The Red Sox had their back against the wall. They lost the first game. Tampa won their game. They had a wee bit 1/2 game lead in the wild card race. Luckily, the Sox have had their backs against the wall before and have been known to have quite a bit of fight in them in said situations.
Lackey was taking the mound for the Sox. He’s had a horrifically bad season. He started the game off in the same manner. Lackey gave up a walk and a single. Then, the bad defense of late helped Lackey with his horrid season in the next play. Teixeira hit a double and with a score of throwing errors, 3 runs scored. In a 0-3 hole in the 1st. Great. Fantastic. Wonderful.
However, Lackey settled right down after the 2nd inning and pitched well. In the 5th, the Sox got one run back with a triple by Jed Lowrie and an RBI single from JD Drew. Yes, you read that right. JD Drew. JD hasn’t played since July and he was back in the lineup. Welcome Back JD and thanks for the RBI. In the 6th we got another run on a Gonzalez RBI groundout. Next, Nova threw the ball to the backstop and Pedey tried to come home. Unfortunately, the ball came right back to Romine and Pedey was out at first even with his ninja jumping skills. Still, the Sox were battling back. In the 7th, the Sox kept getting to Nova. Jed hit a double and was knocked home by a Scutaro double. Game tied. Then the Sox took the lead on a Tek RBI single.
Lackey was pulled from the game in the bottom of the 7th when he gave up a leadoff single to Chavez. Aceves was out in relief. Lackey not only settled down, but pitched well. He did what no other starter has been able to do in a while, he gave us a quality start. Aceves unfortunately could not protect Lackey’s lead and win. The game was once again tied by a Dickerson sac fly. Sox 4-4.
What happened next was a long line of Sox dominating pitching. Our bullpen has been shaky as of late, but not last night. We got some major performances out of people. Bard came out in the bottom of the 8th and finished that inning and was replaced in the 9th by Papelbon with the bases loaded. Pap did what he does and got a K to end the inning. Papelbon pitched the 10th AND the 11th inning as well. He was just dominant. Pap had 4 Ks in 2.1 innings pitched and he did it all in just 29 pitched. Good lord.
Unfortunately at the same time, the Sox couldn’t score a run for Papelbon. Franklin Morales came out in the 12th and 13th innings. He looked good as well. He gave up one hit and two walks, but gave up NO RUNS. In the top of the 14th, the Yankees welcomed Scott Proctor to the mound. DMac was pinch hitting for JD Drew and got a single and then Proctor walked Scutaro. Then for the 3rd time in the day, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a HOMERUN! In that moment and maybe all season long, Ells has looked like a great MVP candidate! Felix Doubront came out for the bottom of the inning and got himself a nice save to have the Red Sox WIN!
It took forever and it was dramatic, but a win is a win!
Red Sox 7 Yankees 4 BOXSCORE
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