Boston Red Sox 2, Seattle Mariners 1
There may have been a big hole in the middle of the lineup: one for eleven with a walk between Ortiz, Manny and V-Tek. The Sox might have hit five (yes, five) doubles off starter Jamie Moyer and his relief and only been able to turn those doubles into two runs in the fourth, leaving eleven men on base. However, even though the offense was almost non-existent with runners in scoring position, it didn’t matter: Schilling was on the mound and he was on. Giving up no hits to Seattle until Kenji Johjima hit a single in the third. Striking out the side on fourteen pitches in the second. Pitching like he had ice water instead of blood in his veins when the Mariners managed to get the tying run to third base. It was a site to behold in a season where Schilling has already made two quality starts. One run, three hits, seven strikeouts and pinpoint control over eight innings with Papelbon’s fifth save to finish off the ninth give Schilling a 3 and 0 record and Francona’s 200th win as the Red Sox manager.Moyer, who’s normally pretty god-awful against Boston (seventeen runs over thirteen innings/three starts over the past three years), deserves some credit for his pitching performance – normally Ortiz and Ramirez own him and tonight they couldn’t touch his pitching with a ten foot pole. A ten foot pole that was also ten feet high. Moyer had a singular ability to wriggle out of tight situations tonight and if it wasn’t for Alex Gonzalez (yes, the Alex Gonzalez who boosted his average about 100 points tonight by going three for four and who will hopefully be making many appearances in the future), we’d probably still be watching that game.
Tomorrow afternoon, Wakefield and Pineiro face off as Wakefield tries to keep the ball rolling against the Mariners. Ortiz and Manny both have career numbers against Pineiro that are comparable to their success against Moyer, so maybe we’ll see some slugging from the heart of the order go down tomorrow. GO SOX!!!
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