Sox take 2 of 3 vs. A’s

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

The Sox bats were red-hot in a series highlighted by another quality bounce-back performance by Dice-K and Boston taking 2 out of 3 against the A’s to kick off the month of June.

On Tuesday, John Lackey didn’t have his hottest start – giving up 4 runs through 5 innings. The Sox did rebut though, with a 3-run Adrian Beltre homer in the bottom of 5. A fielder’s choice Pedroia RBI in the 6th evened the game up before Victor Martinez created a lead with a 2-out RBI-double later in the inning.

Bill Hall, V-Mart and J.D. Drew added RBIs to the scoreboard before the game was over for a 9-4 Sox win. It should be highly noted that V-Mart came through big Tuesday with a 5-hit game, 4 of which were doubles. He may not be the best catcher, but man this guy can hit when he’s hot.

Wednesday’s game was a little different, a bit more of a contest. Luckily Dice-K was up to the challenge, collecting his 4th win (4-2, 5.49 ERA) in a 6-4 Boston victory.

Dice struggle a bit early giving up an RBI-double to Ryan Sweeney and a 2-run homer to Kurt Suzuki in the 1st, but he put up zeros for 6 innings after that. The Sox struck back with a 2-RBI Youkilis single in the 1st followed by a 2-run bomb from David Ortiz (12) in the 5th to take a 4-3 lead.

Pedroia widened the gap with an RBI-double in the 7th and Scutaro topped it off at 6 with an RBI-single in the 8th. Jon Papelbon (3.13 ERA) did give up a solo blast to Kevin Kouzmanoff in top of 9, but ultimately held on to secure the win and his 13th save of the season.

Thursday’s home series finale was less of a pitcher’s battle and more of a slugfest, with 6 players going yard in the 9-8 Oakland win. The Sox got their longball boost all from unexpected places – Hermida, Hall, and Scutaro.

Tim Wakefield dropped to 1-4 with a 6.08 ERA on a tough start for the veteran knuckler. Wake had a rough stretch with 2 outs in the 4th, giving up a 2-run homer to Suzuki followed by a 2-run double to Mark Ellis. The Sox were at a deficit playing catch-up for most of the game, making a push in the 7th and 8th innings off of Hall and Scutaro’s homers. Beltre also had a good day at the plate, starting off the Sox’s day at the plate with a 2-run single up the middle. This guy is on a tear as of late.


Yay’s:
- Adrian Beltre has started June just as hot as he ended May, proving to be a defensive dynamo and an absolute RBI machine for the Red Sox.

Nay’s:
- The sox had 18 hits in their loss Thursday but had a key stat – 11 baserunners stranded. You can’t win when you don’t score your runners. Another disappointing fact was that 2 of those stranded runners were gunned out at the plate attempting to score. Both players

- Ortiz came up to the plate with 2 on and 2 out in the bottom of 8 and had a 2-2 fastball burned by him. Would’ve been a big hit spot for Papi to prove to his critics that he is officially back. I mean, I know he is, but still some haters out there need to see some undeniable evidence.