Papi Gives Praise (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
This was the Red Sox’ biggest game of the season. After winning 7 of 11 and playing their best stretch baseball of 2015, Wednesday brought us the Canada Day Massacre. If the Sox are going to make any sort of serious playoff push they needed to bounce back in a big way on Thursday, and boy howdy did they bounce high.
One day after the Blue Jays jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three innings, the Red Sox jumped out to an 8-0 lead after the top of the first. Here’s how it happened:
- Mookie singled on an 0-2 pitch.
- Brock Holt singled on a 1-2 pitch.
- Xander singled home Mookie. 1-0, 0 Outs
- Papi served a 3-run homer to left field. 4-0, 0 Outs
- Hanley went back-to-back with Ortiz. 5-0, 0 Outs
Make sure you stick around for the end of that highlight to watch the beautiful little bat toss as he heads towards first. - Panda singled.
- Napoli walked.
- Toronto took out Matt Boyd and brought in Liam Hendricks.
- De Aza tripled, bringing home Panda and Napoli. 7-0, 0 Outs
- Hanigan lined out. 7-0, 1 Out
- Mookie singled again, bringing home De Aza. 8-0, 1 Out
- Mookie stole second.
- Brock Holt had an “infield single,” where Mookie was called out on interference trying to advance 3rd. 8-0, 2 Outs.
- Xander grounded out. 8-0 3, Outs.
To recap: 8 runs on 9 hits and a walk. That’s great production for an entire game and the Sox did it before the fans had even bought their first Molsons. The score was 7-0 Boston before Blue Jays pitching recorded an out. Jay’s starter Matt Boyd was charged with all seven of those runs and was lifted without retiring anyone, even though when he left the game the score was still 5-0. Poor Boyd made Porcello‘s start yesterday look like a gem in comparison.
Staked with an 8-run lead, Wade Miley had a good bottom of the first, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the second. He gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, including walking in a run which is literally the last thing in the world you want to do when up by two grand slams. And it could’ve been worse had it not been for this catch by Betts.
Miley let the Jays right back in the game, and the Sox’ lead was an uncomfortable 8-4. But to his credit, Miley got through three additional innings without giving up a run to give him this ugly, but ultimately winning line:
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miley (W, 8-7) | 5.0 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 4.53 |
The Sox would tack on four insurance runs in the later innings to make it a more comfortable win, and allow me just smile sadly instead of pull my hair out when Craig Breslow came in and got smacked around. The top three batters in the lineup plus De Aza accounted for all four of the insurance runs. Those 4 (Betts, Holt, Bogaerts, and De Aza) combined to go 14-23 with 8 RBIs.
In the end, the Red Sox totaled 19 hits and every starter had a hit except Hanigan.
Notes:
-I was glad to see Farrell went back to Xander in the 3-hole after briefly reshuffling the lineup after Ramirez returned. The top 3 of Mookie-Holt-Xander has worked well since Pedroia went down.
–Ogando was big again, tossing scoreless innings in the 6th and 7th. The bottom of the 6th was the crucial half inning in the game since the score was still 8-4 and Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion were due up.
-Halfway through the season the Red Sox are 37-44 and still just 6 out in the division. Given everything that happened and how they played, I’ll take it.