G62: Spiders 8, Red Sox 7

Red Sox   - 410 000 002 - 7 10  0
Cleveland - 003 003 002 - 8 12  4

The Red Sox were down to their last strike, trailing 6-5, but J.D. Drew was hit by a pitch and Adrian Beltre homered to left.

Daniel Bard loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth (4-pitch walk, double, 5-pitch walk), but then nearly escaped trouble. He struck out Travis Hafner looking and got Jhonny Peralta to foul out to catcher. But Russell Branyan blooped a hit over Dustin Pedroia into short right field -- Cleveland had two bloop hits in their sixth-inning rally, also -- and the Spiders won the game and split the series.

Bard's inability to throw strikes when he first came in could have been because of not having enough time to warmup or because he has been worked like a mule this season. (While still being our most effective reliever.) He has pitched in exactly half of Boston's 62 games (and six of June's 10 games). Among AL pitchers, only Tampa Bay's Randy Choate has pitched in more games (32). But the differences between the two pitchers is stark.

       GMS  INN    BF  PIT
Choate  32  16.1   70  247
Bard    31  32.2  130  477

Bard has now pitched 32.2 innings, tied for the most among AL relievers, and before tonight, he was 6th in most pitches thrown.

Jon Lester / Mitch Talbot

Scutaro, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, 1B
Martinez, C
Drew, RF
Beltre, 3B
Cameron, CF
Hall, LF

Lester since April 19: 9 starts, 1.23 ERA.

Also at 7 PM:

Yankees/Orioles
Blue Jays/Rays

June 10, 1944: Joe Nuxhall, at 15 years, 10 months and 11 days, becomes the youngest player in major league history when he pitches 0.2 of an inning for the Reds in an 18-0 loss to the Cardinals. Nuxhall: "Probably two weeks prior to that, I was pitching against seventh, eighth and ninth graders, kids 13 and 14 years old. All of a sudden, I look up and there's Stan Musial ..."