Red Sox Report: Ortiz & Pedroia The Heroes!

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

The beat goes on!

After a marathon affair against the Yankees Sunday night at Fenway, you might think that the Sox would be primed for a letdown in their series opener against the Twins in Minnesota Monday night. But, just as they did a few weeks ago when they followed up a 16-inning win in Tampa with a win at Baltimore, the Sox rallied to beat the Twins 8-6.

After grabbing a 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd, Tim Wakefield proceeded to give up 5 unanswered runs to the Twins to put his team in a 5-1 hole.

But, a 4-run 6th powered by two homeruns (David Ortiz – 22nd and Jarod Saltalamacchia – 11th) tied the game at 5.

Boston grabbed a 6-5 lead in the 8th when Joe Mauer dropped the ball at home allowing David Ortiz to score. But, the Twins answered in the bottom half of the frame on a Jason Kubel RBI single to tie the game at 6.

But the Sox rallied again plating two in the top of the 9th to win it 8-6.

-Kubel’s game-tying hit came off of Boston reliever Alfredo Aceves who relieved Wakefield to start the 8th. Apparently Josh Bard was deemed unavailable after pitching the 10th inning and picking up the win against the Yankees Sunday night. Bard threw 17 pitches Sunday night. That followed a 16-pitch performance on Saturday against New York.

Aceves cost Tim Wakefield a shot at his 200th career victory yet again. Wakefield’s final line was 7 innings pitched, 8 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned runs, 0 walks and 4 strikeouts.

In his last 3 starts, Wakefield has pitched a combined 20 2/3 innings. He has allowed just 16 hits and 9 earned runs. He’s walked 2 and struck out 12. Despite those solid numbers, he is 0-1 with 2 no-decisions during that stretch.

-How many times has Dustin Pedroia had a great at bat late in the game to set the stage for someone else to ne the hero? Last night was another example of just how tough Perdoia can be. He battled Twins’ closer Joe Nathan in a great 8-pitch at bat with Adrian Gonzalez on first and two out in the top of the 9th. Pedroia won the battle by hitting an infield single to third advancing Gonzalez to second. That prompted Terry Francona to insert Darnell McDonald as a pinch-runner for Gonzo with David Ortiz coming to the plate. Big Papi proceeded to lace a single to left-center scoring McDonald with the eventual game-winning run.

-Speaking of Ortiz, if the big fella is upset about not having a new contract offer on the table from the Red Sox, he wouldn’t appear to have much to worry about. Despite a mini slump just after the All-Star break, Ortiz is back to producing in a big way for this offense. Last night he went 4-5 with a HR, double, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. He is now hitting .295 on the season with 22 homers and 74 RBI. Can you say “cha-ching?”

-Jonathan Papelbon worked a quick 1-2-3 9th to pick up his 25th save of the season.