These two good teams finally exploded at the plate, scoring 23 combined runs, and recording 23 combined hits. Every Sox batter but Youkilis had a hit, and every Sox batter reached base. Manny Ramirez and Wily Mo Pena were the stars of the show. Manny went 3 for 4 with 2 homers, a double, 4 RBI, and 4 runs. Pena went 4 for 5 with a homer, 2 doubles, and a single. He scored twice and knocked in 4. His 3 run shot in the 7th appeared not to mean that much with the Sox winning 12-5 at the time, but after Cleveland scored 4 runs in the bottom of the inning, it proved to be huge.
Tavarez made his first relief appearance of the season. He pitched well in the 5th and 6th, but allowed 4 runs in the 7th. They were all unearned as Lugo made a throwing error to begin the inning, and there were 2 outs at the time the runs scored, making all those runs theoretically wiped out if Lugo had made the play. But Julian still gave up a 2 out walk, followed by a single, followed by a homerun. Nevertheless, he gets the win.
Gabbard pitched well for 4 innings. He only allowed 1 hit in the first 13 batters he faced, a Gutierrez solo homerun. He was given a 9-1 lead in the top of the 5th, but everything came undone for him. Maybe it was the long wait in the top of the inning, maybe with the big lead he lost focus, I don't know.
Even though he didn't pitch great, it's nice to have a guy like Tavarez in the pen, who can go a few innings. We're not going to use Papelbon for more than an inning, we'd like to keep Okajima fresh, Timlin isn't someone you want out there for 2 or 3 innings, Snyder is good, but it's definitely a plus for our bullpen to have Julian out there.
Coco Crisp rebounded nicely from what was an overplayed, and overly hyped baserunning mistake the night before. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. It's nice to see he doesn't read and/or care about what's in the papers
So in this series, the Red Sox took 3 of 4 from the Wild Card leading Indians. I'll take that, especially considering Cleveland was 34-15 (.694) at home coming into the series. We also split games with Sabathia and Carmona, which ain't half bad. We've beaten Cleveland 4 times out of 6 this season. And guess who we would play if the post-season started right now...
Cleveland.
In other news, Joel Pineiro accepted an assignment to AAA Pawtucket after clearing waivers. I guess this is good news. Mind as well have the guy available since we're paying him.
Brendan Donnelley began throwing from 90 feet on Wednesday. Terry Francona says that Donnelley is throwing "Not real aggressive...but he's throwing."
Curt Schilling made a rehab start in Toledo for the PawSox. He was very impressive. He went 5 scoreless innings, retiring the first 14 men he faced. He allowed 2 hits, no walks, and struck out 8. He threw 66 pitches, 44 of which were strikes. The stadium radar gun clocked his fastball as high as 93, and it frequently was in the low 90s range. He will make at least one more rehab start at AAA before returning.
It's July 27th tomorrow, and the Red Sox will be making their first appearance at the Fenway Dome in Tampa Bay. Wakefield goes against converted reliever Jason Hammel.
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