The Sox had lost 3 straight games to the A’s and really hoped to leave town with a win. The Sox had their ace Jon Lester on the mound and he continued to show his value with the outing he had. The A’s ended up tying it up in the 9th, but David Ortiz continued to show why he is clutch with a go ahead HR in the top of the 10th to give the Sox the much needed win.
The Sox offense spotted Lester two runs before he even took the mound. The Sox had the bases loaded with two outs when Jonny Gomes hit a 2 RBI single to score Holt and Pedey. The Sox went out to a 3-0 lead when David Ross hit a leadoff HR in the 2nd inning. Lester must have not known what to do with this level of offensive support since the bats have been icy cold lately. Lester did give up a single run in the bottom of the 2nd when he gave up an RBI double to Callapso. Sox 3-1.
In the bottom of the 3rd the Sox added a run in quite an interesting way. The A’s thought they had Herrera caught in between 1st and 2nd, except that at the same time Napoli broke from 3rd base and headed home. The A’s threw the ball home, but Napoli had some crazy ninja moves and avoided the tag. Sox 4-1. In the 5th Napoli added another run when he hit a solo HR to right to put the Sox up 5-1. In the 8th Herrera hit an RBI triple to score Gomes all the way from first base. Sox 6-1.
The Sox looked to be rolling to a victory, but it wouldn’t end up as easy as it should have been. Lester stayed in the game and took the mound in the 8th inning. With 2 outs Lester hit a batter and then walked another batter, so Farrell had to go out and get him. Burke Badenhop came into the game and wasn’t able to keep the inherited runners from scoring. Badenhop gave up 3 RBI singles in a row, first Cespedes, then Donaldson and then Norris. Sox were now clinging to a 6-4 lead. Badenhop was out of the game without recording an out and Miller was in the game. Miller got the final out we needed to be out of the inning and on to the 9th.
Koji Uehara came into the game with a 2 run lead to play with. That is usually more than enough for Koji, but today he suffered his first blown save of the season. Koji gave up a solo HR to Vogt and then a solo HR to Jaso to tie the game. We are so used to Koji being lights out that it was shocking. Luckily for the team and Koji, David Ortiz and his bat were scheduled in the top of the 10th. Ortiz was the only member of the Sox lineup without a hit at this point and he took care of that and then some. Papi hit a leadoff HR against Abad and put the Sox back on top. Koji came back out for the bottom of the 10th and instead of getting a save, he ended up with the win. Phew. The Sox needed this one.
Red Sox 7 Athletics 6 F/10 BOXSCORE
WP: Uehara (3-1) LP: Abad (2-3)
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