Ross and Gonzalez Power Red Sox

Cody Ross and Adrian Gonzalez knocked in all 10 Red Sox runs last night. Prince Felix Doubront made another very solid start and the Red Sox cruised to a 10-1 victory.

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.

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AP Photo

Doubront It? You Got It!

Prince Felix returned to form last night, rebounding from one of his first stumbles of the season. He went 7 innings, struck out 9, only allowing 2 runs off 3 hits and a walk. It was one of his best starts all year.

The Sox finally managed to score some runs. As usual, it came as a bunch. They scored 4 off Nolasco, then took advantage of Randy Choate and the Marlins' bullpen in the 8th. They scored 6 in that inning. Up until last night, they'd scored 6 runs in the previous 27 innings.

Good pitching creates the possibility of winning. It makes winning easy. All the hitters have to do is hit. There's 9 of them, and they get 27 outs to play with, so they should be able to hit and score runs. Quality pitching is the biggest cause of winning.

And that's what Felix Doubront has given the Red Sox this season. He deserves his 7-3 record. He's been a rock. He's been reliable. He's only failed to go 5 innings twice. And he's gone 6+ eight times. You really can't ask for more from him.

The Sox continue to play well on the road. They're 17-13 away from Fenway. Maybe it has something to do with the wind.

Speaking of wind, they'll be in Chicago to face the 6th place Cubs. They're 20 games below .500. The Sox must take advantage of this struggling opponent.

Matsuzaka makes his second start of the season. He faces Ryan Dempster, who is 2-3 but has a 2.31 ERA. He hasn't allowed a run since May. This doesn't bode well for the Sox offense.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo