The Red Sox were facing off against an old friend yesterday with John Lackey on the mound for the Cubs. The Sox had knuckleballer Steven Wright on the mound and hoped the Sox could beat their former pitcher. The Sox offense went out early for Wright, however the Cubs battled back. The Cubs were helped out by a whopping 4 errors in the game from the Sox. Lackey ended up getting the win in a game that the Sox most definitely could have and maybe should have won.
The Sox struck first on the scoreboard when Jackie Bradley Jr. hit an RBI single to score Moreland in the 2nd inning. Sox 1-0. The Sox went out to a 3-0 lead in the 3rd when Benintendi hit an RBI sac fly and Hanley Ramirez hit a towering solo home run. The Cubs got on the board for the first time in the top of the 4th when Anthony Rizzo hit a 2 run homer off of Wright. Sox 3-2. Benintendi got one of those runs back in the bottom of the 5th when he hit a solo home run off of Lackey. Sox 4-2. Unfortunately for the Sox that is the last run they would score and the Cubs weren’t even close to being done.
Wright gave up an RBI groundout to Zobrist in the top of the 6th to have the Sox clinging to a one run lead. Sox 4-3. Wright then came back out for the 7th. I am not sure I would have sent Wright back out, but then again the bullpen was down 2 arms with Barnes on suspension and Kelly not available. There weren’t a lot of options for Farrell at that point. The 7th inning is when everything went from bad to way way worse.
Wright stated the inning by giving up a game tying solo home run to Montero. Sox 4-4. When Wright gave up a double it signaled his time on the mound had come to an end and Robby Scott came in to try to limit the damage. Scott gave up an RBI single to Schwarber to now have the Cubs out in front. Sox 4-5. Scott was out and Ben Taylor was now in the game. The next play basically defined the game. Rizzo hit into what should have been a force out, but the Sox committed two errors on the play that had the ball going all over the infield and outfield. A run scored on the play and then Rizzo ended up over at 3rd base. It looked like a circus out there or as Pedroia described later in the day “that one play that looked like a snowball fight out there.” By the end of the inning the Sox went from winning to tied to losing by two runs. Sox 4-6.
Koji Uehara came out for the Cubs in the 7th and had a nice 1-2-3 inning that we remember fondly from when he was in a Sox uni. Taylor pitched a scoreless 8th inning and then went back out for the 9th. Taylor got an out before being pulled in favor of Fernando Abad. Abad gave the Cubs an insurance run he gave up a solo home run to Zobrist. Sox 4-7. The Sox had this game in their hands and with some poor pitching and even poorer defense it ended up being an easy win for the Cubs.
Red Sox 4 Cubs 7 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (2-3) LP: Wright (1-3) SV: Davis (6)
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