G47: Twins 4, Red Sox 2

Red Sox - 001 001 000 - 2  6  1
Twins   - 003 001 00x - 4 13  1

An annoyingly slow, crappy loss.

5-9-3-3-6, 102. Does that Dice line surprise you? However, he did lower his ERA to 8.82.

Jacoby Ellsbury singled twice (22!) and stole two bases and scored the third inning run. Jason Bay homered (#14) in the sixth. Mike Lowell singled twice. David Ortiz went 0-for-4 (K, F8, F8, PF3).

The Red Sox tied a modern record with six wild pitches, four by Matsuzaka (2 in the 1st and 2 in the 4th) and one each from Manny Delcarmen (6th) and Justin Masterson (7th). Also, all three Boston pitchers have nine-letter last names.

The Yankees beat the Rangers 9-2, so Boston and New York -- both 27-20 -- are tied for first place.

***

Daisuke Matsuzaka (10.32, 47 ERA+) / Kevin Slowey (4.23, 101 ERA+)

Lineup:

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Drew, RF
Youkilis, 1B
Bay, LF
Ortiz, DH
Lowell, 3B
Kottaras, C
Green, SS

Terry Francona:

I can see our lineup being a little fluid for a little while. I can see us moving around a little bit here. Youk could hit third, we could hit [Dustin Pedroia] third -- there's a lot of things we could do. ...

In the next few days ... we may not have our full lineup. We are on turf, we have some quick turnarounds, we are going to see how guys come through these games and how they are swinging, how they feel.