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MIKE MYERS |
THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
The Red Sox grind out a win
September 15, 2004 ... The Red Sox survived
an unsightly 8-6 wrangle with Tampa Bay before 35,105 at Fenway Park to stay within four games of revived New York. Boston did it by grinding for 3 1/2 hours, by using 15 field players and six pitchers, by getting two-run homers from Mark Bellhorn and Kevin Millar (his 100th career) and by hanging in and hanging in until they
got what they needed.
The pitching matchup shaped up as ideal. Tim Wakefield, who was 10-1 lifetime against the Devil Rays, against Dewon Brazelton, who'd never won a road game (0-11) in his career, the only active major league pitcher with at least 12 starts who hadn't. But Wakefield, who now has two losses and
a no-decision after winning six of seven, was gone after five innings after giving up four runs and six hits.
Even though the Sox knocked around Brazelton for six runs and nine hits in his four-plus innings, they found themselves dead even in the sixth after Curtis "The Mechanic" Leskanic took a sledgehammer to the game. Leskanic gave up a Wall double to Toby Hall (who smacked two) and a crushed
first-pitch homer to Jorge Cantu that thumped off the Sports Authority sign in left that made it 6-6. In came Myers, who hadn't had a win since he beat the Red Sox for the Mariners in Seattle July 19. He struck out Carl Crawford looking and Julio Lugo swinging and the evening began to turn.
By the time the inning was over, Tampa Bay had gone through four pitchers (Franklin Nunez, Bobby Seay, Chad Gaudin, and Trever Miller), the Sox had walked the bases full, and Manny Ramirez had knocked in pinch runner Adam Hyzdu with the winning run on a sacrifice fly to right.
Bill Mueller flew to Phoenix yesterday to be examined by Dr. David Zeman, who performed arthroscopic surgery on the knee May 28. Mueller, who missed 37 games after the surgery, hurt the knee last weekend while sliding after a foul ball in Seattle and left Tuesday's game in the fifth
inning after aggravating the injury. |
