The Red Sox rookies beat the
Orioles
September 2, 2007
...
Left-handed prospect Jon Lester yesterday provided a nice follow-up
to Buchholz's eye-popping performance Saturday night. He allowed two
earned runs over six innings in improving to 3-0. There was also a
significant contribution from young center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury,
who started in center and then moved to left. The speedster hit his
first major league home run and went 2 for 3 with two superb catches.
Kevin Cash caught (the Sox are 3-1 when he's out there) and Brandon
Moss started in left. He went 0 for 3 but made a nice catch on Nick
Markakis in the sixth to prevent extra bases. Rookie of the Year
candidate Dustin Pedroia had two hits; he had helped save Buchholz's
no-hitter with a great diving play at second base.
Mike Lowell knocked in two of the three runs in Boston's 3-2 win over the
Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, a day after Clay Buchholz shocked the nation
with a no-hitter in his second major league start.
Lowell knocked in Boston's first run with a single to left in the first after
Pedroia singled to lead off and advanced to second on David Ortiz's walk.
Ellsbury homered in the fourth with two outs, and Lowell knocked in the
game-winner with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. That scored Pedroia, who led off
with a double and was sacrificed to third on Alex Cora's bunt.
Ellsbury used his superior speed on both of his superb catches, fighting the
sun and the wall in the triangle in right-center to rob Ramon Hernandez of extra
bases in the second inning, and also diving for a ball he had to run in a long
way on to take a hit away from Jay Payton in the fifth.
The Orioles have lost 11 of their last 12 games and have been outscored,
119-49. Teams can't wait to play them. The Sox are now 24-8 vs. the Orioles
since the start of 2006.
Kevin Millar made a bonehead play by getting himself thrown out at second
base in the sixth, which took the Birds out of a potentially bigger inning (they
scored a run). Miguel Tejada was thrown out at the plate in the fourth when he
tried to score on Hernandez's short fly ball to right field. J.D. Drew might not
be hitting so well, but he still can play defense and easily threw the runner
out at home.
In the eighth, with Markakis at second and nobody out against Hideki Okajima,
the Orioles couldn't get the run in.
Kevin Cash, who did a nice job catching Lester and who is making a case to be
kept on next season as the backup. For Lester, it was fun to play with some of
his former Pawtucket mates and watch them support him in a very good outing in
which he did enough to keep the Orioles off balance.
Jonathan Papelbon, last year's rookie phenom, recorded his 31st save and ran
his scoreless streak to 10 2/3 innings. It was a beautiful day at the ballyard
on a day when Boston's youth felt like a breath of fresh air.
Eric Gagne insisted he was 100 percent from the moment he arrived in Boston,
but the wear and tear on a pitcher who missed most of two seasons with assorted
injuries might be taking its toll. One reason the tenderness might have occurred
is because of the extra work Gagne did to try to work himself out of a funk.
Gagne, 3-1 with 16 saves, hasn't pitched since Aug. 26 at Chicago. Okajima did a
nice job in the eighth after spotting Nick Markakis a leadoff double. While
Markakis advanced to third on a Miguel Tejada ground ball, neither Kevin Millar
nor Aubrey Huff, two veterans, could get the tying run home, both striking out
swinging. Dustin Pedroia's double in the fifth was his 32d, surpassing Frank
Malzone (31 in 1957) for third most by a Red Sox rookie.
