Game 3 vs Baltimore was a day game. The 43 year old knuckleballer is 91-69 at Fenway Park and it showed. This was his last game as he will be moved to the bullpen to make room for Dice-K.
First 6 innings went well for Tim just giving up 1 run as the O's led through 6. Boston offense was not successive through 5, only acquiring 2 hits. Though Adrian Beltre played some outstanding defense at 3rd base, getting 7 outs in the first 5 innings.
Pedroia led the off the inning in the 6th with a walk, and Victor Martinez knocked a base hit single to left. Youk followed with another single to right scoring Pedroia to tie up the ball game. Ortiz played the shift well with another single off the O's to give the sox the lead 2-1 still with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. Sac Fly for JD Drew to score youk to make it 3-1. Beltre singled, to give boston 4 hits in the sixth, now with runners on 1st and 2nd. Bill Hall replaced Hermida to miss match the right handed batter with the left handed Mark Hendrickson, unfortunately Hendrickson got the better end of the deal with Hall looking at strike 3. Lowell replaces Van Every, who hits a double down to left Field to score Oritz. Scutaro strikes out looking to end the 6th, however, Boston does score 3 and very unique hitting by the redsox lead by 4 singles, 1 double, 1 sac fly and a walk to take a 4-1 lead.
Wakefeild left the game after getting 2 outs in the 7th. Francona brought in Okajima to face Markakis with Reimold on 2nd. Markakis knocked a 2 out RBI double to cut the lead 4-2. Tejada took Okajima deep to the Green Monster to tie the game up.
Wakefeild will not receive the win in his final start before moving to the bullpen. I realize baseball is all about strategy, however, when a guy is 0-3 for the day against your starting pitcher, keep him in the ballgame to pitch. Going back to the Markakis at bat, Wakefield could have gotten him out.
Daniel Bard came in to strike out the side in the Top of the 9th. Darnell McDonald led off the bottom of the 9th with a single, Scutaro sacrificed him over to second. Pedroia struck out swinging to make it 2 outs, and Victor Martinez grounded out to go to extra innings.
Bard was replaced by Atchison who gave up a lead off single to Tejada. Luke Scott came up with a double off the monster to have runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Again, I do not see the reason to bring out the young hard flame-throwing Bard just after 1 inning. Just shows with Atchison getting pulled with bases loaded and no outs and Schoeneweis gives up a 2 singles, and 3 RBIs to give the o's the lead 7-4 still with no outs in top of the 10th. No strategy at all. Delcarman came in to retired the side, while the redsox go in the bottom of the 10th 3 runs down.
Youkilis leads off with a double yet again off the monster. Ortiz moved up Youkilis on a sac fly deep to right-center field. JD Drew gets an RBI double to score Youkilis to cut the deficit down to 2. Beltre singles to center to give the sox runners at 1st and 3rd with Bill Hall to the plate. Hall knocks an RBI single to left, scoring JD Drew. Baltimore brought in Meredith to face McDonald, who pops out to give the sox their second out. Scutaro lined out to second base to end the game.
Bostons pen gives up 5 runs on 7 hits to lose it for the sox. The bullpen is where the sox will lose or win the games this year. The pen is very weak, and the sox need to concentrate on the relievers come trade deadline.
Boston heads to Canada for a 3 game series against the 10-9 Blue Jays. Game one we will see Dana Eveland (2-0) vs. Josh Beckett (1-0).
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