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March 19th: Red Sox Lose 5th Straight Grapefruit League Contest, 9-7
By Administrator | March 19, 2010
The Red Sox lost their fifth straight Grapefruit League game today, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-7. RHP Josh Beckett made his scheduled start after being scratched from his last outing due to illness. He tossed 3.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks, striking out only one batter. He threw 69 pitches, including 44 strikes. According to published reports, he was still dealing with the lingering effects of the bug that affected him all week and he was “gassed” at the end of his outing. (Pitching coach John Farrell said: “He was hacking, coughing in between pitches on the mound, and certainly in the bullpen when he was warming up.”)
There were 27 hits, including six homers, belted around McKechnie Field, in Bradenton, this afternoon. The Red Sox outhit the Bucs, 14-13, but were outhomered, 4-2. Designated Hitter David Ortiz was 2-for-3, with a home run (#2), OFJeremy Hermida hit his first homer in a Red Sox uniform, and OF Josh Reddick went 2-for-4, raising his batting average to .438.
The Sox jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on Ortiz’ two-run home run off Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm. The Pirates cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the second inning on a double by Ryan Doumit and an rbi-single by Andy LaRoche, but the Sox got that run back in the next half-inning on doubles by Dustin Pedroia and Victor Martinez.
Beckett surrendered an rbi-double to DH Garrett Jones in the bottom of the third inning and a two-run home run to RF Delwyn Young in the bottom of the fourth inning before being pulled from the game… at the time he left the contest the Red Sox trailed, 4-3.
Pittsburgh added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run home run by Jones.
The Sox knotted the game at 6-6 with three runs off struggling reliever Vinnie Chulk in the seventh inning, combining three hits and two walks to tie things up. But the Pirates re-established their lead in the next frame off reliever Jorge Sosa, who surrendered a two-run bomb to Bucs’ DH Steve Pearce.
The clubs exchanged runs in the eighth inning to account for the final score (pitching prospect Junichi Tazawa allowed a solo home run in his inning of work).
Topics: Sox Games |
