Red Sox Report: Sox Fatten Up On Twins
Thursday, April 26, 2012
All it took was a softer schedule.
After starting the 2012 season with games against some of the top teams in the American League, the Boston Red Sox now get to fatten up on some of the weaker teams in the A.L.
Shortstop Mike Aviles continues to prove manager Bobby Valentine wrong. Valentine openly proclaimed his desire to have Jose Iglesias in Boston as his starting shortstop all spring, but he lost that battle with upper management when Iglesias was assigned to Pawtucket.
Aviles, meanwhile, has played a solid defensive shortstop and has hit the cover off of the baseball thus far this season. Last night he belted his 4th homerun of the year, a 3-run shot off of Liam Hendriks in the second to put Boston up 4-0. Cody Ross, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adrian Gonzalez also had RBI hits in the game’s first 5 innings giving starter Clay Buchholz a comfortable 6-run cushion.
Buchholz, who hasn’t looked anything like the dominant pitcher he was two years ago, couldn’t hold the lead giving up 10 hits and 5 earned runs in just 5.1 innings of work.
Boston’s bullpen did Buchholz no favors. Scott Atchinson came in with the bases loaded and 1-out in the bottom of the fifth with the Sox up 7-2. He promptly gave up a 2-run single to Joe Mauer making it 7-4.
Justin Thomas and Matt Albers followed Atchinson in the 5th and also gave up run-scoring hits leaving Boston with a skinny 1-run lead after 5.
But the rest of the Boston bullpen did a good job of bringing things home from there. Vincente Padilla pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning followed by Franklin Morales who had a 1-2-3 8th. Alfredo Aceves came in and was shaky but eventually closed the door on the Twins in the 9th to preserve the win. It was Aceves’ 4th save in 6 opportunities this season.
NOTES:
-Down on the farm, third baseman Will Middlebrooks continued his torrid hitting for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Middlebrooks had two hits including his 7th homerun of the season for Pawtucket in their loss to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Wednesday. He is now batting .377 on the year with a team-best 27 RBI. With Kevin Youkilis (.204) struggling at the plate, you wonder if Boston would ever consider such a bold move of bringing Middlebrooks up for some Major League action? It would appear to be a doubtful scenario barring an injury to Youkilis.
-Bobby Valentine had to change his starting line-up a couple hours before the game when he realized that the Twins starting pitcher was a right-hander and not a left-hander. He originally had Darnell McDonald playing left field and Kelly Shoppach behind the plate but replaced them with Ryan Sweeney and Jarrod Saltalamacchia once he realized that Hendriks was a righty.
-Red Sox left fielder Cody Ross left the game in the 6th inning with what was described as a sore left knee.
-Rehabbing outfielder Carl Crawford’s injured wrist appears to be fine but he is now dealing with an elbow issue. Crawford hasn’t been able to throw the baseball in recent days prompting a visit to Boston for an MRI earlier this month. He is now going for a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews. There seems to be a difference of opinion within the organization as to the possible severity of the elbow injury which a second opinion should help clarify.
-The Red Sox open up a 4-game series with the Chicago White Sox in the Windy City tonight. Felix Doubront pitches the opener for Boston. He will face Philip Humber who is coming off of his perfect game on Saturday in Seattle.
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