Felix Doubront has been in the conversation as the Red Sox best and most consistent pitcher. Yesterday however he would have his worst start to date. Unfortunately, the start was against Nats phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
Doubront only lasted 4 innings and allowed 6 runs to score. Doubront gave up 8 hits during the 4 innings and a HR to rookie phenom Bryce Harper. His pitches just looked flat. Dubi did strike out 6 batters in the 4 innings, so there was a little bit of good news in an otherwise poor outing. Matt Albers came out in the 5th in relief of Doubront. Albers pitched 1.2 innings and looked pretty good. He ended up getting tagged with an earned run on the outing, however it was an inherited runner that Rich Hill allowed to score. Hill pitched an inning and was followed Atchison finished off the 7th and pitching a scoreless 8th inning. Andrew Miller took the mound in the 9th and had himself another scoreless inning.
The Sox offense unfortunately wasn’t able to get anything going against Strasburg. The Sox did get out to an early lead, however once Strasburg has the lead he seemed almost unhittable. Strasburg K’ed 13 Sox batters during the outing. The Sox did get two runs against him in the 2nd. Papi walked and Sweeney singled. With 2 outs, Mike Aviles hit an RBI double to score both Papi and Sweeney. Sox 2-0. However that lead wouldn’t last very long. Gonzo did get robbed of a HR in the 3rd when he hit what would have been a HR into the visitor’s bullpen, however Nady reached over and snagged it. In the 6th, the Sox almost got to Strasburg again. The Sox had the bases loaded with one out. However, Strasburg reached back and ended up striking out Salty and Youk. Youk didn’t agree about the K and had himself quite an argument with the umpire. Yep, Youk was tossed and Middlebrooks played the rest of the game at third base. Strasburg was done for the night and the Nats bullpen took over. Adrian Gonzalez got the Sox one more run in the 9th off of Brad Lidge. Gonzo hit a HR to dead central that no one could take from him. It was Gonzo’s 5th HR of the season and his swing is starting to look like what we expect to see from Gonzo. However, that is all the Sox would get in the 9th and they’d fall to the Nats and Strasburg.
Red Sox 4 National 7 BOXSCORE
WP: Strasburg (7-1) LP: Doubront (6-3) SV: Clippard (6)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
