swapped good starts with bad starts for a few weeks now. Going into the break, the team can only hope that this effort against Baltimore is a sign of things to come for the second half.
Telling quote: “If you’re getting your [butt] 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,” Ortiz in a pregame meeting with reporters, his first public reaction to the incident with Gregg the night before.
Telling statistic: Since Aug. 3, 2005, Lackey is 9-3 with a 2.41 ERA against Baltimore.
Sunday: 8-6 win over Baltimore
Daily drama: Boston completes the four-game sweep on a day that saw three more players get hit by pitches and four more ejections, including Red Sox right-hander Kyle Weiland in his major league debut. Weiland hit Orioles designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero with a pitch in the top of the fifth inning after warnings had already been issued to both sides, warnings that never should have been given in the first place (Jeremy Guthrie hit Kevin Youkilis with a changeup that loaded the bases for Ortiz, most definitely not an intentional pitch).
The one pitch that did have intent came when Baltimore reliever Michael Gonzalez threw one behind Ortiz in the bottom of the sixth.
Telling quote: “The series was frustrating the whole way. It was what it was,” Gonzalez said when asked if he tried to hit Ortiz.
Telling statistic: Daniel Bard threw a perfect eighth, extending his scoreless streak to 19 1/3 innings. It is the longest active streak in all of baseball and the longest by a Boston reliever since Hideki Okajima early in 2007.
The end result is six wins in seven games that featured eight ejections, eight hit batters and 18 home runs. There was one rain delay, one game-ending assist from left field to home plate, one missed haymaker from David Ortiz, two bench-clearing incidents and two injured starters. If you saw it, you were mesmerized. If you didn’t, then it’s time to jump aboard.
