Friday, September 25, 2009

Three and Counting

Clay Buchholz was terrific on Thursday night, and won his fourth game in September as the Red Sox rolled to a 10-3 win over Kansas City and a split in their four-game series. The Sox lowered their postseason Magic Number to 3 with the win and Texas losing at Oakland.

The Royals just about handed this game to the Sox, making five errors. David Ortiz is now red hot, as he blasted his 26th home run, and drove in two more in the ninth to up his RBI total to 91. Would you have thought in May that Papi would have a shot at 100 RBI with 10 games remaining in the season?

Buchholz took a shutout in the seventh, but after two outs he put two on and Terry Francona came out with the hook. Clay now has the lowest ERA on the Red Sox starting staff: 3.21.

It got interesting in the eighth, as Kansas City scored three runs off Ramon Ramirez (this guy's been scaring me the last few months). Takashi Saito came in to get a double play with the bases loaded to end the KC rally at 6-3. The Sox iced the game in the ninth with four runs, and now they are off to New York for three games with the Yankees this weekend.

New York can wrap up the division this weekend, or the Red Sox can wrap up a postseason berth with two wins. Both are forgone conclusions, so there's not too much drama this weekend. Jon Lester takes the hill against the Drunken Headhunter at the Wind Tunnel at 7:05 PM.

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