Ross hit a pair of 3 run homers, one in the 3rd, the next in the 4th. He now has 15 on the season, along with 47 RBI. Ross has the second best slugging percentage (.557) on the team, behind David Ortiz. So with Ortiz on the DL, the Sox need him to continue to hit for power.
Adrian Gonzalez also needs to help fill the void left by Ortiz. And he's starting to do that. He was 3 for 4 last night with a solo homerun and a pair of RBI singles. He knocked in 4 runs.
In his last 20 games, Gonzalez is hitting .427, slugging .598, has hit 3 homeruns and knocked in 19 runs.
Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford did their job and got on base. Ellsbury was 3 for 4 with a double. Crawford was 1 for 3. Ellsbury scored 3 times, Crawford twice.
The offensive output from the top of the order slightly overshadowed yet another good outing by Felix Doubront. He already has 10 Quality Starts this season. Most of them are the 6 inning, 3 earned run variety, but that's good enough. He's only failed to go 5 innings in 3 starts. He's gone 6+ innings 12 times.
This was a great combination win. The big name talent like Gonzalez, Ellsbury, and Crawford did their job. The second-tier guys like Ross and Doubront continued to go above and beyond.
The Sox have a good chance to win this series tonight. Clay Buchholz faces 4-1 Jose Quintana. Quintana is a leftahander who's had consistency problems. For instance, he had an 8 inning 1 run start against the Rangers. Then followed that by getting knocked around by the Royals for 5 runs in 5 innings.
Photo Credit:
AP Photo
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