Bullpen falters as Red Sox fall to the Cardinals
By Joe Meehan
Another day, another former Red Sox comes back to bite his former team.
Sunday night it was Stephen Drew‘s turn for revenge and tonight it was A.J. Pierzynski, as he scored to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 win.
Pat Neshek picked up his fifth win of the season in relief while Junichi Tazawa was handed the loss for the Red Sox.
Things were quiet early until Matt Adams got the scoring started in the fourth, driving in Matt Holliday with a single to center. It would be the only run off Sox’ starter Rubby De La Rosa, who went 6.0 strong innings allowing six hits while striking out three and walking three.
The Sox answered in the fifth with a Christian Vazquez sacrifice fly and went ahead 2-1 in the seventh after Cardinals’ starter Lance Lynn misplayed a grounder hit back at him off the bat of Will Middlebrooks.
The lead quickly vanished in the home half of the seventh, as Kolten Wong ripped a single off Tommy Layne to drive in Shane Robinson.
With Junichi Tazawa on to pitch in the eighth, Pierzynski slapped a two-out base hit to left and came around to score two batters later on a Jon Jay single. Trevor Rosenthal shut the door in the ninth for his 35th save.
Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 8:00 with Joe Kelly (2-2, 4.37) making his Red Sox debut against former teammate Shelby Miller (8-8,4.14).