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BROCK HOLT |
Brock Holt caps a Red Sox walk-off win
July 9, 2014 ... Fenway Park was still full late into another sluggish performance by the Red Sox on Wednesday. Maybe it was the nice weather or youthful injection into the lineup.
Whatever the reason, few fans left the park, and it paid off. The Red Sox scored three runs in the eighth and then two in the ninth to beat the White Sox, 5-4, and snap a four-game skid. Entering the day 12 games below .500, the club designated A.J. Pierzynski for assignment and started five rookies for the first time since July 6, 1952.
In the ninth, Javy Guerra hit Mookie Betts with two strikes and one out. Then Daniel Nava, pinch-hitting for catcher Christian Vazquez, hit an opposite-field double off the Green Monster to tie the game. Brock Holt ripped a line-drive single to right
just past Chicago second baseman Gordon Beckham to score Nava and give Boston its seventh walk-off win of the year.
Betts had two doubles for the Red Sox, including an infield two-bagger in the eighth when he realized the White Sox had no one covering second after he grounded a ball to the left side of the infield and beat the throw to first. With Boston trailing, 4-0, it started the rally. Dustin Pedroia knocked in Betts with a two-out single off Jake Petricka, who took over for a dominant
Chris Sale. David Ortiz then doubled off the Monster to bring Pedroia home. Mike Napoli followed with a walk and then Jonny Gomes ripped a double down the left-field line to bring home Ortiz and cut the deficit to just one. But Guerra came on and got
Mike Carp, pinch-hitting for Xander Bogaerts, to ground out to first to end the inning, despite some carnage that put Boston in a position
to walk-off in the ninth.
Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara worked scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, for Boston to help set up a comeback. Uehara
struck out the side and needed just 13 pitches to do it on the heels of the Red Sox's three-run eighth. That inning took about four minutes and 30 seconds and had Fenway rocking heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Sale allowed four hits and one run while fanning six and walking none over 7 2/3 innings. It took his departure for Boston to finally break through.
Rubby De La Rosa allowed three runs on six hits over five innings for the Red Sox. He struck out three and threw just 84 pitches because he pitched for Triple-A Pawtucket on Sunday.
Jose Abreu smacked a changeup to dead center in the first inning to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. In the second, Conor Gillaspie took a
fastball deep to almost the exact same spot.
In the fourth, Dayan Viciedo hit a sharp ground ball that went right through Napoli's legs to score Gillaspie, who had doubled. In the seventh, with Edward Mujica on the mound, Adam Eaton doubled home Tyler Flowers, who hit a double of his own the
prior at-bat.
De La Rosa got some defensive help in the second from Jackie Bradley Jr., who laid out at full extension to snag a tailing line drive off the bat of Flowers with Alejandro De Aza on second. |
