The Red Sox were looking to take a series against the Royals before heading out on a west coast trip. The Sox activated Daisuke Matsuzaka for his first outing in a while. Dice-K is 0-3 this year and was still looking for his first win. Dice-K looked great today and was able to get his first win of 2012.
Dice-K took the mound for the Sox and pitched 7 strong innings. Dice-K’s only hiccup was in the first inning and it wasn’t even an earned run, but he issued a walk to start it off. Dyson attempted a steal and the throw went into CF and Dyson headed for third base. Dyson scored on a sac fly from Gordon. Sox 0-1. The Sox got Dice the run right back in the bottom of the 1st. Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 2nd HR of the season to tie the game up. Sox 1-1. It’s shocking with his power numbers last year that this is only his 2nd HR even with all the time he missed with the injury. Dice-K hunkered down and pitched another 6 scoreless innings. In the 3rd, the Sox gave Dice-K the lead with a 2 run RBI from Cody Ross. Ross ended up being out trying to stretch the single to a double, but the runs still scored. Sox 3-1. In the 6th the Sox added a couple more runs in support the strong outing Dice-K was having. Ellsbury hit a double and then was brought home on an RBI double from Cody Ross. Sox 4-1. Ross came home on an RBI single from James Loney. Sox 5-1.
Dice-K pitched through the 7th inning and while it wasn’t against the most potent lineup, it was definitely something that the Sox can feel real good about. Dice-K’s line for the day was 101 pitches, 7 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB and 6 Ks. Out of the 101 pitches Dice-K threw, 71 of them were for strikes. If that’s not a good outing, I don’t know what is. Dice-K was followed by Clayton Mortensen. Morty got an out, but then gave up 2 singles. Bobby V came out and replaced Mortensen with Padilla. Padilla got just what we needed and ended the inning with a double play. Andrew Bailey took the mound for the 9th and got the 3 outs to end the game. It wasn’t a save situation, but he is sure looking comfortable in the role.
The Sox won 3 out of 4 from the Royals. We could have had a sweep if we didn’t blow that 6 run lead the other day, but I’m gonna focus on the positive. Let’s bring on the west coast!
Red Sox 5 Royals 1 BOXSCORE
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