The Red Sox faced off against the Rays, one of the foes of the AL East. The Sox had John Lackey on the mound vs. former Sox, albeit briefly, Erik Bedard. Lackey had another dominant performance and for consecutive outings pitched 8 strong innings on his way to his 4th win of the season.
This cold frigid game stayed scoreless from both Lackey and Bedard until the 5th inning. The Sox were able to get a single run in the bottom of the 5th when Victorino hit an RBI sac fly. Sox 1-0. The Rays were able to tie the game up in the 6th inning when Longoria hit a sac fly himself. Sox 1-1. The Red Sox got Bedard out of the game in the 6th inning and they went to work on the Rays bullpen. Pierzynski put the Sox on top with an RBI single, Middlebrooks followed with an RBI double and then Bradley Jr hit a 2 run RBI double to have the Sox leading 5-1. The inning was finished off when Shane Victorino hit a ground rule double to score Bradley and the Sox were ahead 6-1.
Lackey gave one of those runs back in the top of the 7th when he gave up an RBI single to Hanigan however he was sitting on a mountain of run support. Lackey pitched through the 8th inning and once again looked in top notch form. I’m sure it would offend Lester and all, but I am starting to feel like Lackey is the ace of this ball club. Lackey’s pitching line for the night was 112 pitches, 8 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB and 5 Ks. The Sox bats got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Papi hit an RBI single to score Pedey. Sox 7-2. Edward Mujica came to the mound in the 9th and continued his season of struggle with the Red Sox. Escobar hit an RBI infield single and then Myers was able to score on an errant throw from Bogaerts. Sox 7-4. The game was suddenly a save situation and Koji Uehara was in to get that elusive 3rd out. It took Koji 3 pitches and 3 strikes to have the game over and in the win column for the Sox.
Red Sox 7 Rays 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (4-2) LP: Gomes (1-1) SV: Uehara (6)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
