The Red Sox got their first win after the all star break behind Franklin Morales and another impressive game from Pedro Ciriaco.
Morales took the mound for the Sox and while he wasn’t lights out, he had himself another nice outing to show that he may still deserve to be in the rotation once everyone is back and healthy. The most trouble that Morales had was in the 4th inning when he seemed to lose the strike zone a tad. With 2 outs, Morales issued a walk, walk, balk and then another walk. With the bases loaded, it looked like Morales might be in a lot of trouble. Luckily, Morales got Luke Scott to K to end the inning. Morales pitched the 5th inning and that was it for him for the night. His line for the night was 95 pitches, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 Ks.
Morales was followed by Scott Atchison who allowed one run to score, however it was not an earned run because of a rare throwing error from Mike Aviles. Andrew Miller came out and gave up a single in the 6th and Matt Albers came out to get the 3rd out. Albers also pitched a scoreless 7th inning in a very nice outing for him. Padilla gave up 2 hits, but pitched a scoreless 8th inning and turned the ball over to Alfredo Aceves for the 9th. Aces had himself a 10 pitch 1-2-3 inning for his 20th save of the season.
As for the offense, the Sox got on the board early thanks to David Ortiz. Papi hit a no doubter HR to right field to give the Sox a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Sox added two more runs in the 2nd inning when Pedro Ciriaco hit an RBI single to score Salty and Sweeney. That is the last time the Sox would cross the plate, however with the great pitching it was all they needed.
Tonight was the return of Jacoby Ellsbury from the DL. Ells went 1 for 5 with a single. He isn’t locked back in at the plate yet, however it is still great seeing him back in the lineup.
Red Sox 3 Rays 1 BOXSCORE
WP: Morales (2-2) LP: Hellickson (4-6) SV: Aceves (20)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
