Offense Held In Check In 5-2 Loss To Indians

Last night was just an absolute disappointment for the Red Sox as they took an early lead before slowly and painfully melting down in front of their entire audience. With Franklin Morales (3-2, 3.13) and Zach McAllister (4-4, 3.60) starting, it looked to be a close matchup with a recently converted starter and a rookie. And it was for the first few innings, as the two basically matched each other pitch for pitch until the bottom of the third inning. That was when light-hitting former Red Sox Brent Lillibridge stepped up and promptly delivered a bomb to left field.

However, the Red Sox absolutely answered for that in the top of the fourth– loading the bases on a double, bunt single, and fielder’s choice with no outs for Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez delivered (from Red Sox standpoints) the biggest hit of the night as he used his opposite field power to drive a ball off the wall right near to left field foul pole. Two runs scored easily before Dustin Pedroia was easily caught at the plate on a great throw from the outfield.

From that point on, things took a serious turn for the worse with the Red Sox. The Indians tied the game up in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single for Brent Lillibridge (why couldn’t he have done that with the Red Sox?) scoring Michael Brantley and making it 2-2. The Indians came out firing again in the sixth, loading the bases with one out. That was when Franklin Morales was taken out of the ballgame, exiting after 5.1 innings– allowing three runs on two hits, four walks, and striking out six.

Andrew Miller came in to face Michael Brantley and somewhat got the job done as they didn’t lock the game up or anything, but Michael Brantley did drive in a run with the go-ahead sac fly to make it 3-2. The Indians scored twice more in the game; they scored on a suicide squeeze in the seventh and an RBI single by Ezequiel Carrera in the eighth to make it 5-2. Chris Perez came in and worked a strong ninth inning to pick up his 31st save of the year as the Indians won.