David Ortiz finally got the monkey off his back hitting his first homer in 150 at-bats. You could see the relief on his face as he jogged around the basis, but was this the first step towards turning around his season, or just a lucky swing? We will see....
To me it was really fun to watch how much better the Sox are when Youk is in the lineup. The guy just does everything, gets on base, hits for power, ect. Last night Youk was just another guy who kept the Red Sox offensive train moving (he went 3-5). Varitek set the Red Sox offense in motion with a solo HR in the 3rd. He followed with another solo HR in the 5th, at that point the Sox offense too flight scoring 6 runs in the 5th off 4 HRs (one was Papi's first of the year).
The Sox had a very healthy lead which gave them the chance to pitch Bard at Fenway for the first time without any pressure. He didn't do very well (2/3 inning 1 ER 3 hits), but it was still good to see him out there getting his feet wet. Other then Bard the Sox used their normal cast of characters (Delcarmen, Okajima, Saito) and none of them let up a run. The Sox bullpen just seems to keep getting better. With Masterson likely heading back to the bullpen, and if Bard can do anything the Sox have by far the deepest bullpen in the MLB.
So Penny got the win, but he actually didn't pitch all that well. He was throwing a lot of fastballs, and couldn't get his offspeed pitches over the plate. Still he went 6 @/3 letting up only 2 runs. I'll take that from a 5th starter any day. With the win the Sox are now only 1 1/2 games behind the Jays for 1st place in the AL East (Yankees are still a game behind the Sox)
No comments:
Post a Comment