Red Sox - 010 100 000 - 2 7 2 Athletics - 100 000 002 - 3 8 1Three hours after he hit Jon Lester's (6.2-4-1-1-9, 107) third pitch of the game for a home run, Coco Crisp lofted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth that scored the winning run off Alfredo Aceves.
Aceves was charged with protecting a one-run lead, but he gave up a leadoff single to Chris Carter and a one-out hit to Cliff Pennington. Pinch-hitter Brandon Moss lined a single past Aceves into center to tie the game, and when Ryan Kalish overran the ball, the runners moved up to second and third. Then Crisp lofted an 0-2 pitch to right-center than was more than deep enough to score Pennington with the run that dumped the Red Sox back into fourth place.
That rally came after Oakland had failed to score against Vicente Padilla in the eighth despite having loaded the bases with one out. Padilla got out of trouble by striking out both Yoenis Cespedes and Jonny Gomes.
Boston blew scoring chances in each of the final three innings.
7th: Mike Aviles singled with one out and took second on a balk. But Nick Punto grounded to second and Daniel Nava looked at strike three.Salty's 16th home run tied the game back in the second inning. Ortiz monosacked in the fourth, raced to third on Gonzalez's single, and scored on an infield error. Gonzalez's hit extended his streak to 14 games.
8th: Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz both walked to start the inning. Cody Ross struck out, Adrian Gonzalez flied to center, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia was called out on strikes (the final pitch was not in the strike zone).
9th: Kalish singled and Aviles walked. Punto popped up a bunt that Carter dove for and caught, and Aviles was doubled off first. With Nava batting, Kalish then tried to steal third. It looked like he was safe, but Alfonso Marquez called him out.
Cool Colon Factoid: On April 18 of this year, he threw 38 consecutive strikes (or 38 pitches within the strike zone, since some were hit). According to this story, it was the longest streak since 1988, when pitches began to be consistently tracked. The second-longest streak in that time period is 30, by Tim Wakefield (!) in 1998.
Colon has been on the disabled list (strained oblique, right side) since June 17.
Lester continues his below-average season. His ERA+ is only 94 (100 is league average) and his WHIP (1.342) is higher than any season since 2007. Lester: "It's getting to that time I've got to get on that run."
Boston has scored only 10 runs in its last five games.
1 comment:
Long-time lurker, first time commenter.
As to Bobby V's predilection to put on a bunt with runners on first and second with no one out, as he did in the top of the ninth, I propose that the front office make him carry a laminated run expectancy matrix in his back pocket at all times.
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