Red Sox Report: Huge Win In The Bronx!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

A glimmer of hope? Thanks to Jacoby Ellsbury and the Boston bullpen there is.

Despite an absolutely horrific month of September that has seen the Boston Red Sox lose three times as many games as they have won (6-18), the team won a game it absolutely had to win Sunday night beating the Yankees 7-4 in 14 innings.

After losing in the afternoon 6-2 to New York, the Sox were on the verge of being swept out of the Bronx. Even worse, their Wild Card lead over the Tampa Bay Rays stood at just a half game.

The nightcap didn’t get off to the best start as John Lackey did what he normally does, which is to say give up a few first inning runs. But, despite the 3-0 hole, Boston chipped away at that Yankee lead with single runs in the 5th and 6th innings and two more in the 7th.

Ironically, it was JD Drew who started the Red Sox rally with an RBI single to right-center in the 5th which plated Jed Lowrie. Drew was in the line-up for the first time since July 19th which was right before he went on the disabled list.

An Adrian Gonzalez ground out in the 6th scored Carl Crawford to cut the deficit to 3-2. Then in the 7th, an RBI double by Marco Scutaro followed by an RBI single by Jason Varitek gave Boston the 4-3 lead.

Erik Chavez led off the bottom of the 7th with a single putting an end to John Lackey’s night. Lackey was visibly upset when Terry Francona came out of the dugout to lift him from the game. However, it did not appear to be a sign of disrespect towards his manager, but rather the competitor within him that simply wanted to stay in the game at such a critical stage.

Brett Gardner pinch ran for Chavez and immediately stole second off of Alfredo Aceves. He went to third on a ground ball by Jesus Montero. Chris Dickerson’s sacrifice fly to center scored Gardner to tie the game at 4 closing the book on Lackey who went 6 innings allowing 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 of them earned. He walked 3 and struck out 4.

Fast forward to the top of the 9th and Mariano Rivera on the mound for New York. Adrian Gonzalez picked up his first hit of the doubleheader with a single off of Rivera. Lars Anderson pinch ran for Gonzalez and was immediately sacrificed to second on a bunt by Mike Aviles. JD Drew grounded out to first sending Anderson to third with 2 out. Yankee manager Joe Girardi decided to intentionally walk Marco Scutaro to face Jarrod Saltalamacchia who struck out to end the Boston threat.

The Yankees had a serious threat in the bottom of the 9th but Jonathan Papelbon came in with the bases loaded and 2-out and struck out Austin Romine sending the game to extra innings. Papelbon was outstanding tossing 2 1/3 perfect innings. He threw a season-high 30 pitches and struck out 4 of the 7 Yankees he faced.

In fact, the Boston bullpen was outstanding Sunday night combining for 8 innings of 1-hit shutout baseball.

Those arms allowed Ellsbury to be the hero in the top of the 14th when he belted a 3-run homer off of Scott Proctor to right field breaking the 4-all deadlock. It was Ellsbury’s 3rd of the day (he hit two in game 1 on Sunday) pushing his season total to 31 homers and 103 RBI. He is the first player in Red Sox history to hit 30 homeruns and steal 30 bases in the same season. He has been the team’s MVP this season.

-JD Drew was in the line-up for the second game of the doubleheader Sunday going 1-4 with an RBI while playing right field. It was Drew’s first game since July 19th which was right before he went on the disabled list.

-You can’t accuse Joe Girardi of not managing to win each game in this series. The Yankee skipper managed the team as if each and every game was of the utmost importance. The only exception to that was his resting some of his starters in game 2 of the doubleheader Sunday which was understandable. The big question is: will he approach the team’s final 3 games of the regular season in Tampa the same way? That could go a long way toward determining if Boston does or does not make it to the postseason.

-The Red Sox close out the season with 3 games in Baltimore over the next 3 days. Josh Beckett, Erik Bedard and Jon Lester are Boston’s 3 scheduled starters.

-If Boston and Tampa finish tied for the Wild Card lead at the end of the 162-game regular season, a 1-game playoff would be held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on Thursday. Major League Baseball did away with the old method of flipping a coin to decide which team hosts that play-in game. It now goes to the team that won the season series which, in this case, is Tampa.