Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Beat AZ! Beat AZ!

As the city of Boston was concentrating on the Celtics tonight (did you notice all the green worn in the stands at Fenway tonight?), the Red Sox went out and had a quietly efficient game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

Clay Buchholz struggled in the first and fourth, but got through 5 2/3 innings and picked up his ninth win of the season. (And did you know that the Sox are the only team in the majors with three seven-game winners so far?)

Arizona got a run in the first, but the Sox answered it back, as David Ortiz took former Yankee great Ian Kennedy over the Red Sox bullpen in center with one on to put the Sox ahead, and ahead to stay as it turned out.

The Sox expanded their lead to 5-1 in the third. Arizona answered back with two in the fourth. But Buchholz got the Sox to the sixth with the lead, and the bullpen took over from there. Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon allowed just one hit the remainder of the way, with Pap nailing down his 14th save with a 1-2-3 ninth and a 6-3 final.

Dustin Pedroia had two hits, an RBI and scored three times, and Papi, Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew each had two hits.

After the game, the Sox announced that big time pitching prospect Felix Doubront will be brought up on Friday and make his MLB debut against the Dodgers, on the day Manny Ramirez makes his return to Fenway. Doubront has made four starts at Pawtucket, and he's pitched 16 2/3 innings, giving up two runs while striking out 16 and walking five. He also has eight starts in Double-A Portland, posting a 4-0 record and a 2.51 ERA.

Also, the Red Sox announced a change in time for the game on Thursday, to 6 PM, to accomodate those fans wishing to see Game 7 of the NBA Finals that night, which starts at 9 PM.

No comments: