Red Sox Report: Players-Only Pow-Wow Clear The Air
Monday, May 21, 2012
Make that two straight solid starts for Josh Beckett and another in what has become a lengthy line of quality starts by Red Sox starting pitchers.
Sunday in Philadelphia, Beckett pitched 7 2/3 innings of 1-run ball and Boston beat the Phillies 5-1 in the rubber game of their 3-game weekend series.
Beckett scattered 7 hits over his 7 2/3 innings of work. The lone run scored by Philadelphia came off of Beckett with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th on a sacrifice fly by Juan Pierre. It was the second straight solid outing for Beckett after getting booed off the mound at Fenway on May 10th after giving up 7 runs in 2 1/3 innings of work.
All of the offense was provided by Mike Aviles and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Aviles hit a solo homerun (8th) off of Phillies starter Cliff Lee in the top of the first to give Boston a 1-0 lead. His RBI single in the second scored Marlon Byrd to put Boston up 2-0.
In the third, Jarrod Saltalamacchia belted a 3-run shot (7th) center off of Lee putting the Sox up 5-0. It was Salty’s second straight game behind the plate after getting 12 stitches to close a cut on the side of his head a few days ago.
Vincente Padilla recorded the final out of the 8th for the hold and Alfredo Aceves pitched a 1-2-3 9th to close out the win for Boston.
Now it’s off to Camden Yards in Baltimore for a 3-game series with the AL East-leading Orioles starting Monday night. Clay Buchholz (4-2) faces Tommy Hunter (2-2) in the opener which starts at 7:05pm.
NOTES:
-There have been many encouraging signs from the Red Sox over the past week making you wonder if this team will, indeed, be a factor in the AL East after all.
First and foremost, Boston’s starting pitching has really settled down nicely which is the biggest reason that the team has managed to win 8 of its last 10 games. In addition to that, Boston’s line-up has managed to produce against some pretty good pitchers like Cliff Lee and Joe Blanton the past two days.
But, even more encouraging was a report from Ken Rosenthal on FOX that there was a players-only meeting following Beckett’s disastrous start May 10th which resulted in a loss to the Indians at Fenway. According to Rosenthal, David Ortiz called for the meeting where “the hitters challenged the pitchers” on the team to step up their game. Rosenthal reported that the meeting became “heated” at times but that it “cleared the air” and resulted in the players taking responsibility for their actions and performances.
Coincidentally or not, the team has since rattled off 8 wins in their last 10 games.
Lastly, these last two games in Philadelphia saw first baseman Adrian Gonzalez volunteer to play in the outfield so that Bobby Valentine could get David Ortiz’s bat in the line-up in a National League park. Ortiz played Saturday night despite having a stomach bug. We also saw Saltalamacchia gut it out with a stitched up ear by returning immediately to the line-up – all good signs for a team that was pretty much written off for dead a couple of weeks ago.
-The Red Sox are now (3-2) on their 8-game road trip.
-Cody Ross could not play Saturday or Sunday after fouling a ball off of his left foot in the 8th inning of Friday night’s loss in Philadelphia. While there is swelling in the foot, X-rays were apparently negative and Ross does not believe that he will need to go on the disabled list. Ross has been very productive at the plate for Boston with 8 homeruns and 28 RBI. Sunday the team called up outfielder Che-Hsuan Lin from Pawtucket and optioned first baseman Mauro Gomez.
-Baltimore has won 5 of their last 6 games with their only loss coming Sunday against the Washington Nationals in D.C. At (27-15), the O’s lead Tampa by 2 games in the AL East. The Red Sox (20-21) are in fifth place 6 ½ games behind Baltimore.
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