Sox 4, Tampa Bay 1
WP: Matsuzaka (10-5)
LP: Kazmir (5-5)
HRs: TB-Pena (19)
SUMMARY
Nothing like a visit by the D-rays to get everyone in the nation to start feeling warm & fuzzy again.
Daisuke Matsuzaka continued his streak of quality starts, and he got all the run support he would need from--of all people-- slumping Julio Lugo, who did in his former mates with a clutch 2-run single in the second.
#1 STUNNER Dice-K 8IP, 4H, 0R, 1BB, 9K
The rookie has reached 10 victories midway through his first MLB season, and he has now fanned at least 8 batters in six consecutive starts.
PAN's FAUN Wily Mo 0-4, 4Ks
Dude has now struck out in a staggering 40% of his at bats this season (44Ks, 111ABs); just call him Wily Mo Windmill.
RECAP
I know in my preview I went on and on about how these two teams always play rough & tumble, crazy, highlight-reel games against each other, so wouldn't you know in this first meeting of 2007 between them it was just a straight-up domination by a hot pitcher over a struggling team.
Ho hum.
The reeling Rays, losers of nine straight games, came into Fenway not having played any games against its testiest division rival for the first time ever this late in the season, but Boston may be catching the once-respectable Rays at just the right time.
After getting swept at home by the White Sox despite striking out at least 10 batters in all four games, the Rays went to Cleveland and got poleaxed by the Tribe, losing four more by a combined score of 23-11 to fall a season-low 16 games under .500.
Despite these clouds of negative energy trailing the team from city to city, Tampa Bay did have reason to be optimistic tonight--starter Scott Kazmir has fared well in his brief career vs. the Sox, and last season the Rays won 9 of 19 games against Boston, including an 11-0 pasting at Fenway last Sept. 27th in Josh Beckett's final start of the season.
Ah, too bad this is 2007.
The Sox got to Kazmir (6IPp, 6H, 4R, 3ER, 3BB, 6K) right away, throwing a three-spot on the board in the second inning while only registering one hit. That's cause Kaz is the King of Walks, and the ML leader added to his total when he issued free passes to Manny, Youk and Lowell to start the frame.
Tek followed with an RBI groundout that put the first run on the board, but after Wily Mo whiffed for the first of his four times on the night, all hope of adding on to the lead looked lost when Lugo stepped to the plate, dragging his 0-33 streak behind him.
But there's something about the power of playing against your ex-teammates that gets the old adrenaline flowing like no other regular season game, and wouldn't you know even a man in the depths of a god awful, season-long slump isn't immune to that kind of karma.
Lugo took the first pitch he saw from Kazmir and lined it into center for a slump-busting base hit, but not only did he finally get off the schneid, his hit drove in two key runs for a pitcher who had only been averaging two runs of support a game for the past month.
The crowd was still buzzing and cheering when Coco flied out to end the frame, because the faithful had finally witnessed someone from their team do to another like many ex-Sox had done to them.
The score would remain 3-0 for a few innings as Kaz settled down and Matsuzaka was plowing through the Rays with the ease and precision of a Ginsu.
How dominating was he? No Rays batter reached second base until the sixth inning and only two did so in the game against him; only one batter reached third; and Tampa Bay got the leadoff batter on base in just one inning, and he was erased on a double play one pitch later.
At one point, from the beginning of the third through the top of the sixth, Dice set down 9 of 10 Rays hitters, five by way of strikeout.
And when the 11th batter, fellow Japan league vet Akinori Iwamura, the Rays talented third baseman, reached second base on single and an error by Pedroia, Matsuzaka got Carl Crawford to line out to first and then deftly snagged Brendan Harris' wicked liner back to the box as he walked off the mound like the cat who caught the canary.
Boston would put an unearned run on the board in the sixth when Youk singled, Lowell followed with a single and Iwamura threw wide of first allowing both runners to advance, then Tek hit a sac fly to right to score Youk with the sox final run of the night.
Uncharacteristically, the horrid Rays pen held the fort after Kazmir exited following the sixth, while it was Boston's normally unflappable closer who came in and blew the shutout for the Sox.
After Dice escaped a mini-jam in the eighth, getting Iwamura to strike out with Jonny Gomes on third, Jonathan Papelbon took over in the 9th just to get some action; with all the losses and deficits Boston has had lately, Paps has only pitched three times in the last nine days.
Perhaps that explained why Carlos Pena, a member of the Sox briefly last season, curled a 2-0 offering from Papelbon deep into the rightfield seats for his 19th homer of the season that disappointed the crowd who were longing to see another shutout.
Alas they had to settle for the win, and with two in a row under their belts and a couple of favorable pitching matchups on tap for the next two games, it looks like the boys could be headed into the break with a healthy division lead and a team that should be 100% healthy soon after the break.
Now that's a scary thought for the rest of the league.
NOTES
- No more Lugo-fer: not only did Lugo notch his first hit since June 14th in the second, he also leadoff the seventh with a single but was cut down trying to steal for the second time in a row (we all remember the first time) after 20 straight successful attempts
- Coco comeback: Crisp returned the the lineup and his center field position after sitting out four games to rest his bruised thumb and went 1-3 with a double; he also assumed his leadoff spot, with Lugo dropping back to 9th
- Manny & Papi combined to go 0-7 with a run, a walk and three Ks; Ramirez fanned twice, once looking to end the seventh with two men on base
- Iwamura was 1-3 with a double against his former JL adversary, where he was 2-8 against Dice-K in his brief career
- Youk also returned after his quad strain kept him on the bench for a couple of games; he went 1-3 with a walk and two runs scored
- Pena's homer gave him as many as he had in the last two season combined (18 in 2005, 1 in 2006)
- There was some comic relief in the sixth when Kazmir was briefly injured covering first base and reliever Jason Hammel, who had been warming up, thought he had been called in; upon realizing his services were not yet needed, Hammel high-tailed it back to the pen, much to the delight of the bleacher creatures behind the bully; even Hammel couldn't suppress a smile at his own expense on that odd play
"I don't think that it's complete, but I do feel like I'm getting back to a good spot." --Dice-K; I'd have to say that 'good spot' is damn near great
"You can't not think about things like that. They've been very supportive, especially Manny."--Lugo on "The Slump" (note another player saying what a great teammate Manny is, often the unheralded aspect of MBM)
"Take away the second inning and it'd be a whole different ballgame."--Kazmir; yeah, and take away that iceberg and the Titanic is a floating museum off the coast of Dubai
RECORD: 51-31
AL EAST: Up 11 on TOR
STREAK: W-2
LAST 10: 4-6
UP NEXT: Wed vs TB 1:05
Happy July 4th!
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