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Sox Rout Rays — Again — Reduce AL East Lead To 1 1/2 Games
By Administrator | September 7, 2008
The Red Sox acquisition of Paul Byrd is looking better all the time.
This afternoon in Texas, the veteran righty with the funky wind-up hurled 6 2/3 innings of three-hit, shutout baseball to lead the Sox to a 7-2 win over the Rangers. Byrd has now won four of the five starts he has made since being acquired by Boston on August 12th.
On offense, David Ortiz and Jason Bay paced the twelve-hit attack with two hits apiece, including a home run. Big Papi’s home run, a two-run laser off Rangers starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy in the top of the fifth inning, was his first dinger in twenty games… Bay’s solo shot accounted for the Red Sox’ final run in the seventh inning.
The Red Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. With two outs, Jason Varitek singled, Alex Cora ripped an rbi-triple down the right field line, and Coco Crisp slapped a run-scoring single back up the middle and into center field. After Ortiz’ home run doubled the lead in the fifth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia added rbi-singles in the sixth inning to make the lead a half-dozen.
Meanwhile, Byrd was in cruise control. He allowed just three singles and three walks in his outing… he left the game in the seventh inning after having walked two batters. Southpaw Javier Lopez replaced him and struck out rookie slugger Chris Davis to end the Rangers threat.
Manny Delcarmen surrendered a solo home run to catcher Taylor Teagarden in the eighth inning to lose the shutout bid… the backstop then grounded a single just inside the third base bag off closer Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning to drive home Texas’ other run (that run was charged to Chris Smith).
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Ortiz’ nineteen-game homerless streak matched the longest drought in his six seasons with Boston.
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Tampa Bay lost to rookie lefty David Purcey and the Toronto Blue Jays, 1-0… the Rays were swept in the three-game series by their AL East rivals.
Detroit rallied to beat Minnesota, 7-5… the Red Sox now lead the Twins by 6 1/2 games in the race for the AL wild card.
The LA Angels rallied form a 2-0 deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2… the Angels therefore remain two games ahead of the Red Sox (1/2 game ahead of Tampa Bay) for best record in the AL. Frankie Rodriguez saved his 55th game — he’s now just two saves behind the major league record of fifty-seven (set by Bobby Thigpen, CWS, 1990).
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The Red Sox finished 9-1 against the Rangers this season… David Ortiz had five homers and twenty-two rbi against them this season.
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The Red Sox arrive home for a critical three-game series against Tampa Bay starting tomorrow night… they will play thirteen of their final nineteen games at Fenway Park.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
