Game 28

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 2, Detroit Tigers 1

"The man is guns and corn."
- Robin. Even though on the surface this statement seems to be a comment on the sources of Bronson Arroyo's first and last names (Charles Bronson and the Spanish word for corn*), it really means he throws a hella ballgame. Robin's deep like that.

Three hits. One run. Two walks. Eight strikeouts. Eight innings, six and 1/3 of them with no hits. One sweet, sweet victory (number four) for Bronson Arroyo. The kid with the sometimes cornrows could do almost no wrong for most of the game, helped out by a nice grab by Millar which saved a hit from squirting down the first base line. The Sox scored first in the second. Nixon singled (one of four), Varitek doubled, moving Nixon to third. Renteria tried to lay down a bunt and ended up hitting the ball off of his finger, bruising it (yeah, I was pretty surprised too). He left the game for x-rays. With Payton in the lineup so Manny could take a night off and rest his ankle, which he turned running after a double on Wednesday, Ramon Vasquez came in to pinch hit. Despite Vasquez's aching quad muscle, he singled in Nixon then went on to play shortstop for the rest of the game.

In the seventh, the no hitter was spoiled when Arroyo hung an offspeed pitch and Carlos Guillen sent it the other way, over the rightfield wall near the foul pole for a solo homerun. Arroyo gave up another two hits over the course of the seventh and eighth. In the ninth, with the score still tied, Alan Embree started warming and it looked like we would be heading into extra innings. Then Nixon singled for the fourth time and Ortiz, who has been slumping recently and has never had much luck against pitcher Ugeth Urbina, smacked a double to deep right. The rightfielder had difficulty playing the carrom and Nixon, who was digging it (and thanking God for that healthy leg) scored from first. Foulke came in for a perfect ninth and all turned out well. Sox are now in second place, half a game up on the Blue Jays and two and a half behind the first place Orioles.

Matt Clement faces off against Jamie Moyer tonight in Fenway, the start of a homestand versus the Mariners and Athletics until next Wednesday. With three straight wins and a five and two record on the most recent roadtrip, Clement's perfect 3 - 0 record, Moyer's perfect 4 - 0 record and Seattle's relative misfortunes in the AL West promise for an exciting game...which I'll be missing, because I'll be on a bus. A bus to the Boston area, though, so maybe there will be radio updates available. GO SOX!!!

* - Except, of course, that arroyo means stream, not corn; Babelfish told me so. Of course, Robin is a frequent feature in this blog for two reasons: first, his insight and second, his amusing statements. I guess if you don't get one, you get the other.