Final, Red Sox 6-1: A bizarre ending to this one as Germano works around a leadoff double to Steve Tolleson.
After a John Hester flyout to center, Cory Aldridge pinch hit with Tolleson on third. Aldridge flew out to Jason Repko in right, who threw out Tolleson at the plate to end the game after he slid past the plate without touching it.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 6-1: Lars Anderson continues his impressive string of spring training stretches, singling in Cody Ross to increase the gap. Also, Justin Germano is heading in to try and finish it all up for the Red Sox.
Bottom 8th, Red Sox 5-1: Mauro Gomez took over first base and don’t let his body fool you. He made a strong snag and ran to first in time to get the force out.
Bottom 7th, Red Sox 5-1: Since Aaron Cook is a sinkerball pitcher, his stuff is likely to induce more groundball outs. Well, through his two innings, he induced four groundouts.
It should bode well for him that’s he throwing at sea level as opposed to the altitude in Colorado. Clayton Mortensen — who pitched in Colorado as well — said the altitude would affect their breaking balls.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 5-1: Boston adds two more runs, partly attributed to a fielding error from the Orioles. Oscar Tejeda was about to get thrown out on a double play, but a faulty throw kept him safe and allowed Ryan Lavarnway to score.
Bottom 6th, Red Sox 3-1: Aaron Cook finally made his Red Sox debut this spring training. Here was my feature on him and reuniting with Bob McClure from earlier in spring training.
Although he walked two batters, he escaped unscathed.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 3-1: Just when you thought an inning couldn’t end quicker… it does. But I want to touch base on a previous point right now.
In the sixth, Ortiz grounded out, but continued to hustle down as hard as anything. At first — as you’ll see below in the blog — I wasn’t sure if he normally ran that hard.
But Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald just tweeted that he hasn’t seen Ortiz ever run this hard to first base, either. So looks like my observation was correct. Take that for what it’s worth, but Ortiz is stepping it up all around.
Bottom 5th, Red Sox 3-1: Justin Thomas comes in to relieve Jon Lester, who threw four innings.
Oh yeah, Thomas took care of business that inning by throwing just five pitches.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 3-1: A strange sequence. Dustin Pedroia flied out to left field to Wilson Betemit. Once Betemit grasped it, he reached for the ball to throw it back home, but dropped it.
Some people thought it should’ve been ruled a hit. But it ultimately wasn’t.
Bottom 4th, Red Sox 3-1: Lester gets stretched into the fourth inning and does a solid job. The most impressive part of that inning was the fact Mark Reynolds showed enough plate discipline to draw a walk.
The Orioles slugger is a free swinger, known as your typical “all or nothing” hitter. He hit 37 homers last season, but fell four strikeouts short of eclipsing 200 strikeouts for the fourth straight year.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 3-1: Kelly Shoppach unloaded on Chris Tillman’s pitch, but Orioles outfielder Adam Jones chased it down at the warning track like he was ball-hawking NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones.
If that were a homer, I’d have suggested Shoppach stick with his new number.
Bottom 3rd, Red Sox 3-1: Robert Andino grounded out. I’m sure people wished that sentence was written back in late-September.
Jon Lester looked much better in that inning, notching a strikeout and making quick work of the lineup.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 3-1: A quick inning as David Ortiz strikes out, Ryan Sweeney lines out to the pitcher and Mike Aviles grounds out.
This may be typical, but I’ll make this random observation anyway. When Ortiz flied out, he was really hustling out there despite hitting a can of corn. Could be an everyday thing that I just noticed or it could be him trying to set an example. Regardless, I just wanted to put it out there.
Bottom 2nd, Red Sox 3-1: Not the best of innings for Jon Lester. He walked Wilson Betemit and Chris Davis in the second inning, bringing his walk total to three through two frames.
He got out of the potential jam, striking out Jai Miller and inducing a groundout from Ryan Adams.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 3-1: Dustin Pedroia keyed a mini rally, knocking a double to left field to drive in Cody Ross and Lars Anderson.
The legend of Lars also grew this inning. There was a play at the plate following Pedroia’s double and Anderson barely snuck past Wieters with a sneaky slide.
Pedroia, not so much. When Jacoby Ellsbury doubled, Pedroia was thrown out at home, which ended the inning.
1:28 p.m.: Funny note time… Kelly Shoppach forgot his traditional uniform at home. He usually dons the No. 10 jersey, but he’s wearing No. 96 for this game.
Bottom 1st, 1-1: Robert Andino is putting a hurting on the Red Sox once again. OK, well not really.
He drew a walk to lead off the inning and stole second base shortly after. Andino ultimately scored when Adam Jones doubled him in.
Andino isn’t a popular name in Boston, considering his hit in Game 162 last season ultimately helped knock the Sox out of contention.
Mid 1st, Red Sox 1-0: Nate Spears and Dustin Pedroia singled to start the game. After Jacoby Ellsbury popped out and David Ortiz struck out, Ryan Sweeney belted a single to drive in Spears.
Before the game, Bobby Valentine reiterated that Sweeney needed to continue working on his hitting. Sweeney off to a solid start on Sunday.
1:00 p.m.: Here are the lineups and also follow me on Twitter @DidierMorais for other in-game updates.
Red Sox
Nate Spears, 3B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
David Ortiz, DH
Ryan Sweeney, RF
Mike Aviles, SS
Cody Ross, LF
Kelly Shoppach, C
Lars Anderson, 1B
Orioles
Robert Andino, 2B
J.J. Hardy, SS
Adam Jones, CF
Matt Wieters, C
Mark Reynolds, 3B
Wilson Betemit, LF
Chris Davis, 1B
Jai Miller,RF
Ryan Adams, DH
12:50 p.m.: Bobby Valentine told us that shortstop Jose Iglesias has a stiff groin. The youngster was slated to play in a “B” game earlier on Sunday, but didn’t make the trip. He just told the team of the issue Saturday. By the looks of it, Valentine will hold him out a few more days as a precaution.
“I’m going to see how it is when he comes tomorrow,” Valentine said. “I have the inclination to not play him through the off-day, unless he’s perfect. He told me he did it the night game in Minnesota [last Monday]. The first we heard of it was yesterday. He’s a kid who has great desire and right now I’m not going to let it get any worse, that’s for sure.”
8 a.m. ET: Daniel Bard tossed three scoreless innings in his second outing of the spring on Saturday, while Alfredo Aceves pitched three scoreless frames out of the Boston pen.
On Sunday, it’ll be Jon Lester who takes the hill for the Red Sox as they travel to Sarasota to take on the Orioles. Aaron Cook, one of the candidates for the fifth and final spot in the Boston rotation, is also expected to toe the rubber on Sunday — he’ll come on in relief.
Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz are among the starters making the trip.
The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m., so check back with NESN.com in the hours leading up to it for updates, including the teams’ starting lineups.
