What the Box Score Doesn’t Tell You in the Red Sox 6-4 Win
The Red Sox continue to roll taking their third straight over the suddenly skidding Detroit Tigers by a 6-4 score. But what the box score doesn’t tell you is that there was much more to the story in what was an intense, heart pounding game that featured a few long balls.
After Jon Lester dug him and the Sox into an early 3-0 hole after three, one of the Sox leaders, Big Papi David Ortiz woke up the slumbering bats with a home run to center field. The middle of the order (no pun intended) would keep the inning alive after a Youkilis walk, his predecessor Will Middlebrooks hit a laser shot over the Monster to give the Sox the lead.
Tigers starter Drew Smyly looked impressive his first time through the Red Sox lineup as he should given not one Sox player had ever faced Smyly before. But one time through and the Red Sox experience was too much as they quickly figured out Smyly and tagged him for four runs in the inning.
The Tigers would tie the game in the top of 7th thanks to a Miguel Cabrera double to right field. What the line score doesn’t show is that it was Adrian Gonzalez, the temporary and controversial right fielder at the center of it who almost made a circus like catch, only to have the ball drop on the field allowing the Gerald Laird to score.
It was that play that had the Twitter wire hot, calling the Gonzo in right field a bad move by many Red Sox fans. But Gonzo would redeem himself by smacking a ground-rule double to right, scoring Daniel “the kid” Nava and restoring the Sox lead.
Not to be outdone by the phenom who is threatening to take his job, Kevin Youkilis got in on the action and provided some insurance with a home run to left field, his fourth of the year. As if the whole ‘who should play third base’ saga didn’t have enough juice, tonight’s performances by both Youk and Middlebrooks will only heighten the debate.
Finally, the drama continued in the ninth when Alfredo Aceves came in to close the game in what was his fourth straight game making an appearance. Everyone remembers the first two of the four, serving up two, two-run home runs in back to back days bringing back the skeptics of whether or not he should be the Sox closer.
But Aceves shut the door on the Tigers thoughts of a comeback by throwing a clean inning and picking up his unlucky 13th save of the season. He did so by getting Miguel Cabrera to ground out to Aviles at short. Cabrera finished the night 4-for-5 and was a royal pain in the Sox ass all night long.
Matt Albers picked up the win while Octavio Dotel was hit with the loss. Game time was 3 hours and 4 minutes and every minute of it was enjoyable. An intense game that ended with a Red Sox win. You have to love baseball.