July 23, 2003
...
Trot Nixon launched two home runs, including a game-breaking grand
slam in a seven-run seventh inning, to help lift the Sox to a
come-from-behind 10-4 victory over the Rays before 33,446 at Fenway
Park.
Nixon's
sixth career slam spared Tim Wakefield from going home winless after a fifth
straight impressive start. Trailing, 4-3, in the seventh partly because of some
shoddy base running by the Sox, Wakefield finally was rewarded when Johnny Damon
cracked a two-run homer around the Pesky Pole to put the Sox ahead to stay
before David Ortiz doubled in another run in the prelude to Nixon's blast.
Wakefield,
who picked up his first victory in five starts despite logging a 2.82 ERA over
that span, improved to 7-5 by scattering six hits and a walk in seven innings.
He was picked up by newcomer Scott Sauerbeck, who pitched a scoreless eighth
inning before Byung Hyun Kim finished off the Rays in the ninth. Yet nothing
could have pleased Wakefield more than the seventh- inning rally. He had
surrendered solo shots to Travis Lee and Toby Hall in the top of the inning as
the Rays seized a 4-3 lead.
Nixon had
plenty of help lifting the Sox out of their morass of base running miscues, none
of which was more glaring than Jeremy Giambi hesitating between first and second
before he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double in the sixth
inning, preventing Nixon from scoring a crucial run. Todd Walker tripled home a
run, Ortiz and Bill Mueller each chipped in with run-scoring doubles, and Manny
Ramirez went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and scored two runs. The late rally
killed a chance for the Rays to beat the Sox for the third time in four tries,
and manager Lou Piniella had little patience for questions about Boston's depth
and resiliency
The victory
was the fifth in a row for the Sox as they prepare for a weekend series against
the Yankees after the finale against Tampa Bay. But the latest triumph nearly
seemed beyond reach for a while as the base running problems threatened to haunt
them.
When Damon
was doubled up in the first inning as he tried to steal second on Garciaparra's
blooper to second, it was less egregious than Ramirez getting doubled up in the
second inning trying to advance on Mueller's looper to shallow left field. But
the worst blunder was Giambi's. With two outs in the sixth inning and Nixon on
first base after singling to right, Giambi socked a drive high off the Wall,
missing a home run by only a couple of feet. But as Nixon raced homeward, Giambi
hesitated between first and second just long enough to be thrown out easily
trying to stretch the hit into double, wasting a golden opportunity to score.
The image
faded quickly, though, in the seventh as the Sox first rocked reliever Travis
Harper for three hits, including Damon's blast and a double by Walker, before
Ortiz doubled off Al Levine and Nixon sent a 90-mile-an-hour fastball from
Levine into the bleachers in dead center for his slam.
