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A Glorious Day At Fenway Park… Sox Sweep Doubleheader
By Administrator | May 18, 2008
By the time my wife and I arrived at Fenway Park yesterday afternoon, the rains of Friday night were long forgotten. By 2:00 PM, it was already apparent that it would be a glorious day in and around the city of Boston, regardless if what transpired inside the ballpark… the temperature was in the mid-60s, the skies above were bright blue and dotted with an occasional cloud, and baseball was on the agenda for the rest of the day.
The gates opened at 2:00, allowing fans to enter Fenway a half-hour earlier than normal (the ballclub typically opens park to fans one-and-one-half hours prior to the scheduled starting time for the game, but yesterday we were allowed in two hours before the 3:55 PM start). As I waiting in line, I had the perfunctory sausage, pepper & onion sandwich with hot sauce and mustard — a staple of any trip to see Red Sox.
Once inside I headed for the Sox dugout in the hope of seeing Clay Buchholz, who I had the good fortune to interview last summer in Manchester, NH (Clay, if you read this, I would LOVE to have a chance to do a follow-up interview with you). Unfortunately, as he approached the dugout he was juggling a half-dozen emplty water bottles and never looked up when I called his name.
My wife, Dee, enjoying our vantage point on a beautiful spring day
After the team retired to the clubhouse, I proceeded to section D6 (the dugout box seats down the right field line just beyond ‘grounds crew alley’). My wife had just arrived at our seats after snagging her Fenway Frank and a couple of sodas. As my wife slathered on layer upon layer of sunscreen, we watched the Brewers take batting practice and enjoyed the sites and sounds of a day at the ballpark.
I commented to Dee (my wife) that I was impressed by the power generated by Brewers corner OFs Ryan Braun and Cory Hart and the relative ease with which they generated the power… later in the day both men would make my comments seem prescient. Once the Red Sox returned to their dugout players came onto the field to participate in their pre-game stretching regimens…
As always, the fans — especially the younger crowd — became excited at the site of their defending world champions. The clamor for David Ortiz is a remarkable thing to witness first-hand… he is like a rock star and is treated with an adulation that is rivaled on the Boston sports scene only by Pats QB Tom Brady. More and more, many of the younger ladies in the crowd are treating Jacoby Ellsbury in much the same manner — alternating between screaming hysterically and cooing longingly.
Manny Ramirez graciously signed autographs for a couple of minutes just before the singing of The Star Spangled Banner… I am sad to report that he was the only player I saw sign autographs in two hours.
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Once Game One began, the Red Sox jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead; but, contrary to the impression presented in accounts from many media outlets, the game never seemed safely in the win column to those of us at the ballgame.
At least not until until Jonathan Papelbon came into the game in the ninth inning.
Reading the AP store, I wondered whether the writer actually attended the game (or if he / she did whether they understand the game of baseball). As has been typical of his outings, Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka threw far too many pitches and, early in the game, too many of them were balls. He frequently fell behind in the count and went to three-ball counts on six occasions during the first two trips through the Milwaukee lineup.
It is undeniable that Dice-K kept the Brewers off the scoreboard until the seventh inning — and that preventing runs is his ultimate goal — but he seemed to teeter on the brink of disaster throughout the course of the outing. It was far from the ‘dominant’ effort that has been portrayed.
The Sox jumped out 1-0 on a bases-loaded walk to J D Drew in the first inning and extended the lead to 4-0 courtesy of a three-run home run by David Ortiz in the second inning… but the offense would not score again until the eighth inning.
Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a bunt single in the second inning… he scored a short time later on a three-run home run by David Ortiz
Meanwhile, the Brewers had at least one baserunner in every inning except the fourth. They got the leadoff man on base in the first three innings, loaded the bases in the fifth inning, and had runners on second and third with no one out in the sixth inning. They repeatedly seemed to be on the verge of scoring… nonetheless, Dice-K made the pitches he needed to make when he needed to make them. In the fifth inning, he loaded the bases after retiring the first two batters but then induced a lazy fly out from CF Mike Cameron… in the sixth inning, after allowing a single and a double, he struck out the next two batters before he ended the inning by getting 1B Joe Dillon to fly out to Manny Ramirez.
In the seventh inning, he retired the first two batters only to have a Kevin Youkilis error (at third base) keep the inning alive… the next batter, Cameron, homered into the Green Monster seats to cut the lead to 4-2. After Ryan Braun singled, Dice-K was pulled from the game in favor of Javier Lopez, who walked Prince Fielder on five pitches. Manager Terry Francona then called on Manny Delcarmen to end the threat (he retired Hart on a ground out).
Delcarmen pitched a scoreless eighth inning (allowing only an infield single). The Red Sox scored an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth (on an Ellsbury rbi-double) before Pappy earned his twelfth save (surrendering a two-out solo home run to Braun) in the ninth inning.
Former Red Sox hurler Jeff Suppan got the loss… he fell to 2-3, 4.78.
Is Fenway Park the only stadium in America where the fans still do the wave?
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In the night cap, the Sox completed the doubleheader sweep, 7-6.
The teams played one of the ugliest games this season — committing seven errors accounting for six unearned runs (NOTE: the seven errors are the most errors committed by two teams in a game this season). Milwaukee committed four errors… both teams scored three unearned runs.
The Red Sox made the most of their limited offsensive output and capitalized on the Brewer miscues… they had only six hits and four walks. Mike Lowell was the hero for Boston, socking a two-run double in the first inning and a two-run home run in the third inning. Kevin Youkilis had two hits, an rbi and a run scored (he is 5-for-his-last-12). Jacoby Ellsbury, hitless in the game, stole his sixteenth base of the season without being caught (he is now 24-for-24 in his young career — three shy of the MLB record held by Tim Raines).
Tim Wakefield started for the Sox… he allowed three runs on six hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings pitched. The Sox led the game 5-0 entering the top of the sixth inning when Wakefield surrendered a long, TOWERING home run to RF Corey Hart (it clanged off the lights in the tower above The Green Monster). The knuckleballer then allowed two more baserunners before being pulled from the game, only to see reliever David Aardsma allow both runners that were his responsibility to score.
Wakefield lost a potential win in the seventh inning when Milwaukee scored three unearned runs off reliever Craig Hansen. With one on and one out, the young righty induced routine ground balls from successive Brewers batters but was betrayed by his defense. Consecutive errors by Mike Lowell and Alex Cora left the bases loaded… a force out and a two-run double gave the Brew Crew the lead.
But the baseball gods giveth and they taketh away… Milwaukee committed two errors of their own in the bottom half of the inning leading to two Red Sox runs. A 6-5 deficit turned into a 7-6 advantage (the eventual final score).
Hansen got the win. Mike Timlin pitched a perfect ninth inning in place of Papelbon (who Francona did not want to throw in boith ends of the doubleheader) to earn his first save.
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Brewers OF Gabe Kapler played Game Two and received a standing ovation before his first at-bat. Kapler, who played on the Red Sox ‘04 world championship team, was an extremely popular player during his brief tenure in Boston. He retired prior to last season and coached A-ball for the Red Sox before un-retiring this winter.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
