LP: Wakefield (4-4)
HRs: BOS-Youk (4); DET- Inge (6), Ordonez (8)
Hot-hitting Magglio Ordonez owns Tim Wakefield and the Sox
SUMMARY:
This game simply came down to pitching:
Tiger's starter Justin Verlander went 7.2 innings and scattered six hits while allowing just a couple of runs and striking out seven Sox, while Tim Wakefield gave up two homers and four runs in the third inning to put his team in a 4-1 hole it could never climb out of.
HERO: Magglio Ordonez 2-5, R, HR, 3RBI
Verlander was certainly deserving of this prestigious award, but Maggs' 3-run bomb in the 3rd turned a tie game into a 4-1 Detroit lead, enabling Verlander to earn the victory.
GOAT: Wakefield 7IP, 9H, 5ER, BB, 4Ks, 2HRs
Wake allowed the most runs he's given up in a start all year; that 2-homer third really killed him.
RECAP:
Unfortunately, for once I was right. Something told me that Wake was going to have a hard time winning this game, and my Spidey instincts proved correct.
Wakefield saw his ERA rise from 1.79 to 2.41 by allowing five runs in seven innings of work, and he was crushed by the effects of the horrible third inning, in which he allowed four hits, three runs and two home runs and broke open a tight pitcher's duel.
The Sox staked Wake to a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to singles by Youk and Manny (sandwiched around outs by Lugo and Papi) and an RBI single from J.D. Drew. But little did they know that would be the last run Verlander would allow until Youk's solo shot in the 8th.
The Detroit comeback started as suddenly as the late-inning rain that pelted Fenway. Brandon Inge took the third pitch he saw from Wakefield and deposited it into the Tiger bullpen, and to add injury to insult, Drew was slightly injured on the play when he crashed into the top of the wall in his effort to haul in the ball. Pesky Curtis Granderson (2-5, R) followed with a single and stole second, and then after Placido Polanco lined out for the second out, Ordonez stepped up to face on of his favorite opponenets in either league.
Maggs brought a gaudy .433 (13-30) mark with a homer and five ribbies vs. Wake into the game, and he only added to those totals on this night. The AL's 5th-leading hitter ripped Wake's second offering into the Boston night and onto Lansdowne, and just like that the wheels had fallen off Wakefield's magic bus.
The Sox had a couple of chances to crack into the lead- hey, this is a team that just scored an improbable win after trailing 5-0 in the 9th, so a 3-run deficit in the fourth is nothing- but each time Verlander stymied any threat.
The best opportunity came in the sixth, when Papi doubled and took third on a wild pitch, but Verlander got Drew to fly out, and by the time Youk broke a Boston 49-inning homerless drought in the bottom of the 8th, Detroit had already tacked on three huge insurance runs against Branden Donnelly in the top of the inning to dampen any hopes of a comeback.
So it wasn't meant to be for Wakefield and the Sox on a humid, wet & sticky night at Fenway; we all knew the ride had to end sometime, but that still doesn't make the landing any easier.
NOTES:
-After averaging 12 hits/game over the past seven games Sox batters were held to just seven hits. A trio of batters went 0-4 (Lugo, Coco, 'Belli) while Cora was 0-3
-Youk had his seventh multi-hit game in the last nine and thus his average keeps on climbing- he's up to .333 now
-Drew was replaced by Eric Hinske to start the 8th and he is listed as day-to-day with a back strain (okay, time for the "I told you he'd get injured" faction to come back out of the woodwork)
-The Stanks and Chisox were rained out, so Boston only lost 1/2 game off its large division lead
-Maggs is batting an impressive .369 (94-255) with 13 homers and 54 RBIs in 64 games against Boston
QUOTES:
-"His lower back is a little sore. We will evaluate him again tomorrow."- Tito on Drew
- "My history against Ordonez is not very good." -Captain Understaement, Tim Wakefield
-"Ordonez had one good swing, and all of a sudden they had four runs on the board." -Tito on the blur of scoring in the fateful third inning
RECORD: 26-12
AL EAST: Up 8 gms on NYY
UP NEXT: Wed vs. DET 7P ESPN (finally!)
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