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G79: Sox Rally Falls Short In Extra Innings, 7-6
By Administrator | July 3, 2009
Nick Green’s clutch two-run, game-tying double off the top of the Green Monster with two outs in the eighth inning capped the Red Sox comeback against the Seattle Mariners this evening at Fenway Park and sent the game into extra innings. But in the eleventh inning, M’s catcher Rob Johnson hit his third double of the night to drive home two runs to earn Seattle a 7-6 win over the Sox.
Seattle owes the win, in part, to the moronic Red Sox fan who interfered with Kevin Youkilis’ attempt to catch a foul pop in the fourth inning (more on that later).
The game pitted two pitchers who are among the hottest starters in the game — Tim Wakefield, the Red Sox ten-game winner, against “King Felix” Hernandez, perhaps the single hottest pitcher in either league. Wakefield was coming off one of his best months in a Boston uniform — he was 4-0, 3.45, in five starts during June. Hernandez, just 23 years of age, had won his last four decisions… in his last seven outings prior to tonight’s game, he was 4-0, with a miniscule 0.85 ERA… over his last 53 IP, he had allowed just five earned runs on thirty-eight hits while striking out fifty-one batters.
The game started poorly for King Felix, as he allowed a single, issued a walk and then surrendered a run-scoring ground-rule double in the first inning… things got worse when he wild-pitched a second run home as the Red Sox jumped out to the early 2-0 lead.
Wakefield retired six of the first seven batters he faced. In the third inning he surrendered a leadoff double to Johnson, who came around to score a few minutes later on a single by 1B Russell Branyan. Wakefield and Youkilis were snake-bitten by the fan in the stands in the Mariners three-run fourth inning. With one out, outfielder Ryan Langerhans hit a foul ball into the first row of the stands in the vicinity of the on-deck circle… rather than allow 3B Kevin Youkilis catch the ball for the second out, the fan used his baseball cap to catch the ball. An angry Youk glared at the fan repeatedly when he got back to the hot corner. Langerhans ripped the next pitch for a double… the offending fans was serenaded with a chorus of “all your fault” by half the Fenway Faithful in attendance. Third baseman Chris Woodward then flew out to Jacoby Ellsbury in center field for what should have been the third out… instead the inning continued. Johnson then doubled to tie the game as the fans began the serenade anew. When the next batter, the light-hitting Ronny Cedeno, homered to provide the M’s with a two-run lead, the fan was again the object of public scorn… this time they chanted: “throw him out!”.
Jerk!
J D Drew homered in the seventh inning to cut the lead to a run, but Mariners 2B Jose Lopez answered with a solo shot of his own in the top of the eighth inning to make the score 5-3.
In the bottom of the eighth, reliever Sean White walked Jason Bay and surrendered a single to Mark Kotsay. After a change of pitchers, Shawn Kelley surrendered the game-tying double to Green — a ball that struck the wall just a foot or two from resulting in a game-winning, three-run homer.
Wakefield made his 383rd start for the Red Sox as he surpassed Roger Clemens for the most starts in franchise history. He allowed five runs on ten hits over eight innings. Manny Delcarmen and Jonathan Papelbon eaxh tossed a scoreless inning of relief before Ramon Ramirez allowed Seattle to score in the eleventh.
OF Franklin Gutierrez opened the inning with a single. Langerhans walked. Chris Woodward then sacrificed the runners into scpring position before Johnson hit his third double of the game, a line drive the right-field line.
Chris Jakubauskas (5-5) pitched two hitless innings for the win and Mark Lowe, despite surrendering a solo homer to George Kottaras in the bottom of the frame, earned his first save. When all was said and done, Hernandez gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks in seven innings… he struck out seven, threw two wild pitches and committed a balk.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
