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THE RAYS and A ONE WAY August 29, 2008 ... Judging from all the disabled bodies they brought home from their nine-game swing through Baltimore, Toronto, and New York, you would have expected the Red Sox to come staggering into Fenway Park last night led by a battered fife and drum corps. On a night when they made five roster moves, the Red Sox demonstrated they still had enough manpower to throttle the White Sox, 8-0, before 37,755. No Mike Lowell? No J.D. Drew? No Beckett? No Casey or Crisp? It proved no problem for the resilient Red Sox, who cinched up their stirrups and pounded out 15 hits, including seven doubles by seven players, and broke open a 1-0 game with two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth. Boston's barrage made a winner of Daisuke Matsuzaka, who threw eight dominant innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while ringing up seven strikeouts to improve to 16-2. Dustin Pedroia reached base five times by going 4 for 4 with a walk, a double, two stolen bases, and three runs, which gave him 104 on the season, surpassing Bobby Doerr's club record for a second baseman set in 1950. The victory didn't help the Red Sox gain ground on the Amazing Rays, who crushed the Orioles, 14-3, to remain 4 1/2 games ahead in the American League East. The White Sox, meanwhile, saw their lead over the Twins in the Central whittled to a half-game. Boston's four-run eruption in the sixth that sent Javier Vazquez (10-12) to the showers after he allowed five runs on 10 hits while striking out seven. Jacoby Ellsbury made a spectacular diving stab of Orlando Cabrera's liner to center on the first pitch of the game, got things going for the Red Sox when he drew a walk from Vazquez, who proceeded to load the bases by giving up singles to Pedroia and David Ortiz (3 for 4, 1 RBI, 1 double, 2 runs). Kevin Youkilis's fielder's choice that scored Pedroia gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead that proved to be all Matsuzaka needed. In the fifth, the Sox gave Matsuzaka a cushion by expanding their lead to 3-0 on Ortiz's double down the right-field line that scored Pedroia (single to left) and an RBI double to right by Mark Kotsay, who made a favorable impression in his Fenway debut. The Red Sox blew the game open with a four-run outburst in the sixth. Alex Cora reached Vazquez for a leadoff double, but he appeared to get marooned when Vazquez struck out Jason Varitek and induced Ellsbury to ground out to third. But Vazquez was gone after he walked Pedroia to put men on the corners. The White Sox bullpen fared no better when Horacio Ramirez came in and walked Ortiz to load the bases. D.J. Carrasco came in for Ramirez and hit Youkilis to score Cora. After going 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, Jason Bay came to the plate and broke out of his doldrums with a double off the wall that cleared the bases, giving the Red Sox a 7-0 lead. Matsuzaka, who retired 13 of 14 batters between the fourth and eighth, was nearly unhittable in silencing the White Sox. Some credit was due as well to the rest of the healthy players on the Red Sox' depleted roster. |
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