Sunday, July 01, 2012

Out Of Nowhere, A Split

The Red Sox were sleepwalking through what looked to be another lackluster loss to the weak Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon. I was really having trouble wrapping around the fact the Sox were going to drop 3 of 4 to a team with one of the weakest lineups in baseball.

Jason Vargas, Seattle's starter, had a 7.36 ERA in the month of June, but the Sox made him look like Sandy Koufax for 7 1/3 innings. But finally Dustin Pedroia took him deep to tie the game at 1.

Pinch hitter Ryan Kalish narrowly missed a home run with out in the 10th, settling for a double. Pedroia singled him to third, and David Ortiz, the Red Sox lone All-Star representative this season, hit a long fly to right to make it 2-1.

Alfredo Aceves got Seattle 1-2-3 in the 10th, and the Sox got some dignity back after a lousy weekend when the bats took the weekend off. It's a split of a four-game series on the road, and I'll take it.

Felix Doubront went 4 1/3 innings and allowed the Seattle run. He left the game with the bases loaded in the 5th, and Matt Albers got out of the jam with one pitch, getting a double play to keep it at 1-0.

Scott Atchison faced six batters and retired them all. Vicente Padilla pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. The bullpen continues to shine, as they allowed just one hit and no runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.

New York's win keeps the Red Sox 6 1/2 back in third, and with everyone else losing in the AL East today, they now trail second place Baltimore by just a half-game. The Sox now head to Oakland to open a three-game series with the A's on Monday night.

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