Red Sox - 020 000 000 1 - 3 9 0 Yankees - 000 000 110 0 - 2 7 0
Saltalamacchia began the inning with a walk off David Robertson. Will Middlebrooks attempted to bunt and was hit in the right arm by the pitch, but the umpires ruled that the ball hit his bat. Both Bobby Valentine and Josh Beckett were ejected for arguing the blown call. Middlebrooks still managed to get on base, though, with a single to right. Ryan Sweeney grounded into a fielder's choice, moving Salty to third, setting the stage for Yankee Killer Ciriaco.
Sweeney got the Red Sox on the board in the second inning with a two-run double, scoring Adrian Gonzalez and Saltalamacchia.
New York erased the lead in the late innings. Russell Martin homered to begin the seventh. The Yankees stranded runners at first and third in that inning as Andrew Miller needed only three pitches to retire Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira to keep the lead at 2-1. With two outs in the eighth, Jones doubled off Miller and Martin greeted Alfredo Aceves with a single to tie the game.
After Boston took a 3-2 lead, Aceves dispatched the Yankees: Teixeira fouled out to right, Robinson Cano grounded to second, Nick Swisher was hit by a pitch, and pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez struck out (losing a nine-pitch battle).
Doubront (6.1-4-1-5-8, 109) dealt with a lot of baserunners, but kept New York off the board for six innings. Kuroda (8-7-2-1-4, 102) was aided by four double plays in a span of five innings.
Ellsbury, CFThe Red Sox slapped Kuroda around on July 6 (5.2-10-7-1-3).
Crawford, LF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ross, DH
Saltalamacchia, C
Middlebrooks, 3B
Sweeney, RF
Ciriaco, SS
Doubront has faced the Yankees twice this season, April 21 (6-4-1-3-7) and July 7 (6.1-4-4-1-6). (That April start was the infamous bullpen meltdown game.)
I'm watching the part where Middlebrooks was hit by the pitch again. It was cool to see the Sox players in the dugout genuinely fired up and adamant about how wrong the call was.
ReplyDeleteBut aside from that, I don't understand the final call. It was so obvious that Middlebrooks was hit that when he wasn't awarded first, the announcers just assumed that the umpires saw he was hit, but couldn't tell if he was offering or pulling the bat back. So they gave him strike 2 instead.
But I thought the rule was that if one gets hit by a pitch while offering, that meant an automatic out. (I think Papelbon once squirmed out of a jam on this technicality, although that was a swinging hit-by-pitch instead of a non-existent bunt attempt.) So the fact that Middlebrooks was neither called out nor awarded first seemed to indicate that none of the umps actually saw him get hit. Meaning the most blatantly obvious aspect of that play (that he got hit, not that he was pulling the bat back) was something they all got wrong.
It's either that, or I'm unclear on the rule about what happens when a batter gets hit while offering.
Nevermind about my comment. I guess the Papelbon thing only happened because there were already two strikes in the at bat, whereas Middlebrooks had one strike at the time of the hit-by-pitch non-offer-called-an-offer.
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