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May 1, 2011

G27: Red Sox 3, Mariners 2

Updated with quotes!
Mariners - 000 002 000 - 2  4  0
Red Sox  - 002 000 001 - 3  8  2
Carl Crawford's hard ground ball single up the middle with two outs in the bottom of the ninth scored Jed Lowrie, who was given a triple when his one-out line drive to right field was lost in the sun by Ichiro Suzuki and caromed off Ichiro's right thigh*.

* After the ball hit Ichiro's leg, my first thought, instantly, was, "Why the %#@& couldn't that have happened to Pinella?" ... Old wounds run deep. I wonder what was going through Jerry Remy's head at that moment.
The ball is just below his belt.
Ichiro:
The moment that ball hit the sky, I couldn't pick up anything, it just disappeared. It's close to impossible to catch that ball. The decisions were look to the side so the ball could get deeper into myself and maybe hit me, or run back and let it fall down for a single. But ... late in a tight ballgame, you want to make that effort. You don't want to let that ball fall in and make it look like you aren't trying.
Lowrie:
When I hit it, I knew I got it good. He plays a really deep right field, the wind was blowing straight in and I saw him and thought he was camped right under it, which he was. But then the sun. ...
Jamey Wright:
I could tell he didn't see it. He actually came a lot closer than I thought he would. I thought it was going to sail right by him. I had a chance to get out of it with the ground ball, but I threw a cutter to Crawford that got a little too much of the plate. I was trying to get a shoe or glove or something on it, but he hit it too hard.
The win denied Seattle a three-game sweep - and it was the first run the Mariners' bullpen had allowed in 15 innings. The victory raised the Red Sox's record to 12-15 and though it will not lift them out of the East cellar, it was a gratifying victory on an afternoon when Hernandez (7-6-2-1-10, 111) was tough - retiring 14 of his final 15 batters - and Bobby Jenks turned in yet another putrid performance.

Crawford's teammates, as hopeful as the 37,079 fans in the stands that the "$142 million left fielder" could come through in the ninth, were crowded together on the top step of the dugout. When his hit skipped by reliever Jamey Wright and had a clear path into center field, the bench erupted and emptied. David Ortiz reached first base only a step or two after Crawford touched it!

Crawford:
Everything I hit, it seems like it's an out. To see it get through, it was like a big weight was off my shoulders. ... It's a new month.
David Ortiz:
Me and Gonzo, we had a race. I heard Gonzo say, "Man if he gets a hit right here, I'm going to hug him so hard." And then next thing you know, it's like, "OK, that's a good idea," and bam.
Adrian Gonzalez:
[We] just keep telling him that we believe in him. I wouldn't want anybody else in left field. He's the man. ... I keep telling him that the greatest thing for where you're in right now is that you're probably going to hit .330, .340 for the rest of the year. Good things will happen.
Boston left the bases loaded in the first inning (Felix threw 27 pitches). When Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia both singled to begin the third and Adrian Gonzalez struck out, one worried a bit that the Red Sox's RATS woes (0-for-their-last-14) would continue. But Ortiz came through, knocking a 1-2 pitch halfway up the Wall in left, and both runners scored.

Wakefield (5.2-3-1-1-3, 76) made his first start of the year, in place of a sick Clay Buchholz, and pitched as well as Terry Francona could have asked for. He retired the first five Mariners, escaped a second-and-third, two-out jam in the second, and stranded Jack Cust at second in the fifth after Cust led off with a double.

Wakefield struck out Ichiro to start the sixth and retired Chone Figgins on a pop-up to first. Ryan Langerhans singled and Tito decided to go to the pen. In retrospect, Francona should have let Wakefield (if he was able) have another batter or two. But at the time, considering that Wakefield had had only one outing longer than two innings this year and thrown more than 27 pitches only once, pulling him at 5.2 innings and 76 pitches was an understandable decision. (Wakefield: "I was shocked I got into the sixth inning, to be honest with you.")

Jenks - who has shaved the rat's nest on his chin! - allowed a clean single to left to Miguel Olivo. Then he walked the next three batters, loading the bases and then forcing in two runs to tie the game; he also tossed a wild pitch for good measure.

(The Mariners now have a nine bases-loaded walks this season, including five by Jack Cust. The team record is six, set by John Olerud in 2003.)

The rest of the pen was lights out. Matt Albers retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth (on only 20 pitches) and Jonathan Papelbon needed only seven pitches to get the side in order in the ninth, including a strikeout.
Example
Felix Hernandez / Tim Wakefield

Clay Buchholz went home on Friday with a stomach ailment, so Wakefield gets the spot start against K. Felix. It's Wake's first start of the season. Of his seven appearances in April, the longest one was 3.1 innings. He has a 5.56 ERA.

Buchholz will pitch on Monday against the Angles. Jon Lester will be moved ahead of Josh Beckett and start on Tuesday.

AL East: Blue Jays/Yankees at 1 PM; Angels/Rays at 1:30 PM; and Orioles/White Sox at 2 PM.

40 comments:

  1. Ellsbury, CF
    Pedroia, 2B
    Gonzalez, 1B
    Ortiz, DH
    Drew, RF
    Lowrie, 3B
    Scutaro, SS
    Crawford, LF
    Saltalamacchia, C

    Suzuki, RF
    Figgins, 3B
    Langerhans, LF
    Olivo, C
    Smoak, 1B
    Cust, DH
    Rodriguez, SS
    Saunders, CF
    Wilson, 2B

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  2. Yook tweaked his left hip last night and gets the day off.

    PAbe said AG was furious with himself for lining out to 2B with the bases loaded in the fifth:
    "I should have hit the ball off the left-field fence. Up and away fastball, I was out in front of it. That’s a ball I drive to left field. It’s not bad luck that I hit it right at him. I should have backed it up a little more and driven it to left the way I know how to do. It’s those little things we’ve got to do better."

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  3. one great thing about gammons over remy is that gammo knows (a LOT) about other players in the league!

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  4. Hi, K.

    TOR - 011
    MFY - 100

    The table is set.

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  5. PAPI!!! The Sox finally moved some runners.

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  6. jenks up - getting ready to blow the lead

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  7. CLEAN CHIN FOR JENKS!!!!!!!!

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  8. Wakefield looked great today, esp. striking out Ichiro. And now Jenks giving up hits...

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  9. fuckin jenks - natives getting restless

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  10. cust will take a walk too, so ...

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  11. cust has 5 BB in 5 PA with bases loaded this year.

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  12. shoulda let wake finish the inning (or another batter or two) (if he was able)

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  13. The final insult will be when the bats come alive in the bottom of the inning and Jenks vultures a W.

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  14. jenks up - getting ready to blow the lead

    Prophetic...or should I say, pathetic.

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  15. 1st runner since flo's double!

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  16. vintage papelbon!

    now - win!

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  17. SUN FIELD

    triple off ichiro's thigh

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  18. How is a ball off Ichiro's leg a triple and not an E?

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  19. he never saw it, never made a play, just happened to hit him, could have hit beside him and rolled away.

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  20. Dirty!! Yay! And I'm happy for CC

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  21. I'm sad for Wakefield, very strong outing only to be robbed of the win.

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  22. They used to say that the late afternoon sun in right field was a bitch, usually on the way to complimenting Dwight Evans on a tough play.

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  23. On one of our trips to Fenway --it might have been way back in 1994, right before the strike, because we had seats in the lower stands out there for an evening game -- we were out in RF during BP (so it was late afternoon) and I was blind.

    I literally could not see anything. Balls were crashing into seats all around us like artillery shells. It was a little scary, but I also figured the odds of a ball actually hitting me were slim. I don't know how anyone catches anything out there before the sun goes down behind the roof.

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  24. 1994 seems like a time of complete innocence.

    On the day after the strike ended but before there were any games, the Red Sox opened Fenway to anyone who wanted to come in, stroll around, watch the grounds crew get the field in shape, the food service people stock their stands, and generally the whole parade of the park coming back to life.

    I sat behind the home dugout for an hour or so, enjoying the day and the quiet--there might have been 300 people in the park.

    I doubt that anything that simple, free, 'insecure,' or so deeply in the old spirit of the game could happen today--or am I just good-old-daysing it?

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  25. Was there today, always fun to see a walk-off!

    I guess what johngoldfine must mean by saying they USED TO say the RF was tough, is the fact that it was even worse before they built the seats up higher around the plate.

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