The most newsworthy thing that happened at Fenway Park happened before anyone had thrown a pitch. The Red Sox had a ceremony before the game last night to officially retire David Ortiz’s number and put it up on the right field façade. As always, the Sox really know how to put on a ceremony and it was so wonderful to see Ortiz back at Fenway, even if he wasn’t in the lineup.
As for the actual baseball game, the Sox came into the game tied for 1st place with the Yankees and hoped to stay that way with a win against the Angels. The Sox had Rick Porcello on the mound who is still tying to right the ship this season. Porcello had his best outing to date this year and got plenty of run support to get the win.
The Sox offense sported Porcello a nice lead right out of the gate when they scored 3 times in the bottom of the 1st. Bogaerts hit an RBI double and then both Pedroia and Bogaerts both came home on wild pitches. Sox 3-0. Porcello didn’t give up a run until the top of the 4th inning when he gave up an RBI single to Simmons. Sox 3-1. In the bottom of the 4th, Hanley Ramirez hit a 2 run homer to once again put the Sox back comfortably in front. Sox 5-1. In the 6th inning Sandy Leon hit a 2 run homer of his own to now have the Sox up 7-1.
Porcello had his best outing to date in 2017 and was showing shades of the Cy Young award winning pitcher he was last season. Porcello went back out for the 7th inning and looked like he ran out of gas. Porcello gave up an RBI triple to Maldonado and then an RBI double to Pennington. Sox 7-3. Porcello was done for the night and Hembree came in to finish off the inning. Hembree ended up giving up an RBI double to Calhoun to close the book on Porcello’s outing. Sox 7-4. Hembree got the final out to end the inning with the Sox still out in front. Porcello’s pitching line for the night was 102 pitches, 6.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB and 8 Ks.
Joe Kelly came out for the 8th inning. Kelly seems to have pitched himself into being the 8th inning guy, given his stellar performances and some rocky outings from Matt Barnes. Kelly pitched himself a scoreless inning and then the Sox offense continued to get all over Angels pitching. In the bottom of the 8th Sandy Leon continued his hot night at the plate when he hit a 2 run RBI double. Sox 9-4. Kimbrel was initially warming up for the 9th, but when the runs scored, he sat down in favor of Blaine Boyer. Boyer came in for the 9th and had himself a nice 1-2-3 inning for the win.
Red Sox 9 Angels 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Porcello (4-9) LP: Meyer (3-4)
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