Tonight’s game between the Red Sox and White Sox was riveting… if you are a devotee of old-school / National League-style baseball. The pitching match-up between Chicago’s Javier Vazquez and rookie Kason Gabbard, who picked up his first career victory, was less exciting if you are a fan of the home run, as Boston’s 1-0 shutout win featured none of them. Even with an error charged to the Red Sox, the game featured excellent pitching and defense for both teams.
The starting pitchers allowed a combined total of only six hits. Vazquez and Gabbard each had three hits, with Gabbard pitching seven innings and Vazquez going all eight for Chicago. Boston reliever Mike Timlin, who picked up the win in last night’s overtime effort, allowed just one hit in the two-inning save.
Although Mike Lowell had the error with the poorly fielded ground ball in the fourth inning, he was also involved in two of the Red Sox’s three double plays of the evening. The first came quickly after the error, with Paul Konerko grounding into a bases-loaded 5-4-3 double play. The latter was more remarkable, with Lowell fielding a liner from Joe Crede and turning it to Kevin Youkilis to get Tadahito Iguchi out to end the top of the sixth. The fielding efforts were more impressive in the later innings as the Red Sox protected their very narrow lead while contending with increasingly heavy rainfall.
Tonight brought the return of David Ortiz after he was cleared to play following treatment for heart palpitations. Big Papi received a very enthusiastic welcome from the crowd at Fenway in all four of his plate appearances. He did not make any direct contribution to the Boston victory, however, going 0-3 with a walk. Coco Crisp had the only RBI of the night with a single to score Trot Nixon, who only returned from injury himself in last night’s series opener.
Although Boston’s heavy hitters are healthy once more, with Ortiz, Nixon, and catcher Jason Varitek all returning in time to take on the defending World Series champions, the pitching staff is still suffering mightily. Starters Tim Wakefield and Matt Clement have both been out since midsummer, Clement with a strained shoulder in his throwing arm and Wakefield with a fractured rib. Rookie right-hander David Pauley, who had been called up from AA Portland, was also placed on the disabled list last week with a shoulder strain, and closer Jonathan Papelbon frightened fans on Friday when he left in the ninth inning of Friday’s victory over Toronto, also with an apparent shoulder injury. Papelbon had expressed his desire to return earlier today, pending the results of an MRI, but it looks like his injury, while not severe, will require more rest and rehabilitation than that. Of course, the most serious concern for Boston is the health of rookie pitcher Jon Lester, who was diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma last week.
Curt Schilling was scratched from his scheduled start last night, as well, with a mild strain of his own. The rotation also lost 43-year-old David Wells last week, when he finally got his wish of a trade to hometown San Diego. Of course, in my opinion, Boston is better off without Wells, who has been inconsistent and injury prone in recent years, but it does leave the Red Sox, who received a minor-league catcher (and cash, not his weight in ground beef, as I had suggested) in the trade, even more short-staffed in their pitching rotation.
It’s still too early to say that Boston should pack it in and wait for next year, but the picture still looks rather bleak. With tonight’s win, they are still 8.5 games back in the American League East (eight if the Royals can defend their five-run lead in the top of the ninth inning against New York) and six games behind Minnesota (and a game and a half behind Chicago) in the wild card. To have a chance at playing October baseball, the Red Sox will need for September to be as good as August was bad. If they can put together twenty or more wins, they may actually pick up enough ground, particularly if they can do some damage in their series against the Twins and Yankees.
The Rangers had their way with Mark Buehrle in the rubber game of their series at US Cellular Field today. Apparently, Buck Showalter and Rudy Jaramillo found a way to make their elaborate sign-stealing light device portable and brought it to Chicago with them. Certainly there can be no other explanation for the Rangers getting six earned runs from Buehrle off of nine hits (including six doubles) and four walks.
Although Joe Crede gave his pitcher an early 2-0 lead to work with, the Rangers tied things up in the third inning. Gerald Laird got on board with a double (his first of the afternoon) and advanced to third on a wild pitch before Buehrle walked Michael Young. Mark Teixeira, who has not had the best start to his season, came up with a double of his own to bat Laird and Young in.
In the next inning, Mark DeRosa led off with another double but was stranded when the next three batters were retired. However, in the fifth inning, Teixeira broke the tie with another double that scored Gary Matthews, Jr. The announcers made sure to note that Buehrle is consistently good for at least six innings, but Ozzie Guillen, with hindsight at least, may have been better off pulling him in the sixth before things took a turn for the worse. DeRosa led off again and drew a walk. Then, with two outs, Jerry Hairston, Jr. in his first game with the Rangers. Laird picked up two RBIs with his second double of the afternoon and then scored on a base hit by Matthews.
In addition to his two doubles, Laird went on to hit two home runs. He hit his first in the eighth inning, against Cliff Politte who finally relieved Buehrle after seven innings, with the Sox down 6-2. Politte did not fare any better, however. After Laird’s solo homer and with two outs, he gave up another two runs to the Rangers. After Young doubled, Teixeira batted him in. He and Blalock, who Politte had intentionally walked, scored on a single to DeRosa before Agustin Montero was brought in to stop the bleeding. Laird gave the Rangers a final insurance run with another home run in the ninth inning, making him 4-5 for the day with two doubles, two homers, and four RBIs and bringing his season batting average to .367.
In the meantime, rookie pitcher John Rheinecker had another impressive outing. In his third major league start, he threw eight full innings and allowed just two earned runs off seven hits and no walks. His only runs came in the second inning when Jermaine Dye led off with a single and Crede followed up with his two-run shot. Rheinecker allowed the Sox to cluster two hits in an inning twice and seemed to get even better as the game went on. In the sixth and seventh innings, he retired the side in order on seven and six hits, respectively. Even in the eighth inning, which got off to a scary start, he managed to work out of trouble with little difficulty. Even after Pablo Ozuna reached on Hairston’s fielding error and Paul Konerko was hit by a stray pitch, Rheinecker still only needed a total of nine pitches to work through that comparatively ugly inning.
Either to give Rheinecker a rest (although he had only thrown 94 pitches through eight) or to give Francisco Cordero a bit of work before the day off tomorrow, Buck put him in for the ninth inning. With the Rangers up 10-2, thanks to catcher Laird’s second homer, they appeared to have a lead that was safe even from Coco. The reliever, who already has seven blown saves in the first two months of the season, got off to an iffy start with three pitches that were well out of the strike zone. However, Crede flied out on the next pitch, and Coco promptly struck out the next two batters to end the game.
The Rangers will have Monday off as they travel to Kauffman Stadium to take on the Royals. With a 9-4 win in Seattle today, Kansas City snapped a three-game losing streak (one of their shorter streaks of the season) but are still below .250 on the season. They have another late game against the Mariners tomorrow before returning home for their series against Texas.
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I am a Red Sox fanatic and otherwise sports-obsess ed nut. Favorite teams include: Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers; Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots; Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics.
