The Red Sox needed the win yesterday in order to take the series from the Blue Jays. The game was a match up of Ryan Dempster and Mark Buehrle, two guys who spent most of their career on different sides of Chicago. The Sox would end up needing someone to be a hero in the 9th, but they walked away with the win and the series.
Dempster didn't pitch deep in the game, but got some run support and left the mound in line for the win. The Sox bats gave Dempster a 3 run lead in the 2nd when Lavarnway hit an RBI ground rule double to score Napoli and then Snyder hit a double to score Nava and Lavarnway. Sox 3-0. In the 4th inning Dempster gave a couple of those runs back when he gave up an RBI single to Rasmus and then the second run scored on a fielder's choice RBI to Izturis. Sox 3-2. The Sox padded their lead in the 5th when Jonny Gomes hit an RBI double to score Ellsbury. Sox 4-2. Dempster started the 6th inning, but he would not finish it. Dempster had the bases loaded and one out when he was pulled in favor of Craig Breslow. Dempster's pitching line for the night was 96 pitches, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 BB and 2 Ks.
Breslow was able to wiggle out of the 6th without allowing any of the runners on base to score. Breslow would start the 7th inning, but give up a leadoff HR to Reyes and that would be it for him. Sox 4-3. Alex Wilson came into the game and gave up a hit and got an out before he handed the ball over to Andrew Miller. Miller got the 2 outs to get out of the inning with 2 strikeouts. Andrew Miller also pitched a scoreless 8th and then it was Koji Uehara's turn. Uehara had one out in the 9th when Jose Bautista came to the plate. You can guess what happened next. Uehara gave up the game tying HR to Bautista. This was the first blown save for Uehara since he was named the closer. The Sox bats came up in the 9th and bailed Uehara out though. Synder singled, Ellsbury walked and then Snyder came home when Victorino got on by way of an error by the first baseman Thole. It may not have been pretty, but it was a walk off win all the same.
The Sox have now won 50 games this season and are 16 games over .500.
Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Uehara (1-0) LP: Perez (1-1)
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