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THE RAYS and A ONE WAY
TICKET TO "MANNY-WOOD" ...
Pedroia continues
torrid pace
August 30,
2008 ...
Dustin Pedroia, who was penciled into the No. 4 spot because of an
illness to Kevin Youkilis, reached base five times for the second
night in a row. He went 4 for 4 with a walk (intentional, no less)
and spearheaded a 15-hit barrage last night that made a winner of
rookie right-hander Michael Bowden as the Red Sox beat the White Sox,
8-2, before a Fenway Park crowd of 37,751.
Manager
Ozzie Guillen saluted Pedroia, whom he was forced to intentionally walk in the
eighth after the second baseman scored two runs and reached in his four previous
at-bats on a single to left, a single to center, a double to left, and a single
to right. Pedroia has eight hits and two walks in his last 10 at-bats.
Pedroia
became the first Sox player in 19 years to get four hits in back-to-back games.
The last player to do it was none other than Hall of Famer Wade Boggs?
While Terry
Francona lauded Bowden for the poise and composure he demonstrated in allowing
just two runs on seven hits over five innings while recording one walk and three
strikeouts, Guillen was hardly impressed by the fact he got beat by a rookie
from Aurora, Ill., who grew up rooting for the Chicago Cubs.
Bowden, who
said his heart "was pounding pretty hard" when he first took the mound, walked
leadoff batter Orlando Cabrera. But he helped his cause when he fielded A.J.
Pierzynski's broken-bat infield popup and then stepped on the bag to double off
Cabrera, who had streaked to second on the hit-and-run attempt.
As did the
5-1 lead the Sox handed Bowden after erupting for three runs in the first and
two more in the second off White Sox starter Mark Buehrle (4 2/3 innings, 7
runs, 11 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts). Mark Kotsay's RBI double to deep center
scored Jacoby Ellsbury, who had doubled, while Bay's two-run double to right
drove in Pedroia (single) and Kotsay, good for a 3-0 lead in the first.
The White
Sox got one back in the top of the second on Alexei Ramirez's RBI double, but
Jeff Bailey's home run (his first this season and second of his career) and a
Jed Lowrie sacrifice fly gave the Red Sox a 5-1 lead in the second. Chicago
added a run on Pierzynski's RBI ground out in the third, but the Red Sox
rewarded Bowden for his sterling work by chasing Buehrle from the game in the
fifth after pushing across two more runs on Kotsay's two-run double to take a
7-2 lead.
Bowden
handed the baton to Javier Lopez to start the sixth, the first of four relievers
who would help secure his first victory and keep the Red Sox within 4 1/2 games
of the first-place Rays in the AL East. |
