The Red Sox outslug the Blue
Jays
September 3, 2007
...
The Red Sox' lead over the Yankees is seven games again
after quite an offensive showing in a 13-10 win over the Toronto Blue
Jays at Fenway Park. Yet there is reason to feel uneasy. That's
because at this stage of the season key players need to be on solid
ground. While that is true of Mike Lowell, whose three-run homer and
four RBIs ignited a 16-hit attack, the uneasiness comes with Daisuke
Matsuzaka, who in spite of recording his 14th victory labored for the
second straight outing.
Matsuzaka is
currently penciled in as Boston's third starter, but whether it's simply the
major league season catching up to him, or just poor location of pitches against
a very good Toronto lineup, the Sox need to figure out why he is no longer
fooling anyone. As much as the Sox try to spin it positively on the 26-year-old
right-hander in whom they invested $103 million, he needs to be better as the
postseason approaches. He was hyped as a workhorse and a pitcher who could go
deep into games, but the Sox have shortened his pitch counts and curtailed his
workout routine.
Things were
fluid and easy until Troy Glaus atoned for a fourth-inning error by connecting
with a 3-and-2 fastball up and away that he delivered into the Sox bullpen for a
three-run homer that ignited an eight-run sixth inning for the Jays. Matsuzaka,
who left three batters after Glaus' homer, was charged with seven runs and 10
hits in 5 1/3 innings. Lefty specialist Javier Lopez didn't do himself any
favors, failing to retire the three batters he faced and allowing an RBI single
to Adam Lind and a two-run ground-rule double to Matt Stairs. It took a great
diving play by Jacoby Ellsbury in left to end the inning and prevent more
damage.
It was the
second straight start in which Matsuzaka allowed five or more runs, and the
second time this season he allowed seven. After the top of the sixth, the Sox
had to be lamenting the bottom of the fifth, when they loaded the bases with
nobody out and couldn't score against reliever Josh Towers.
Toronto
starter Jesse Litsch, who lasted only 3 1/3 innings, delivered a high fastball
over the fat part of the plate that Lowell blasted into the Monster Seats in the
first inning for his 18th homer of the season, with table-setters Jacoby
Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia aboard. The RBIs were Lowell's 98th, 99th, and 100th
(he would later get No. 101), placing an exclamation point on a tremendous
season in his free agent year. Lowell, with three hits, is now hitting .331. By
the fourth inning, the Sox were up, 7-1, and Litsch was long gone and showered.
Matsuzaka
was due for the run support. The Sox had scored two runs or fewer in 12 of his
last 17 starts and it turned out that he needed all of it. After David Ortiz and
Drew delivered runs in the third inning on sacrifice flies, the Sox scored five
in the fourth to make it a 10-1 lead.
With one out
in the fifth, Eric Hinske doubled to the right-center gap. A single and a walk
loaded the bases, and Pedroia greeted new pitcher Joe Kennedy with a stinging
single to left, his third hit, to score a pair of runs. Glaus allowed two more
to score when a grounder went between his legs, and Drew offered another
sacrifice fly to scored the 10th run.
The Sox
answered the Blue Jays' outburst with three runs in their half of the sixth, one
balked home by Jason Frasor. A key hit in the inning was Drew's double. Lots of
good things happened, but looking ahead, Matsuzaka remains the most unsettling
story here in early September.
Ramirez's
left oblique strain is still healing, and there's no word on when the slugger
will return to the lineup. Mike Lowell is taking the role of run-producer in
Manny Ramirez's absence quite seriously. After extending his hitting streak to
16 games with a three-run homer in the first inning in last night's 13-10 win
over the Blue Jays and finishing with three hits and a stolen base, the Red Sox
third baseman improved his RBI total to 101. It's the third time in his career
he's driven in more than 100 runs and he's now just four RBIs shy of his
career-high of 105 with the Marlins in 2003.
Lefthander
Craig Breslow was optioned back to Pawtucket. Right-hander Devern Hansack will
join the team from the PawSox.
