Thursday, May 24, 2012

Bottom Guys Do All The Heavy Lifting

The Red Sox ended their "20 games in 20 days" jaunt with a 6-5 win in Baltimore, to take their second straight road series, and end the eight-game road swing at 5-3.

Daniel Bard had another one of those "not bad but not great" starts, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs. He allowed single runs in the first and second innings, and he could have given up more. He left the game with a 5-2 lead. Andrew Miller cam on and in the 7th allowed a two-run homer to Nick Johnson, the first runs Miller has allowed all year.

It was the bottom of the order that did the damage. Daniel (Don't Call Me Nay-va) Nava, Kelly Shoppach and new boy Scott Podsednik all went deep.

It was 6-4 in the eighth when the Orioles had runners on second and third and no outs, and Che-Hsuan Lin saved the day for the Sox by making a sliding catch in right. Lin went in for defense in the 7th. It would be a sac fly and not a two RBI hit had it hit the ground, and the score was then 6-5.

And it would stay that way, courtesy of Alfredo Aceves, who got yet another four-out save, for his 11th save of 2012.

The Sox went 11-9 in the last 20 games, and have won 10 of their last 13. They are back at .500 once again, at 22-22. Thursday is a well-deserved off day, and they take on Tampa Bay at Fenway tomorrow night for three games.

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