After losing the first two games of the series, the Red Sox were putting all their hopes of not being swept in Texas on Jon Lester on Sunday. Lester would be taking on Yu Darvis who is also having himself quite a spectacular season, so it wasn't going to be easy.
Lester pitched well, but wasn't able to put a stop to the red hot Rangers. Lester got a lead early, but left the game with the score tied and the Sox ended up losing the game in walk-off fashion. In the top of the 1st, Pedy reached with an infield single and then Papi hit a towering homerun to give the Sox a quick 2-0 lead. In the top of the 2nd, David Ross would hit a solo HR and the Sox would be leading 3-0. Unfortunately that would be all that the Sox would be able to get on the scoreboard and Yu Darvish would end up having himself a pretty great outing once he settled down. Darvish threw 127 pitches, pitched 7 innings and ended up striking out 14 Sox batters. FOURTEEN.
Lester had a 3-0 lead going into the 3rd inning, however he would leave the game with it tied. Lester gave up his first run in the bottom of the 3rd when he gave up a HR to Moreland. Sox 3-1. Lester kept that up until the 6th inning when he ran into some more trouble. Lester gave up a single to Beltre and then a HR to Cruz to tie the game. Sox 3-3. Lester seemed to be pitching on fumes at that point and after the 6th he was done for the night. Lester's line for the night was 115 pitches, 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB and 7 Ks.
The game was now in the bullpen's hands. Uehara pitched himself a scoreless 7th inning and Tazawa and Miller pitched themselves a scoreless 8th inning. In the 9th, the Sox handed the ball to Clayton Mortensen. Morty got 2 Ks, but then he was unable to get out of the inning. Mortensen gave up a single to Elvis Andrus and then IBB walked Lance Berkman to face Adrian Beltre. This was the second time in the game that the Sox intentionally walked Berkman to face Beltre. They got away with it the first time, but like playing with fire, it burned them the second time. Beltre hit an RBI single and the Rangers won in walk off fashion in the bottom of the 9th.
The Sox suffered their first sweep of 2013. Let's hope they have better luck as they head home to Fenway to face the Twins for 4 days.
Red Sox 3 Rangers 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Nathan (1-0) LP: Mortensen (0-2)
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