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MANNY ARRIVES AS THE
YAWKEY ERA CRASHES & BURNS
The Sox knock out 19 hits for
Pedro
May 12, 2001 ... Pedro
Martinez, limped into the clubhouse, his back so stiff and sore that
pitching coach Joe Kerrigan was worried he might be a no-go. He
sneezed and his back spasmed. But by the time he was supposed to take
the mound, trainers had massaged away Pedro's pain, and 19 Sox hits,
including five by the first five Boston batters in the game, produced
a 9-3 win over the Oakland A's that ended a three-game losing streak
and erased any lingering aftershocks.
The only
thing that registered on the Richter scale was the 468-foot home run that Manny
Manny hit down the left-field line off A's loser Gil Heredia in the fifth, the
ball seemingly defying physics by veering back into fair territory when
everyone, including Manny, assumed it was foul.
Manny, who
also drove in a run with his first-inning single and has 15 RBIs in his last six
home games, wasn't alone in giving the ball a workout. Trot Nixon, who hit
Heredia's first pitch for a double, had four hits (including his fourth home run
deep into the right-field grandstand), to match his career high. And three
players - Jose Offerman, Carl Everett, and Dante Bichette - had three hits
apiece as everyone but shortstop Lou Merloni came away with at least one.
The 19 hits
were a season high and the most the Sox have collected in any game since
tattooing Texas with 21 last April 26 at the Ballpark in Arlington.
The Sox
wasted no time in tormenting Heredia, following Nixon's double with four
straight singles before Jason Varitek popped up for the inning's first out. The
next batter, Shea Hillenbrand, doubled, and Pedro had a 4-0 lead en route to his
fifth win without a loss this season and second in six days against the A's.
Everett
knocking out three hits (including an RBI double in the sixth), two RBIs, and
two runs said as much for Everett as the double, single, home run, and single
Nixon had in five at-bats spoke for him.
Actually,
the weight was pretty evenly distributed. Hillenbrand, who was hitting .225 (9
for 40) in his first 10 games in May and was lifted for a pinch hitter Friday
night, added an RBI single in the Sox' two-run fifth. Offerman is hitting .419
(13 for 31) during a seven-game hitting streak reminiscent of the way he swung
the bat in his debut season for the Sox in 1999, and Bichette, playing only
because O'Leary had jammed his left foot, has now hit in 12 games in a row.
And as
always, there was no question who was shouldering the biggest load. Pedro struck
out six in the first three innings, a dozen in all in his seven innings of work,
and held the A's to Terrence Long's ground-rule double until the sixth, when he
hit Sal Fasano with a pitch, gave up a line single to Valdez, and surrendered a
three-run home run over the bullpen by A's strongman Jason Giambi. |
