Home Sweet Home: Boston Red Sox End Slide, Finally Win

The Boston Red Sox lost every game on their six game road-trip; swept in a two-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays and Red Sox fall to Yankees">dealt a brutal blow by the New York Yankees, losing all four against their arch-rival.

Their offense was literally non-existent (in the Yankees series, Boston hit just 25-144, a batting average of .173), with little hope on the horizon. 

Yet, though they flew back home mentally battered and bruised, they refused to live in the past. They were still confident, determined to find solace in the friendly confines of Fenway Park and end their gut-wrenching skid.

It didn’t take them long to reverse their fortunes. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the bottom half of the first inning against Detroit Tigers’ righthander Edwin Jackson with a double, then, Dustin Pedroia ended a seven-pitch battle with Jackson by hammering a two-run home-run into the Green Monster seats in left.

The sellout crowd hadn’t had a chance to settle into their seats before the Red Sox equaled their run production of the final three games in New York.

Brad Penny, a 6′4″, 230-pound righthander who has consistently pitched effectively, did so again.

Throughout the season he’s been given an average of six runs per game, but though that’s helped him to a 7-6 record in spite of a ERA hovering around five, for the better part of the season he delivered with a string of six-inning, two-to-three run outings. This was no different.

Nick Green, the only Red Sox shortstop, stretched the lead to three by starting off the second inning with his sixth home run of the season, a liner similar to Pedroia’s that skied high above the wall in left.

Ellsbury, who was one of their lone offensive bright spots during the Red Sox nightmarish previous week, proceeded to do what he does best: he singled,  stole his 51st bag, and scored on a single by David Ortiz. Penny was staked a four-run lead. This was nothing new for him.

But this time here nearly coughed it up. He allowed the Tigers to cut the lead in half in the fourth frame due in large part to a ball that averted right-fielder J.D. Drew. Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez, who was rumored to be headed to Boston in exchange for Drew earlier this season, socked a liner down the right-field line.

It appeared it would harmlessly roll to Drew for a single and send Miguel Cabrera, who reached prior, to third base, but the ball picked up speed, took a hard bounced right, then skidded on the warning track’s dirt and rolled around in the corner.

Drew took the right route to the ball originally, but was forced to go off course and make the lonely trot toward the left-field fence.

Once he collected it, Cabrera was rumbling around third base. Ordonez was right behind him, but because Drew fired quickly to Pedroia, he had to hit the breaks and settle for a RBI-triple.

Ordonez scored moments later on Brandon Inge’s RBI-single. The Tigers added another run in the fifth inning, a sacrifice fly by Marcus Thames plating Curtis Granderson, who slapped a double to begin the frame.

But the Red Sox' Jason Bay answered in the bottom.

Bay, who has admitted that an inability to see the ball clearly out of the pitcher hand is to blame for his struggles over the past monthful of games, had no trouble against Tigers reliever Fu-Te Ni, as he watched the lefthander’s fastball fall right into his wheelhouse then, after making solid contact, watched the ball sail high over the Green Monster and into the stands’ second row.

Boston’s lead was padded, but it still wasn’t comfortable. The Fenway crowd is usually buzzing no matter the situation, yet, given their team’s losing streak, woes offensively, and doubt within their bullpen, they had reason to sit on their hands.

The 37,000-plus that packed the stadium were nervous and anxious. Their team hadn’t won in a while, so they had reason to expect the worst.

The Worst almost happened in the seventh inning. Manny Delcarmen, who relieved Penny, has been formidable this season, but as his stats indicate—44 hits, 20 runs, and 24 walks in 45 1/3 innings—he is liable to allow a crooked number.

It started as though he would, since Gerald Laird laced a grounder past Kevin Youkilis at third base and down the line for a double, but he got the outs he needed that would presumably the damage.

Laird was moved over to third base on a sacrifice bunt, then Delcarmen used his devastating changup-fastball combination to strike-out Granderson, the Tigers dangerous leadoff hitter.

He needed one out to escape the jam unscathed, but Placido Polanco, a contact hitter that rarely strikes out, wouldn’t let him, inside-outing a fastball and driving it in front of Drew to score Laird and keep the inning alive.

I almost expected what happened next: a double Thames’ high off the Green Monster that scored Polanco to tie the game. With the way the Red Sox luck has been going, I was surprised the baseball gods didn’t blow it into the seats.

The game was tied, but the air was sucked out of Fenway as if their lead had been lost. How could a fan base of a team that scored a total of eight runs in their previous six games stay positive and think, “oh, well they’ll bounce back!”?

To those at Fenway who stayed positive and thought this, Boston thanks you. Why? Well, because the Red Sox did persevere. Drew singled to start the bottom of the seventh. Bay launched a 415-foot drive to center-field, the deepest part of the ballpark, but instead of a two-run homer, it was a loud out.

One on, one out? In the previous six games, of of the Red Sox would shoot themselves in the foot and ground into an inning ending double play.

To erase the chances of this, manager Terry Francona called for a hit-and-run. Drew was off with the first pitch to Casey Kotchman, and Kotchman did what was asked of him, scorching a screamer past diving attempts by both the pitcher, Zach Miner, and shortstop, Adam Everett.

A double-play was still a possibility, but Green, the ensuing hitter, made sure it wouldn’t happen by skying a flyball to center-field that scored Drew from third base. For the first time in a long time, the Red Sox executed the fundamentals.

Their offense did their job. Now it was the bullpen’s turn. Ramon Ramirez relieved Delcarmen and immediately gave the Tigers a tremendous opportunity to not only tie the game, but take the lead by issuing a walk to the first hitter and a double to the next.

He retired the following hitter on a sacrifice bunt, then the next via strikeout. Closer Jonathan Papelbon entered to face the next batter, Granderson, and got him to pop out to catcher Victor Martinez, who summed up the importance of the out with a vehement fist-pump.

In the ninth, Papelbon disposed of the two-three-four hitters in Detroit’s order easily, giving the Red Sox their first win in a long while. Papelbon congratulated with Martinez, then slapped hands with the rest of his teammates. It was a sight for sore eyes. It was their first win in far too long, and hopefully their first win of many to come.