Red Sox - 300 011 010 - 6 15 0 Cleveland - 000 003 000 - 3 7 1Justin Masterson came into this game having allowed only one run in 22 innings. So what do the Red Sox do in the first inning? Pin a three-spot on him.
Jacoby Ellsbury singled. Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch. Dustin Pedroia singled. Mike Napoli singled (2-0). Daniel Nava singled (3-0). All this - and all four hits were to the opposite field - before Masterson (5-11-4-1-5, 101) could record an out.
Boston loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning - Mike Carp doubled, and Ellsbury and Victorino singled - and failed to score. (Carp had to stay at second when Ellsbury's hit snaked through the shortstop hole and he could not score on Victorino's hard grounder to right.) The Red Sox also had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth and could not score.
Carp made his first start of the season and went 3-for-3 (two doubles and a triple). Stephen Drew walked with two outs in the fifth and scored on Carp's three-bagger. In the sixth, Victorino (who reached base five times) singled, went to third on Napoli's double and scored on Nava's single.
It felt like Boston's missed chances to score earlier in the game would come back to haunt them when Cleveland scored three times in the sixth off a presumably tired Aceves (5-7-3-3-2, 106). Aceves had never thrown more than 98 pitches in a game in his career - and he was at 87 when he finished the fifth, an inning in which he allowed a single, double and walk with two outs before escaping trouble when Victorino hauled in Asdrubal Cabrera's rocket to the gap in right-center.
John Farrell did not have anyone warming up when Aceves began the sixth. That was a mistake for which he got burned. Aceves walked Carlos Santana and gave up a two-run home run to Nick Swisher. As Junichi Tazawa and Andrew Miller began warming up, Jason Giambi crushed a solo shot to right-center, cutting Boston's lead to 5-3. After Juan Nieves made a visit to the mound, Aceves allowed a double to Mark Reynolds.
Tazawa finally came in - and retired the next three batters; he also struck out the side in the seventh. Koji Uehara pitched a perfect eighth, with two strikeouts, and Andrew Bailey struck out two more in a perfect ninth.
Victorino, Ellsbury, and Carp each had three hits. ... Will Middlebrooks (0-for-5) is 2-for-30 since his three-homer game in Toronto. ... Boston has won five in a row and is now 10-4 - and its starting pitchers have allowed three runs or fewer in all 14 games this season.
Ellsbury, CFMasterson has allowed only one run in 22 innings (0.41). ... Aceves makes his second start of the season. He pitched five innings against Baltimore on April 11.
Victorino, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Napoli, DH
Nava, LF
Middlebrooks, 3B
Saltalamacchia, C
Drew, SS
Carp, 1B
John Farrell said there is "a chance" David Ortiz could be in the Red Sox lineup on Friday against Kansas City. ... Dustin Pedroia has reached base in each of Boston's 13 games this season.
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