Game 106: Lucky Number Seven

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 8, Kansas City Royals 5

"Watching the Royals is kinda like watching a Little League game. I swear, we could give them 7 runs, make it 0-7 KC and we could get it back...well, maybe not always but we could make it close and would still only get 5 RBI due to runs scored off of errors."
- Robin

So Wade Miller's got a posse, in the form of the Red Sox offense. Miller didn't have the greatest return after his ten days between starts, giving up five runs on six hits (including two home runs), handing out three walks and striking out five in six innings with 105 pitches. After Miller had a 1-2-3 inning in the first, the Sox roared in against Kyle Snyder, quickly getting Johnny Damon into scoring position. When Big Papi smacked a single to mid-center, the Moron sent Damon around to score...where he was easily cut down. Manny mananged to assuage the bitterness with the next pitch, though, smashing a three run dinger into the Monster Seats by Pudge's Pole. The three RBI upped Manny's season total to 100; he's hit eight in the past three days. In the top of the next inning, Manny pulled the second half of his Manny Being Manny for the evening - with two outs, Ruben Gotay hit a bloop to shallow left field. Manny and Renteria converged on the ball as it fell and Manny either neglected to call Renteria off, or wasn't loud enough, because the two collided, spinning off each other and falling to the ground to lie motionless for several moments, as the hearts of all of Red Sox Nation stopped completely. Fortunately, not only did Manny manage to catch and hold on to the ball for the final out, but both players left the field under their own power, Manny with a grin on his face. Manny left the game with a bloody nose and will not be in today's lineup; Renteria stayed in until the seventh, then left with a sore wrist and ribs, but will play today.

Although the Royals managed to pull ahead in the top of the fourth, Boston picked up two additional runs in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to a double by Millar, a grounder by Mueller, a single by Graffanino (who continues to impress the way Bellhorn does not) to score Millar, a single by Jose Cruz, Jr. for his first hit as a Red Sox, a single by Johnny Damon to knock out the starter Snyder, then a sacrifice fly by Renteria to make it 6 - 4 Boston.

Boston picked up another run in the fifth with an example of the Little League style play by the Royals: Varitek singled to extend his hit streak to 10 games, stole second unopposed, went to third when shortstop Angel Berroa bobbled a ground ball from Graffanino, then scored on a pass ball.

Meanwhile, after Miller finished for the day, Myers, Bradford, Timlin and Schilling combined for three innings of perfect relief, Schilling picking up his sixth save in the process. With the Globe reporting that Keith Foulke will throw off the mound on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to determine if he needs a rehabilitation start (expected return date in mid-August), it looks like Schilling will return to the starting rotation by the 15th or so. Schilling threw mostly fastballs last night, in an effort to build up his velocity and arm strength.

The Red Sox put John Olerud on the 15 day DL to heal up his twinged hamstring and called up Roberto Petagine to fill his spot...bloggers rejoice. Unfortunately, Olerud was starting to heat up again at the time of his injury. Petagine, who's having a very strong season in Pawtucket (.327 with 20 homers and 69 RBIs in 74 games) came up to fill the roster slot. He'll be batting cleanup today. Petagine was a guy who the Sox tried out a good deal in Spring Training until he hurt his knee and Remy just described him in the pregame show as looking like a good long swinger at the plate, so I'm excited to see him play. Theo's really running out the stops on the farm system, which makes for an interesting team composition for the stretch run - 11 out of the 25 players on the 25-man roster didn't start the year with the Red Sox and more than a 1/3rd of today's lineup came onto the team during the season. Yes, it's Moneyball writ-large, but the exciting part for me is seeing all of these minor leaguers I've heard about over the year come up and prove themselves in the big time.

This blog post on Fire Joe Morgan (and the article it talks about) are hillarious. Especially since Jay Mohr seems to be entirely serious. I think the worst part about it is that Mohr basically admits he's not a Yankees fan...he's a fan of whoever's winning. Nice loyalty there, Jay.

Matt Clement makes his return, nine days after getting hit in the head, against D.J. Carrasco today at 1:05. Either Clement's crazy, or he's got brass balls the size of the Zakim Bridge. Either way, he's out there to prove that a.) he's recovered sufficiently from the injury to avoid the DL/missing any more starts and b.) he's going to pull out of his post-All-Star Game tailspin and avoid a repeat of last year's numbers. Carrasco's a new guy, so the Sox offense needs to avoid the bafflement of the unknown that they've suffered this year. GO SOX!!!

baseball | red sox | manny ramirez | curt schilling | john olerud | roberto petagine | wade miller | keith foulke