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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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BOSTON STRONG -
He spent parts of five seasons with the White Sox and was one of the team leaders before he was traded to the Red Sox in July. Peavy used that knowledge mostly to his advantage. He improved to 3-1 with a 3.18 earned run average in six starts with the Red Sox. Peavy had better stuff in his two previous starts but managed the Chicago lineup well. John Farrell trusted Peavy, who was at 99 pitches after six innings, with one more frame, and that faith was rewarded. Peavy allowed a harmless two-out single in a 10-pitch inning that included two fly outs to the warning track to conclude his night. The strong outing lowered Peavy's ERA to 3.18 and WHIP to 0.96 in six starts since joining the Red Sox. Peavy's outing, which he was only moderately pleased with overall, saying he didn't have great stuff and didn't get ahead as much as he would've liked, was the 11th in a row in which the Red Sox starter allowed three or fewer earned runs. The team hasn't done that in 12 straight games since 1915. Coincidentally, one of the times Chicago did get to Peavy, one of the newer White Sox did the damage. Center fielder Avisail Garcia, who came over from the Tigers in that same deal, struck for an RBI single in the fourth. Other than that, though, Peavy had the upper hand. He held Adam Dunn to an 0-for-3 night with a walk and a strikeout swinging at an 85-mph fastball in the fourth. When Peavy did falter his offense picked him up almost immediately, battering Chicago lefty John Danks for six runs (five earned) on 11 hits in five innings. Mike Napoli got the scoring started in the first inning with a single to left to score Ellsbury, his seventh RBI in six games since returning from a bout of plantar fascistic. It was also his 76th of the season, a new career high. The third inning featured back-to-back two-out doubles from Napoli and Jonny Gomes before the Red Sox took the lead for good with a three-run fourth. Jacoby Ellsbury knocked a ground-rule double to right to plate David Ross, who bunted for a single to open the frame. Dustin Pedroia grounded out to the right side to bring in Xander Bogaerts, then David Ortiz lined a single to left to score Ellsbury and bring the lead to 5-2. Ross was 2 for 3 with a walk. After missing two months recovering from a concussion, he's starting to feel more comfortable at the plate. Bogaerts (2-for-3, walk) added insurance with an RBI single in the fifth, as did Shane Victorino, scoring on a wild pitch in the sixth. The 20-year-old Bogaerts is the youngest Red Sox player to reach base three times, score at least one run and drive in at least one other since Tony Conigliaro and Tony Horton in 1965. Seven Red Sox batters posted multi-hit games, including Ortiz, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a pair of line-drive singles a day after snapping his six-game hitless streak. The 81-56 Red Sox have won six of their last seven games. With Tampa Bay losing at Oakland, their lead in the division is up to 4 1/2 games. That's the largest it has been since July 12. The Red Sox made a minor trade to improve their infield depth on Saturday night, obtaining 38-year-old John McDonald from the
Phillies for pitching prospect Nefi Ogando. Will Middlebrooks had a .431 on-base percentage in the 18 games he had played since being recalled from Triple A Pawtucket. The Red Sox assigned Daniel Bard to Lowell and he pitched an inning on Saturday. Bard walked four of the six batters he faced, struck out two and threw a wild pitch as his control issues continued. The courageous John Odom, a Marathon bombing victim from California, walked to the mound to deliver the game ball and received a huge ovation from the crowd. Odom, the father-in-law of Revolution goalie Matt Reis, had 11 surgeries, twice went into cardiac arrest and was unconscious for four weeks. |
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