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POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The Rockies can't figure out Tim Wakefield
June 12, 2007
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Middle
of June, and David Ortiz is batting .340. He also has just three home
runs in Fenway Park this season. Big Papi, who just missed a home run
tonight with an eighth-inning double that hit off the top of the
low bullpen wall in right, setting up the run that J.D. Drew
delivered with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly that gave the Red Sox a
2-1 win over the Colorado Rockies before 37,008 in Fenway Park.
In the
meantime, Ortiz takes his hits. Two singles and a walk off Rockies starter Aaron
Cook and a double last night off Jeremy Affeldt, the former Kansas City Royals
lefthander who had held Ortiz hitless in 12 at-bats until Ortiz got him last
night. Ortiz is batting .403 in his last 17 games and has reached base safely in
29 straight games, 34 of 35.
The
outfielder, Brad Hawpe, had about as much chance of catching Ortiz's ball as the
Rockies had of hitting Tim Wakefield, who came away with a win after Colorado
had tied the score in the top of the eighth. For the Rockies, making only their
second trip to Fenway Park in a decade of interleague play, Wakefield's
knuckleball was truly a foreign object. Only Todd Helton had ever stepped in
against Wakefield, and that was for one at-bat.
Jonathan
Papelbon finished off the Rockies in the ninth, striking out two and looking
scary while doing so.
Terry
Francona's newly revamped lineup paid dividends on the other end, too, as Julio
Lugo, the leadoff man demoted to the No. 9 hole, doubled in the third and scored
Boston's first run on a double by Youkilis. J.D. Drew, meanwhile, is starting to
make the right moves. He had a breakout two-homer, seven-RBI game in Arizona
Friday night, had three more hits the next night, and after failing to get the
ball out of the infield three times against Cook, was able to loft one against
Affeldt.
With 100
games left in the season, manager Terry Francona made his first major lineup
shakeup, installing rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who began the season
hitting ninth, in the leadoff spot and bouncing expensive free agent Julio Lugo
into the No. 9 hole.
In
All-Star balloting numbers released yesterday, Coco Crisp ranked 12th among AL
outfielders with 333,760 votes, fewer than 27,000 behind Hideki Matsui of the
Yankees and within 60,000 of Gary Sheffield of the Tigers. Crisp has more votes
than Sammy Sosa, Carl Crawford, and Jermaine Dye. Lugo, meanwhile, ranks fourth
at shortstop, with almost 110,000 votes more than Orlando Cabrera of the Angels.
Cabrera is hitting .332. David Ortiz continues to lead the voting at first base,
while Manny Ramirez ranks second among outfielders.
Jason
Varitek has thrown out 2 of 22 runners who have attempted to steal. That's a
success rate of 9.1 percent. Doug Mirabelli, meanwhile, has thrown out 5 of 22,
a 22.7 percent success rate, even though he's catching Tim Wakefield, whose
knuckleball invites base stealers to run. Francona said the Sox pitch out more
when Wakefield pitches, which gives Mirabelli more chances to throw out runners.
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