Orsillo vs. Francona was easily the best part of the game.
Henry Owens, making his last start of 2015, got into trouble right away in the 1st inning. He walked two consecutive Indians, and a Carlos Santana single to center field had Francisco Lindor coming around from second base. But Mookie Betts delivered an absolute strike to Blake Swihart to cut Lindor down at the plate, and Owens got out of the inning clean.
By the time Owens came back out in the bottom of the 3rd inning, the Boston offense had managed only a single by Swihart, but he’d been eliminated on a 4-6-3 double play by Jackie Bradley, Jr. to end the top of the 3rd, so they’d technically gone 9 up, 9 down.
Without any run support behind him, Owens loaded the bases with 1 out. Santana came up next, and he didn’t waste his second chance with runners in scoring position, clearing the bases with a double to center to make it 3-0, Cleveland. Santana himself came around on an RBI single by Chris Johnson to make it 4-0 before Owens escaped.
The Red Sox’ offense did its best to respond in the top of the 4th. Xander Bogaerts started a 2-out rally with an RBI single, and David Ortiz finished it with a 2-run home run, the 503rd of his career.
Dustin Pedroia kept the momentum going in the bottom of the 4th by flipping to first for the out on a good leadoff bunt by Abraham Almonte.
With the score still 4-2 in the bottom of the 5th, Owens got Ryan Raburn to pop out before completely falling to pieces. He walked Santana on four pitches and threw three more balls to Yan Gomes before throwing a strike and giving up a double just out of Betts’ reach that scored Santana. Bradley made an attempt at throwing home for the out, and it probably would have been the greatest throw of all time if it had traveled straight to home plate, but Swihart caught it slightly up the third base line.
Johnson singled, Sands doubled to score Gomes, and Almonte had the bloopiest single of all time over Bogaerts’ head to score Johnson. With the score 7-2 and after 107 pitches from Owens, Jonathan Aro came in to relieve him. He gave Boston 2.2 innings of solid relief, but gave up a solo shot to Jerry Sands in the 7th to make it 8-2.
Notes:
1. If you love Don Orsillo, and especially if you love watching Terry Francona bullying Orsillo, watch: