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Bowden Solid In Major League Debut, Earns Win In Red Sox 8-2 Triumph
By Administrator | August 30, 2008
As I have said before, I can see a day in the not-too-distant future when the Red Sox rotation is Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and Michael Bowden.
It will be a young, hard-throwing rotation with a couple of high-priced, exceptional stars in front of three young (and inexpensive) studs. The rotation will be supported by a bullpen that will be staffed with young, high-end set-up men like Daniel Bard, Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson, in front of one of the game’s best closers, Jonathan Papelbon.
Michael Bowden unleashes the second pitch of his major league career in the first inning of tonight’s game against the White Sox… AP photo
Tonight, as Buchholz worked to rediscover his confidence in Portland, ME (where he threw a two-hit shutout and struck out ten in eight innings), twenty-one-year-old right-hander Michael Bowden made his major league debut at Fenway Park. He pitched five solid innings against the White Sox, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk and earning the win.
The offense gave the young righty plenty of help. Dustin Pedroia, inserted into the clean-up slot in the lineup when the flu kept first baseman Kevin Youkilis on the bench tonight, went 4-for-4 for the second straight game… the second-year second baseman now leads the AL in batting at .327.
He had a double, three singles and scored two runs this evening.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had seen enough of Pedroia by the time he batted in the ninth… the skipper decided to walk him intentionally as the crowd chanted, “MVP, MVP”.
Mark Kotsay went 3-for-4 in his second game in Fenway Park’s home dugout, with three rbi.
Chicago southpaw Mark Buehrle was slapped around for seven runs in 4 2/3 innings. In the first inning, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled and took third on Pedroia’s first single… a ground-rule double by Kotsay drove in Ellsbury, and another by Jason Bay drove in two more.
Alexei Ramirez doubled in Jermaine Dye in the second to cut it to 3-1, but the Red Sox pushed across two more runs in the bottom half on Jeff Bailey’s second career (solo) homer, Ellsbury’s triple and Jed Lowrie’s sacrifice fly.
Joe Crede tripled and scored on A.J. Pierzynski’s groundout in the third inning to cut the lead to 5-2.
Buehrle settled down and retired seven straight batters before running into trouble again with one out in the fifth. David Ortiz singled and took third on Pedroia’s double… Kotsay then doubled to right field to make it 7-2.
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The last Red Sox player with four or more hits in consecutive games was Wade Boggs on June 8 and 10, 1989.
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I don’t really understand Jason Varitek’s game plan for Bowden tonight.
Michael has an excellent fastball (regularly 92-93 mph, will touch 95 mph on occasion), a very good curveball, and an outstanding changeup. Yet, in the first inning, and for most of the game, ‘Tek called primarily fastballs against a fastball-hitting team. It was a game plan that didn’t seem to play to Bowden’s strengths…
Of course, it could be that Jason felt that the rookie needed to get the first game under his belt and clear out some of the nerves — there is a much smaller margin for error with a hanging curveball than there is with a 93-mph fastball. If I could interview ‘Tek tomorrow, THAT would be my first line of inquiry.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
