Sox slam Braves as Dice wins again

Sox 13, Atlanta 3
WP: Matsuzaka (6-2)
LP: Lerew (0-2)
HRs: BOS- Youk (5), Lowell (8), Lugo (3) Wily Mo (3); ATL-Francoeur (7)

SUMMARY:
Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched his second excellent game in a row and he got plenty of support from a Boston lineup that belted 18 hits including five doubles and four home runs.

Lowell's longball was particularly notable because his fifth-inning Grand Slam made a close game (3-0 Boston) an absolute laffer. And although Dice surrendered three runs in the 7th to ruin his shutout and (probably) second consecutive complete game, he has now won five in a row and is peaking at the right time.

HERO: Dice-K 8IP, 9H, 3ER, 0BB, 6Ks, HR, W
Only that three-run burst kept Matsuzaka from lowering his ERA to below 4.00 (currently 4.06)

GOAT: Atlanta Pitchers 8IP, 18H, 13ER, 6BB, 4HRs, 202 pitches
Um, whatever happened to that dominant Atlanta staff? Oh yeah, the lone leftover pitches tonight.

RECAP:
I guess this is why Chipper didn't want to play the Sox.

Boston administered an interleague ass-kicking this afternoon on a dreary & drab day in New England, ringing up its second 13-run game in a week while riding the strength of another quality Dice-K start.

Too bad I didn't get to see a minute of it!

Thanks to the g-d Fox Network and their asinine exclusive broadcast window on Saturday afternoons, I got stuck with the friggin' Subway Series (yuck) while the Braves were getting hammered worse than Kim Kardashian.

So I followed the game online.

Which is almost as good as the real thing, except for the three minute delay, lack of video or audio and utterly soulless presentation.

From what I could gather Boston was just popping homers off a battle-weary Braves staff: Lugo hit a solo shot off starter Anthony Lerew in the first, Youk nailed a 2-run blast off Lerew in the 2nd, Lowell smacked the game-sealing grand slam in the 5th off one-time Sox target Mark Redmond, and Wily Mo launched a mortar blast over Lansdowne in the 7th off the immortal Mackay McBride.

After Lowell's moonshot over the Monstah Boston enjoyed a 7-0 lead and could have cruised home from there. But no, the Sox still had six more runs to score, including five in the sixth on RBI hits by Lowell, Coco and Lugo and the one in the 7th on Pena's homer in his first AB after replacing Manny to start the inning.

While the bats were coming out of their Tigers series slumber, Dice-K was dealing another gem until he hit a speed bump in the seventh. Before that inning he had allowed no runs on five hits with no walks, but in the 7th he got tagged for three hits and three runs, including a 2-run shot by Braves RBI leader Jeff Francoeur (3-4, R, 2BI).

No matter. The Sox were so far ahead by that time (12-0) that Tito had pulled the regulars and was already worrying about Game 2, in which rookie Devern Hansack will be saddled with the challenge of pitching opposite future Hall of Famer John Smoltz.

Hope the Sox didn't use up all their offensive mojo in Game 1.

NOTES:

-Every Sox starter had at least one hit, except Cap'n Tek (0-4), while five batters had multi-hit games; even pinch hitter Alex Cora got into the act, singling in the 8th after after a 10-pitch AB

-Call Youk Phil Collins, 'cause he was in the air tonight. Sorry, that was lame. But he did put the ball in the air in all six at bats, with a homer and five fly-outs. His homer extended his hitting streak to 12-games, where he is batting a scorching .415 (22-53)

-Just when I mentioned Lowell's recent power outage yesterday (two ribbies in six games) he comes back with a vengeance. On top of his granny he also had an RBI single and 10th double; he now owns a 10-game hitting streak, in which he's hitting .447 (17-38)

RECORD: 29-12

AL EAST: Up *10.5 on BAL, NYY * tonight's games pending

UP NEXT: vs. ATL in 3+ hours