Love is supposed to be lovelier the second time around unless you are a member of the Red Sox rotation. The Red Sox dusted up Gio Gonzalez, but it was not enough to come out of the offensive hole Wade Miley put them in.
Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, and now Miley have put on performances that have Red Sox fans scanning the PawSox roster. No doubt GM’s around baseball will be giving Ben Cherington a call about Blake Swihart as Boston got toasted by the Nationals 10-5 to prevent a sweep.
The Nationals wasted no time with Miley as they scored twice in the first only to see the Red Sox offense match that in the last of the second thanks to, no surprise, an error contributing to the cause.
Mike Napoli, who appears to have shaken off his slump, whacked a triple to get things moving. Shane Victorino – making a push upwards for the Mendoza Line – drove in Nap with a single. Xander Bogaerts then reached on an error by third baseman Yunel Escobar. Sandy Leon then made it two outs, but did capture the score matching RBI on a ground out to Ian Desmond.
The third inning presented a nightmare for Miley and those at Fenway not wearing Nationals regalia.
Desmond put one out to give the Nats a quick lead and more quickly followed. Miley mixed it up fairly well with hits and a pair of walks before a Wilson Ramos double cleared the bases and sent Miley to the dugout to ponder this debacle.
Anthony Varvaro came in to do some damage control and promptly gave up a pair of doubles and a run of his own.
The Red Sox have not been intimidated with the stellar reputation of the Nationals staff and starter Gio Gonzalez found that out in the last of the fifth. Gonzalez was touched by Dustin Pedroia double and a Hanley Ramirez home run to cut the Nationals lead in half at 8-4.
In the sixth the Red Sox made another dent in the Nationals lead. Napoli started it with a walk and moved to second on a ground out. With two out Brock Holt drove in Napoli with a ground rule double and the Sox were now down 8-5 only to see Robbie Ross give it back.
Ross gave up a hit to Ramos and then Tyler Moore planted a two run shot into center field and the Sox time was running out as the Nationals got the lead back to five at 10-5.
Craig Breslow came in to finsih up the contest and managed to toss two scoreless innings – the only Sox pitcher to create a run free zone for the day.
Gonzalez (1-1) picked up the win and Miley (0-1) took the loss.
Baltimore comes to Boston Friday night with Ubaldo Jimenez taking the mound for the O’s and Joe Kelly for the Red Sox.
Game Notes
* Bogaerts’ tweak of the knee was minor and he started at short.
* Today is Jackie Robinson Day around MLB.
* Miley was second to Bryce Harper in 2012 Rookie of The Year Award.
* Pablo Sandoval was rested after bruising his foot on Tuesday night.
* The Red Sox have taken the first three series of the season.
The key numbers are exactly two: The first is 2.1 innings pitched and the second is seven runs allowed. If you are a stickler for details there is also five hits, three walks and one strikeout. And let us not forget Miley’s ERA sits at 10.57. The hope is the poor performances of late by Buchholz, Masterson and Miley are just bumps in the pitching road and not perpetual potholes.
Varvaro came in and tossed gas on a fire just like
Alexi Ogandohad the previous game. The good news is he gave 2.2 innings and had no real damage after two doubles in the third. Ross went two innings allowing two runs. Breslow shut the door with two scoreless innings.
For Ramirez it was his first Fenway home run. The Red Sox did manage five runs on seven hits. Pedroia had two hits.
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