A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
The Sox bats pulverize Texas pitchers

August 10, 2005 ... Texas lefthander Kenny Rogers's return to the mound after serving a 13-game suspension for shoving two cameramen in Arlington, Texas, June 29, ended after a pounding from the Red Sox bats and a verbal pounding by the Fenway faithful, who booed Rogers every time he took the mound. Rogers, who also suffered a deep bruise of his right forearm after David Ortiz hit a liner back at him with two outs in the first inning, lasted five innings and allowed five runs on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts in a 16-5 loss to the Red Sox, who put up a nine-spot for good measure in the eighth after the Rangers had cut the deficit to 7-5.

The Red Sox, who stretched their home winning streak to 11, are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees, Boston's largest lead since finishing the 1995 season seven games better than New York. It's amazing how the defending world champions pulverize bad pitching. And the Rangers have bad pitching.

It's also amazing that teams keep pitching around Ortiz and are willing to take their chances with Manny Ramirez. While it's a pick-your-poison strategy, pitching to Ramirez doesn't seem a wise move these days. Ramirez's three-run blast off Rogers highlighted Boston's five- run fourth. Ramirez is an RBI machine. The All-Star left fielder has 32 homers and 107 RBIs with 49 games left to play.

Rogers got through three innings unscathed, partly because of a botched call by veteran umpire Derryl Cousins on what appeared to a home run to left-center by Kapler in the third. The ball cleared the red line and went onto the "shelf" on top of the Wall in front of the Monster seats. Cousins saw it differently. Protests from the Sox bench ensued. Francona was hot. First base coach Lynn Jones was hot. Trot Nixon, currently on the 15-day disabled list, shouted at Cousins from the bench and was ejected. The umpires convened to talk about it, but ruled the ball was in play, leaving Kapler at second, where he was stranded. By the time this one was over, the Sox didn't miss that run.

Ramirez's shot came with Edgar Renteria and Ortiz (singles) aboard. The Sox rallied for two more after a Kevin Millar single and Tony Graffanino double, with RBIs from Bill Mueller (single) and Kapler (ground out). The Sox' recent offensive surge has certainly made up for some sloppy defense. Errorless last night, Boston had made 10 errors leading to 12 unearned runs over its previous five games.

Lost in this offensive explosion was starter Bronson Arroyo, who spotted the potent Ranger lineup a run in the third on back-to-back doubles by Kevin Mench and Gary Matthews. But Arroyo, who improved to 10-7, went 7 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and fanned four, before the Rangers rallied for four runs in the eighth.

Renteria, who had three hits and also cleared the bases on a bases-loaded error by center fielder Matthews in the nine-run eighth, scored on a wild pitch by Doug Brocail after he'd doubled to left center and advanced to third on Ortiz's ground out to first base in the seventh. The Sox continued the inning on Ramirez's walk and a single by Millar. The seventh run scored on Graffanino's grounder to third on which Millar was out on a force play.

The Rangers did some damage against Arroyo and Chad Bradford in the eighth as 7-1 soon became 7-5. But Ramirez made a nice running catch to end the rally. Schilling was warming up to come in to save the two-run game. But Schilling soon sat down when nine runs, five hits, and two errors in the ninth afforded the Sox a chance to rest him.