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A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
Kevin Millar
supplies the Red Sox power
August 31, 2005
...
Tonight, as he's been on precious few occasions in 2005, Kevin Millar
was a huge piece of the Red Sox puzzle, homering twice, the second a
two-run blast on a 95-mile-per-hour Jesus Colome fastball that
clanged off the middle Coke bottle, turning a 5-5 tie into a 7-5 lead
in the Red Sox' 7-6 win.
For the
second consecutive night, they overcame a significant deficit it was 5-0 Tampa
Bay following two innings Tuesday, 5-1 Devil Rays after three innings tonight.
At that point, Tim Wakefield had surrendered three home runs, tying Randy
Johnson for the AL lead with 29. Wakefield did, retiring the final 16 batters he
faced beginning with the last batter of the third inning and ending with the
final hitter in the Tampa Bay eighth. That got him the win, his team- leading
14th.
Tampa Bay
scored all five runs Wakefield allowed on home runs Julio Lugo's solo shot on
the second pitch of the game, Carl Crawford's three-run blast in the third, and
Travis Lee's solo shot two batters later.
The Sox
answered in similarly thunderous fashion, pounding four home runs. Millar
homered to lead off the second off ex-Sox lefthander Casey Fossum. Fossum who
submitted this line: 6 2/3 innings, 7 hits, 6 runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 3
home runs, 2 hit batsmen left a cutter over the plate to Millar, and he lofted
it into a 12-m.p.h. wind. The solo homer, his sixth of the season and first at
home since June 4 against Anaheim, gave Millar only his fifth RBI of the month.
Doug Mirabelli also began an inning, the fourth, with a solo blast. It was 5-2,
Tampa Bay, and the Sox were coming.
Bill Mueller
followed Mirabelli's homer with a single (that's a .368 average during his
14-game hitting streak) and Gabe Kapler doubled, though Kapler would have been
cut down at second if Jorge Cantu had held on to the relay throw. Alex Cora,
beloved in the clubhouse and manager's office for doing the little things
properly, grounded out to the right side, scoring Mueller. Johnny Damon flied
out to left, plating Kapler. Tampa Bay 5, Boston 4.
Ortiz,
baseball's RBI leader with 118, tied it in the fifth with a solo homer to left,
the club's third leadoff homer of the night. Millar's second blast, on a 3-and-1
count with two down in the seventh, came a batter after Manny Ramirez was hit by
a pitch. The shot caromed with authority off a Coke bottle.
What came
next was as eye-popping as Millar's two-homer night. Mirabelli, on with a walk,
swiped second. Colome, focused on his pitch, never saw Mirabelli take off. Never
turned to throw to second until Mirabelli was steps shy of the bag. The steal,
Mirabelli's second of the year, established a career high. Mirabelli never did
score, but his gallop summed up the night Boston's grinding, juxtaposed against
Tampa Bay's dwindling execution. Mirabelli's steal was just the third of his
career. For the Sox, that execution began (in the second) and ended (in the
seventh) with Millar.
The Sox' 18
wins in August (18-9) marked their most wins in a month since last September
(18-10). |
