Red Sox Avoid Sweep With 6-4 Win
By Conor Duffy
Other than a couple of scary moments at the end, this was a very good game for the Red Sox. They were ahead most of the time, the offense was good, the pitching was good for the most part. It was the kind of game that they really needed after losing four straight– including three straight to the 47-61 Minnesota Twins, who were going for the sweep. Luckily, with Franklin Morales getting a much needed spot start, the Red Sox were able to handle the Twins today.
After a couple of scoreless innings to start the game, the Red Sox finally put a few runs on the board in the third. A Mike Aviles single and Jacoby Ellsbury double leading off the inning had put two in scoring position and no outs. Carl Crawford got one run in on a soft grounder to the shortstop, leaving Ellsbury at second with one out. He would score on a bloop single to center field by Adrian Gonzalez and give the Red Sox an early 2-0 lead, which they held for a few innings.
The Twins finally put their first run on the board in the fifth after a leadoff walk by Alexi Casilla. Casilla stole second, reached third on a grounder, and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Ben Revere as the Twins manufactured a run. However, the Red Sox would answer in a big way in the bottom of the fifth. With the speedy Carl Crawford on first base and two outs, Adrian Gonzalez crushed one high in the air to left-center. As it turned out, the Red Sox didn’t need Crawford’s speed as the ball carried well over the monster to give the Sox a 4-1 lead.
The Red Sox added onto that lead on an seventh inning RBI single by Cody Ross and an eighth inning sacrifice fly by Jacoby Ellsbury to push it to 6-1 entering the ninth inning. Vicente Padilla came into the ballgame and had a rough go of things to say the least– allowing a leadoff homer over the monster to Josh Willingham. Two batters later, two more runs came in as Ryan Doumit jacked a home run to deep right to cut it to a 6-4 lead. Padilla was pulled and Alfredo Aceves came into the game and got the save with a 1-2-3 inning.