The Sox had John Lackey on the mound yesterday and the running joke to much of Red Sox Nation is that since Lack was on the mound, the team would not give him any run support. I am sure that joke was running quite thin with John Lackey and thankfully the Sox offense gave him more than enough run support that even though he struggled on the mound, he easily coasted to his 9th win of the season.
John Lackey must have been shocked as the Sox offense put up run after run of support for him. The Sox got out to a quick 2-0 lead in the 2nd when Mike Napoli hit a 2 run homer. In the bottom of the inning Lackey gave one of those runs back when he gave up an RBI single to Overbay. Sox 2-1. In the 3rd the Sox jumped to a 5-1 lead when Jonny Gomes hit a 3 run homer. Lackey gave up another run in the bottom of the inning when he gave up an RBI single to Cano. Sox 5-2. In the 4th inning the Sox offense blew this game wide open. Lavarnway hit an RBI double, Bogaerts hit an RBI groundout, Victorino hit an RBI double and knocked Huff out of the game. The Sox didn't stop there though, with Miller in the game Gomes hit an RBI single and then Papi hit an RBI sac fly. Sox 10-2. Ichiro hit an RBI double in the bottom of the inning to have the Yanks trailing 3-10. In the 5th inning Xander Bogaerts got another "first" crossed off his to do list when he hit his first major league homer. Sox 12-3. Lackey came back out in the 6th inning and found himself in a little bit of trouble. Lackey seemed to lose the strike zone a wee bit. Lackey walked two batters and then gave up a 2 run RBI double to Gardner and an RBI single to Jeter. Sox 12-6. Lackey was done for the night and Thornton was in. It's kind of ironic that Lackey usually pitches really well and gets no run support and yesterday he was the worst I've seen him in a while and got a ton of support from the offense. I'll take it though and I'm sure Lackey will as well.
Thornton came in to finish the inning. He gave up an RBI single to Cano, but was able to get out of the inning without any more damage being done. Sox 12-7. Drake Britton pitched a scoreless 7th inning, but did give up a 2 run RBI double to Mark Reynolds in the 8th. Sox 12-9. This game was starting to feel less like a blowout and feel a little bit tight. Tazawa came out to finish off the 8th and was able to get the 2 outs the team needed. In the top of the 9th Mike Napoli went yard again to have the Sox leading 13-9. I am sure the Yankees are getting really sick of seeing Mike Napoli's face and I love it! Tazawa took the mound in the 9th and got one out, but when he walked Overbay he was done and Breslow was into the game. Breslow got the 2 outs we needed in order to notch down the third win in a row against the Yankees.
Red Sox 13 Yankees 9 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (9-12) LP: Huff (2-1)
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