G65: Red Sox 6, Marlins 1

Marlins - 100 000 000 - 1  6  0
Red Sox - 020 200 11x - 6  9  1

Penny (5-3-1-4-3, 100) danced between the raindrops all night, stranding seven runners, including five at either 2nd or 3rd, in the first four innings. He relied mostly on his fastball, as his breaking stuff was ineffective. Penny retired six of his final seven batters, though, and collected his 100th career victory.

The one Florida run was unearned, as it scored on the first error of Jacoby Ellsbury's major league career (at 232 games, it was the longest errorless streak by an outfielder in Red Sox history). Lyndon made up for the gaff: he walked twice, stole a base, and hit his third home run of the year (over the bullpens in right-center) in the seventh.

David Ortiz doubled, walked twice, and scored three runs. Dustin Pedroia went 3-for-5, stole two bases and drove in three runs. Rocco Baldelli singled twice.

The game was the 500th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park, dating back to May 15, 2003.

The quartet of Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima, Ramon Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon put up a 4-3-0-2-5 line. The only jam was from Ram-Ram, who allowed a walk and single to start the eighth, before getting a fly ball to left and two strikeouts.

The Natinals beat the Yankees 3-2, so Boston is now 3 GA in the East.

***

Andrew Miller (4.30, 98 ERA+) / Brad Penny (5.32, 89 ERA+)

In his last time out, Penny pitched six shutout innings against the Yankees.

He has pitched into the sixth inning in each of his last eight starts and in 10 of his 12 starts this season. Since the end of April, he has posted a 4.10 ERA (the AL average for the season is 4.45).

Lineup:

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

Terry Francona said moving Daisuke Matsuzaka to the bullpen is unlikely:

My first thought was that if we tell him that we're putting him in long relief that's probably not going to build his confidence a whole lot. You know, there's a lot of things to think about. When you put a guy in the bullpen, who comes out of the bullpen? When you send a guy to the bullpen, how does he react to the bullpen?

Also, Daisuke is typically our guy who takes the longest to warm up ... he goes out there a good 45-50 minutes before the game and throws a lot, so is that going to work? ... We can't just get caught up in what the fans and [media] are caught up in because we'll make some poor decisions.