August 9, 2012

G113: Cleveland 5, Red Sox 3

Red Sox   - 000 210 000 - 3  9  0
Cleveland - 100 030 01x - 5 10  0
Felix Doubront (4.1-7-4-2-4, 94) faltered and gave up a lead in the fifth inning for the second straight start, and the Red Sox lost the first game of a 10-game road trip.

Adrian Gonzalez's two-run homer gave Boston a 2-1 lead in the fourth and Dustin Pedroia's second single of the night knocked in Jacoby Ellsbury (who singled, walked and stole three bases).

Doubront had retired nine batters in a row, with the last eight Cleveland batters not hitting the ball out of the infield, when his troubles began. Lou Marson singled with one out and Jason Donald, who had homered in the first, walked. Asdrubal Cabrera doubled in one run and, after Shin-Soo Choo walked on five pitches to load the bases, Carlos Santana singled home the tying run. Andrew Miller relieved Doubront and allowed a sacrifice fly to Michael Brantley, giving Cleveland a 4-3 lead.

Boston wasted a couple of scoring opportunities in the last four innings. Pedro Ciriaco doubled to start the seventh, but committed a couple of baserunning errors that took the Red Sox out of the inning. With one out, Carl Crawford grounded to shortstop. Ciriaco's first mistake was running to third. He got caught in a rundown, but then allowed himself to get tagged out too early and Crawford was thrown out trying to sneak into second base.

With one out in the eighth, Gonzalez got plunked and Cody Ross singled. But Jarrod Saltalamacchia struck out looking (his third K of the night) and Will Middlebrooks popped out to right. The Red Sox went in order in the ninth.

Boston is now 55-58.
Example
Felix Doubront / Ubaldo Jimenez
Ellsbury, CF
Crawford, LF
Pedroia, DH
Gonzalez, 1B
Ross, RF
Saltalamacchia, C
Middlebrooks, 3B
Aviles, SS
Ciriaco, 2B
Some notes from the Globe:

The only two Red Sox hitters to hit 15 home runs in their first 73 major league games (in a single season)? Will Middlebrooks (2012) and Ted Williams (1939).

Carl Crawford is crushing the baseball. In his last 12 games, he is 16-for-49 (.327), with 6 singles, 5 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 home runs. He has scored 11 runs and knocked in 12.

Adrian Gonzalez is batting .400 since the beginning of July and .484 in August.

4 comments:

Mark said...

I refuse to stop watching the team until they have been eliminated. However I havn't been this close to not giving a fuck about them since the Jeff Frye era.

allan said...

Fear not! Red Sox sign Podsednik to a major-league deal.

9casey said...

Jeff Frye " era" , you mean when we had Nomar and Vaughn and Nixon . I think most people called that the early Nomar years... So if you didn't give a fuck watching him play in those years , you might not be a fan, just sayin...

laura k said...

The Jeff Frye era??? That is just weird.