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NICK GREEN |
SWEPT AWAY BY A "RALLY MONKEY" ...
An unlikely 9th
inning rally wins the game
September 16, 2009 ...
Nick Green was incapable of putting a good swing on the ball. He
kept quiet for three days about his injured right leg. He was down,
0-2, to Angels closer Brian Fuentes. He fought, fouling off three
pitches, and seeing eight before the final one. The one that, to the
Angels, looked like a strike. But Green didn't swing, thinking the
ball was low, thanking a good bit of luck that he was able to work
that walk. As he tried to leave the batter's box, tried to walk to
first base, the knee buckled again.
So, as the
Angels in the dugout voiced their displeasure, pinch runner Joey Gathright
trotted in from third base. The game was knotted at eight runs apiece. Then,
Alex Gonzalez took his place at the plate. He wasn't there long. Gonzalez fisted
a soft liner into left field, dropping just in front of Juan Rivera, and
prompting Gonzalez to lift his fist as he rounded first. J.D. Drew scored as the
Sox pulled out the improbable 9-8 win. It marked Boston's seventh straight win
overall.
Not only was
the win improbable, but so were the final three batters. There was Jed Lowrie,
whose last at-bat in the majors came a month ago. There was Gonzalez, who was
brought in for his glove and has shown his bat to be a revelation. And before
Gonzalez, there was Green, who worked a walk when little else was possible.
This is
usually the way it goes for the Angels against the Red Sox. These are the games
they lose, giving away two leads on their way to a tie heading into the ninth
inning, and then yet another lead in the ninth.
The ultimate
rally began with two outs in the ninth, with the Sox down by a run. Ortiz
walked, followed by Drew's single, Lowrie's single, Green's walk, and Gonzalez's
game-winning single.
With the
Angels staked to a three-run lead against Paul Byrd, the Sox hadn't mounted
anything against Joe Saunders. Then came the sixth inning, in which the Sox sent
10 men to the plate, scored five runs, and took a two-run advantage, including a
pair of RBIs by Gonzalez.
The Angels
came back in the next half-inning, scoring four unearned runs with Ramon Ramirez
on the mound and Jason Varitek behind the plate. The strikeout of Kendry Morales
would have been the third out of the seventh. It would have preserved the lead
for the Sox, ended the inning, and perhaps sent them on the way to an easy win.
But Morales ended up on first on a passed ball by Varitek, with Vladimir
Guerrero heading to third. A single followed, then a double, then another
double, and by the end of the inning the Angels had scored four runs.
Then the Sox
scored two in the eighth to tie the game, before the Angels got the tiebreaking
run off Daniel Bard (with Jonathan Papelbon unavailable) in the ninth.
Then came
the bottom of the ninth, which demonstrated just how well the Sox are playing -
at the moment, about as well as any in baseball. |
