Big Papi Leads Sox In Messy 12-5 Win Over Twins
It’s rare that a Red Sox win is so miserable for me to watch. This game was just that, however. It was a long game, the pitching was terrible, I had to listen to the Twins’ announcers because of my Extra Innings package; it had every quality of a terrible game, except the Red Sox win. The pitching matchup looked like it had a chance to be at least competitive with Ryan Dempster (2-4, 3.75), who had pitched well in his last start against the Twins, and Scott Diamond (3-3, 4.08), who had pitched well in his last start against the Red Sox.
However, both pitchers were absolutely terrible all night long. Neither got out of the fifth inning, and Dempster needed 126 pitches to go through all of 4.2 innings. Dempster and Diamond, both usually control pitchers, walked a total of 9 batters in a total of 9 innings. Luckily, the Red Sox were able to hit Diamond better than the Twins hit off of Dempster.
May 18, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Boston Red Sox designated hitter
David Ortiz(34) hits a three run home run in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
The Red Sox posted three runs in the first inning on a long home run to right-center field by David Ortiz, his sixth of the year. Ortiz drove in one more run in the third inning on an RBI single that played right fielder Oswaldo Arcia enough so that he couldn’t get a good throw in. The Red Sox took three more runs in the fifth inning, but in the bottom of the fifth, the Twins put a little rally together as well. They scored three runs in the inning and knocked Dempster out of the game, as the Red Sox chose to bring in Clayton Mortensen.
Mortensen worked out of that jam with just one more run scoring but he got himself into another jam in the sixth. That was when Craig Breslow came in and pitched exactly like the Red Sox needed him to. Breslow went 1.2 innings of relief with no runs allowed on a hit and a walk. The Red Sox would supported Breslow in the seventh with a pair of two-run homers by David Ortiz and Daniel Nava to put the Red Sox up 11-5.
From that point on, the game went by pretty quickly (thank God, we would’ve been up until midnight!). The Red Sox tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth with a sacrifice fly by Ryan Lavarnway (Hot Lava had two RBIs in this game). Alex Wilson pitched very well in relief to close out the game, going two scoreless innings while striking out two batters. The one positive I can take from this game is that we’re in a whole lot better of a spot than the Twins.